Expansion of news and media literacy instruction is coming to Normal Community and Normal West high schools.
Unit 5 was accepted for the News Literacy District Fellowship to provide $30,000 in grant funding over the next three years, beginning in the fall.
The News Literacy Project, which Unit 5 is partnering on for the fellowship, is a nonprofit that helps educators teach students how to find credible information. The News Literacy Project already supplies materials for media literacy instruction at both schools.
The grant funding will allow for more materials, advice and teacher training to improve both news and media literacy at both high schools. The plan is to expand the model into other Unit 5 schools. News and media literacy instruction have been required coursework in Illinois high schools since 2021.
“I think the students stand to benefit from this tremendously in terms of what it's going to allow us to do,” said Amy Reiman, English teacher at Normal West. “For scaffolding those skills across our high school classes inter-disciplinarily, as well as English classes — tying us in more closely with the IMC [Instructional Media Center] and just trying to give students a fuller skill set and understanding of what news literacy is.”
Media literacy is taught in history, health and English classes at Normal West, but also at the IMC. Located in the library, the IMC teaches students how to engage with media information in a critical, competent way.
“Students today, they're bombarded with information, right? And they need to be taught the skills to discern fact from fiction,” said Tara Hafermann, IMC specialist. “They need to be able to question information, be critical consumers of information and know to be always questioning who’s behind the information and evidence.
“I think this grant will allow us to be surrounded by people who are dedicated to this—to helping facilitate more informed citizens,” said Hafermann. “And I think that's probably one of the most critical skills that our students need to come away from in high school.”
Media literacy in the classroom
English teachers at Normal West said they use News Literacy Project materials to teach how to engage with media in a healthy way.
Take Fahrenheit 451, for example. The dystopian sci-fi novel explores a setting where media is extremely controlled by the state, and citizens are only allowed to engage with state-approved forms of media. That book has been a popular choice among English teachers since well before the rise of the smartphone and social media, but Reiman said News Literacy Project materials helped her students make the connection between the book and their media habits.
“We explored their own exposure to social media and targeted advertising, and how cell phones have removed the boredom factor and the impact that's had on their own patience, attention and cognitive resilience,” said Reiman. “And they were fascinated, right? And several of them began setting their own goals around, well, ‘how do I kind of take this back? How do I take ownership of this information that I'm constantly engaging with?’”
In the age of AI, and with it the deterioration of the trustworthiness of information, English teacher Natalie Spath said the way to teach media literacy to students has changed. Teachers have to learn in real time how to recognize AI writing, how it gathers information and whether or not it is ethical to use it.
“As we're trying to figure all of this out, we're also tasked with teaching them. And so I think, honestly, the best way to do that right now is to talk to them about it and to continue to show them things,” said Spath. “My entire job is to prepare kids for the next step. I don't know what that looks like, because [AI technology is] constantly changing, but if I just keep talking to them... I think that's the best, honestly, the only way to do it right now.”
Grant implementation
The grant will provide $10,000 to Unit 5 each of the next three school years. Unit 5 and Chicago suburb Plainfield’s public school district joined the fellowship this year, after Chicago Public Schools became the first to do so in 2025.
In the first year, a school district designs its program with guidance from a team of educators from the News Literacy Project. In year two it can test the program in select classrooms and train teachers in how to teach news literacy. In the final year, a school district can refine the program and expand it across the school district.
“I think being able to have even more access and other people to surround it, and also to be able to continue that and be and know how to continue it into other classes will be super helpful,” said Spath.
“One of the most powerful influences on student learning is collective teacher efficacy, and this $30,000 is going to create an opportunity for that,” said Reiman.
