NewsLiteracyPlaybook - Flipbook - Page 9
History of NLP
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apparent that the program needed to move fully
online to reach national scale.
That decision led to the development of the
Checkology® virtual classroom — initially a series
of 10 core lessons that gave students a foundation
in news literacy, with prominent journalists from
The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The
New York Times, NBC and other well-known outlets
as video teachers and guides. Launched in May
2016, the platform was extremely well-received;
in just its first two months, educators in 22 states
and the District of Columbia signed on. And it has
grown exponentially: More than 17,000 educators
(and counting) in all 50 U.S. states, the District
of Columbia, three U.S. territories and more than
100 other countries have registered to use the
platform since its release.
Today, NLP’s website, newslit.org, offers tools
that help adults, as well as teens, understand the
importance of news literacy. Started in April 2017,
our NewsLitCamp® is a one-day professional
development program, hosted by a local news
organization, where journalists from that outlet
join NLP staff to bring news literacy resources to
local teachers. And in August 2018, NLP released
a reimagined version of the Checkology virtual
classroom, with 13 lessons, greater interactivity,
improved resources, and an increased ability for
educators to customize lessons based on classroom
needs. Of particular interest to international
educators is our lesson “Press Freedoms Around the
World” — led by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, a Berlinbased correspondent for NPR — in which students
explore the state of international press freedoms
through an interactive map that includes videos from
journalists reporting on the state of press freedoms
in their country.
In just over a decade, NLP grew from an idea in a
journalist’s mind to a national leader in the field of
news literacy. We are delighted to work with you to
expand this knowledge throughout the world.
Top: A still from an NLP video depicts one way students today
find information — on their smartphones. Middle: Damaso Reyes,
NLP’s director of partnerships, talks to educators attending a
NewsLitCamp in August 2018. Bottom: NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi
Nelson is the host of “Press Freedoms Around the World,” a
lesson in NLP’s Checkology virtual classroom.