UMF Unit-Wide Lesson Plan Template

Name: Program: Course: Practicum EDU 224 Field

Laney Randolph Secondary Education

Lesson Topic / Title:

Bias in Media— What does it mean, and how can we identify it?

Lesson Date: Lesson Length: Grade/Age:

12/11/18 80 Min 11th

Learning Objectives & Content Standard Alignment - Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences
and performance tasks that support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals based on content
standards.

Learning Objective(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Students will be able to identify different kinds
of bias in a media source.
Students will complete a graphic organizer as
part of their research
Students will discuss the findings of their
research with a small group to examine
different types of bias
Students will be researching for a midterm, and students
should be fully aware of which sources may/may not be
trustworthy. Students should learn around this age, and
with any subject, that there are multiple different opinions
around each topic, and that some people are less honest
than others when presenting their view of a story.
Students should be aware of the visible and invisible
ways that a source might attempt to manipulate your
viewpoint of an event or person, and should think
critically when viewing the same event through two
different perspectives.

Content Standard(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3
Evaluate various explanations for actions or
events and determine which explanation best
accords with textual evidence, acknowledging
where the text leaves matters uncertain.
● This lesson involves analyzing sources and
determining whether or not they are reliable
sources, and then students are asked to analyze
an event through different sources in order to get
the whole story, and in order to identify what bias
might look like when researching about an event.
It is essential for students to seek out information
responsibly, as they will soon be voting citizens,
and the best voters are informed voters. Being
able to get to the truth of an event is essential in
society as well, should there ever be a
 government which lies to its people.

Assessment - Uses assessment flexibly to expand and deepen understanding of learner performance and
determines best supports for continued learner growth.

Assessment Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

● The guided handout will be treated as a
formative assessment. For each
source, students will answer: What
about this seems fake/biased? What
information is present? What
information isn’t present? Why might
that matter?
● Teacher-formative. Students will pass this in as
they exit, so I can see how students are doing
with the concepts introduced during the class.
Potential misconception and application of
information will be measured and possibly
addressed during the next lesson.

Instructional Materials and Resources - Stays current in content knowledge and expands expertise in
reviewing instructional materials from the perspectives of both the discipline and individual learner needs.

Materials, Resources, and/or Technology Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

● Expo Markers
● Guided Handout​ (print 6 copies- just in
case)
● Slideshow ● Expo markers are few and far between in Mr.
Feldpausch’s classroom, which is
understandable. I want to be prepared, and I
want to write on the board a great deal for this
lesson so that visual learners can follow along,
and any students with ADHD/ADD who might
zone out and need to catch up with what was
said while they were gone. This is useful for
many students, and harmful to none.
● The guided handout is useful to any students
who might benefit from more structure to feel
more confident in moving forward in the lesson.
● The slideshow is useful to visual learners. It has
pictures (some ‘interactive’) and instructions.
This will help students stay focused and have
something to look back at in case they feel lost
(as the last slide holds the instructions)
Instructional Methods: Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and performance tasks by
using a variety of instructional approaches, strategies, and technologies that make learning accessible to all
learners and support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals.
Teaching and Learning Sequence
CLASSROOM SETUP: Open square (ideal for
looking towards slideshow, and works for
group work as well.)
(5m) Attendance, Agenda
(15m) What is bias? We will have a discussion
as a class about the following questions:
- What is bias?
- What is hyper-partisanism?
- Why would bias/hyper-partisanism be
harmful to the public?
- What is the goal of a
biased/hyper-partisan source?
- Who do you think are biased news
sources?
- What sources are less/not biased?
- How can you tell if a source is biased?
- How can you tell if a source isn’t
biased?
(5m) I will then show the class ​this picture​, to
see if we align with it, and where we might
differ. We’ll have a discussion about why these
differences might exist.
(20m) I will use a slideshow to present different
forms of media bias, an exploration of a political
question (Did the Obama administration use
tear gas at the border?), as well as some
potential resources students can use. ​Link to
slideshow.
(5m) I will introduce the assignment: students
will pick an event happening currently/in the
recent past that they can pull from three
different sources (listed on the board, on the
last slide​). Students will work in groups, and will
use this ​guided handout​ to help them as each
of them pull one article (each group member
pulls an article from one category—
somewhat-center, left-leaning, right-leaning)
regarding one event. On the board, I will have a
list of suggested events they can research if
they aren’t sure what they’d like to look up.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
Today’s Agenda: ​First, we will talk about bias, what news
sources we believe are/aren’t biased, what
‘hyper-partisan’ means, we’ll talk about different types of
ways that bias can show, and then we’ll do some
research of our own.
As we discuss this, I will organize the board into two
sections: NOT BIASED and BIASED. On the biased side
of the board, we will make our own scale (Left-leaning,
middle, right-leaning)
CONTENTS OF SLIDESHOW:
● Agenda
● Blank slide (for NOT BIASED and BIASED)
● Image of news sources, and their left/right
alignment
● Omission slide, which shows images regarding
the Obama administration involvement with tear
gas at the border from the Department of
Homeland Security, and an image from
Huffington Post regarding democrats being
against tear gas at the border.
● Emphasis slide, which shows the amount of
times Washington Post and CNN have
mentioned President Bush’s passing, versus Fox
News.
● Use of Language/Photos slide, which displays a
picture of Donald Trump as a caricature on a
backdrop of money (Palmer Report), and an
article (Breitbart) which reads “Gay Rights Have
Made Us Dumber, It’s Time To Get Back in the
Closet” with an image of gay rights activists in
the past, compared with an image of a gay rights
activist in modern times dressed in very little,
holding a gay rights flag. The image reads “Gays
Then vs Gays Now”.
● Spin slide, which features a Politico article which
uses a large amount of spin regarding an event
with Donald Trump. (‘lashing out’, ‘fired off’,
etcetera).
(15m)​ Students will choose their own groups of
three ​(sometimes four, if the numbers don’t
come out perfectly)​, where each of them will
choose a category and article, and each group
will decide on a topic together. For example, a
three-person group might decide to research
about the caravan, one partner might use a Fox
News article, one partner might use a PBS
News article, and the last partner might use a
Palmer Report article. Each person in the group
will use the guided handout to take notes on
their article. They will save the “information
missing” section for their group discussion. ​As
students work, I will give them a ten and five
minute warning, and I will walk around at the
ten minute warning and make sure every
student understands the directions and has a
source and an article already chosen. I will
encourage them to fill out as much of the sheet
as they can in the 15 minutes so that they can
contribute well to their group conversations. I
won’t mention to students that it isn’t being
graded, but rather I’ll emphasize the importance
of these questions/categories as a resource
moving forward.
(15m)​ For the last fifteen minutes, each group
will talk amongst its group members about what
they discovered, and they will compare articles
and information. They will use the ”Information
Missing” section at this time. I will check in with
each group, if possible. ​As groups begin, I will
encourage them to keep the volume down as
much as possible. I will make sure that students
know that after I talk with them, they can start
researching/finding a topic for their midterm,
unless they want to continue talking about their
articles. I will let students know that they will
need to have talked through this information
before I get to them, so that they can each feel
comfortable as they share their article and what
they found.
As students leave, they’ll leave their guided
handout with me as a formative assessment.
● (Be Wary Of) Opinion Articles slide, which
features three opinion articles: Fox News - “CNN
has gone bananas and doesn’t seem to care;
and other horrible examples of media bias”,
Huffington Post - “Voters Must Reject The Moral
Bankruptcy of Donald Trump’s Republican
Party”, and TheDailyCaller - “Podcast: Exposing
the Climate Change Cult”.
● Seemingly Good Article, Bad Source slide which
shows a fairly well fleshed out article featured on
Breitbart regarding Cohen’s recent plea with
Mueller, and then an article from Breitbart as well
that reads: “Birth Control Makes Women
Unattractive and Crazy”.
● QUESTION slide, which narrates the process I
went through while researching the answer to
the following question: Did the Obama
Administration use tear gas at the border? I
explain the events that led to this question, I
narrate the number of biased sources I found, I
highlight some helpful resources I used, I show a
picture of the sources from Snopes and
Politifact, and I explain the final verdict using
reliable resources.
● Three Perspectives, One Person slide, which
shows three articles about Ocasio-Cortez, as
she is painted as a hero in a far left news source,
painted as rude and uncivilized in a far right
source, and narrated as somewhat impressive in
a PBS News article.
● Research slide, which includes the instructions
for the final part of the class, the
categories/sources they can use, and different
news events they can choose to look into.
Different sources:
- 1) PBS News, Washington Post, NY Times
- 2) Bipartisan Report, Huffington Post, Palmer Report
- 3) Breitbart, Fox News, The Daily Caller
EVENTS THEY CAN USE
● Manafort/Mueller/Cohen
● Caravan/Border news
● Bush’s death
● Ivanka Trump (use of private email account)

Meeting students’ needs (differentiation,
extensions, modifications, accommodations)
● Before we jump into the slideshow, we
discuss ‘what is bias?’. This will start all
students off on the same note. We will
discuss— as we discuss what makes
us think a source is biased/unbiased—
what makes a source seem ‘fake’ as
well, something that we covered in this
class in a previous lesson, as a review.
● No specific student in mind: Universal
Design Learning being utilized includes
guided handouts, visual aids, and
teacher check-ins. Group work (with
preferred partners) will be used, as well
as class discussions.
● Subtitles were used for the video.
● Here are some modifications I didn’t
use during this class, but that I would
certainly incorporate if I taught this
lesson again/taught it to a different
class.
○ Handouts computer accessible:
a number of students do best
when they are typing
something out, be it for
grammar/spelling errors, faster
writing, or even if they want to
use speech-to-text.
○ Speech-to-text and
text-to-speech encouraged: I
had a student in one of my
classes use text-to-speech
while researching an article,
and it helped her stay a lot
more on task. I would make
sure to let students know that
these options are available.
○ Modification for non-honors
class, potentially: if I were
teaching this to a class that had
● NFL Protest (Colin Kaepernick)
● Ocasio-Cortez
● Kavanaugh
● Any other news stories you are interested in if
you think it would have two different viewpoints.
If they can’t find a source on one of the topics, I’ll have
them call me over so we can discuss why that might be.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
● Class discussion allows social students who
think better out loud to engage with classmates
and brainstorm together, collaboratively.
● Visual/interactive slideshow allows students to
feel more agency during the lecture, and helps
students who learn better by listening/visualizing.
● Group work allows social students to work
collaboratively, helps students who work best
when they have peers to ask questions
with/discuss with, and this particular group work
has a period before their discussion where they
work on their own. These groups are
student-determined as well, so they can work
with who they’re most comfortable with (helpful
for students with anxiety/social anxiety)
● Students are able to choose their source and
article, and they can collaboratively decide on a
topic of interest.
● Engaged range of learner preferences: ​Group
work, class discussions, solo work, and
visual/interactive lecture.
● Variation of
pace/process/product/environment:​​ Students
are able to choose a topic with their partners,
choose the source they want to look into, as well
as the specific article they want to use. Students
can work with whoever they’d like.
● Challenge students: ​Students have to work
together to research a topic and diagnose the
potential misinformation, the truth, and the
 more trouble with the subject
matter, or with reading articles,
I would change the 3 person
group set up to a whole class
group, divided into 3 groups of
students. Each group would
focus on one category and
article, and I might pre-select
some articles to avoid some of
the difficulty that comes with
looking for an effective article.
Each group of students would
be able to read through the
article together and answer the
questions together (and could
be assigned group roles, such
as text-miner, facilitator, scribe,
etcetera!). We would come
together as a whole group and
discuss the differences in our
article.
potential motives behind each article.
● Multiple Means of Representation:
Visual/interactive lecture, class discussion, solo
work, group work, and discussion.
● Multiple Means of Engagement: ​Students have
opportunities to work alone (while note-taking on
the article), work together, discuss together,
engage with the lecture, as well as class
discussion before the lecture.
● Multiple Means of Expression​​: I check in with
students while they work, and look over their
guided handout once they leave. I can measure
where they are at during class discussions and
interactive lecture as well.
● Social/Physical Environment: ​Class is set up
in open square, so they can engage with each
other as well as me. Students work together to
answer class discussion questions, as well as in
smaller groups to discuss their news topic and
the different ways it is being represented,
allowing for class discovery and collaboration.

Field Courses Only – Post lesson

Reflection

I felt that this lesson went fairly well, and that I was proud of the end result. Reading through
student’s sheets has been encouraging, and has shown that they understood the lesson that
was taught, and understood how to identify bias effectively. I felt that students understood the
context of bias better when compared with recent political events, and I felt that it kept them
engaged. Students were fairly on task for a majority of the time, and I felt that I was able to
keep a good eye on them for the research portion, and I was able to check in with each of them
and hear about what they found interesting as they researched.
Here are a few things I would fix for next time, as well as a few things I fixed for the next two
lessons.
1) After the first day of teaching this lesson, I went back to the handouts and changed the
 titles from ARTICLE ONE (TWO, OR THREE) and instead changed each title to
ARTICLE NAME, so students were less confused about whether or not they were using
the right category/sheet of paper.
2) I would have made the directions more clear. Although I tried to make sure the
directions were understandable to students, students asked a number of clarifying
questions. I’m thinking that a way to improve this would be to put each of the
categories/options on the handout itself, have places for each student’s name, and then
a subtitle that says PICK ONE. That way, students would be able to visually see that
one student needs to represent one of the categories, and that each category should be
covered by someone in the group. Each category only needs that student to choose
one source and one article.
3) I would have made sure not to let students head out for tater tots at the beginning of the
first class I taught this lesson in. I became nervous and agreed to it before thinking it
through, and although it didn’t have any consequences for not being able to accomplish
the tasks at hand, it did send a message that my lesson could wait on their schedule,
which wasn’t appropriate.
4) The second and third times I taught this lesson, I made sure to check in much earlier to
ensure that groups understood and had an idea of where they were going and what
they were researching.
5) I wouldn’t have told students it isn’t going to be graded, which I avoided for the other
two classes until they were passing them in. I felt that worked better.
6) I changed the amount of time that they researched on their own from 20 minutes to 15
minutes, so they were more focused during that time to accomplish their task.

All in all, I feel the lesson went well, and that I had a steady teacher presence in the classroom,
and that I presented/checked in with students in a way that ensured they were getting the
material that was being taught. I had a lot of fun teaching this lesson, and enjoyed each class
that I got to teach it in.

Teaching Standards and Rationale

3 (b) Develops learning experiences that engage learners in collaborative and

self-directed learning and that extend learner interaction with ideas and people locally
and globally.

This project helped student to ​work collaboratively​ as well as in a ​self-directed​ way because it
encouraged students to seek out a topic of interest, and do their own research and identification
of bias, and then students worked together to identify the different ways that bias came across in
their peer’s media sources, and how they tied in with their own media source. It also helped to
extend learner interaction​ because it encouraged students to look into a subject of national
interest (as well as occasionally globally) and required students to think about the larger world
around them, as well as the larger theme of bias that exists throughout the world.

3 (g) Promotes responsible learner use of interactive technologies to extend the

possibilities for learning locally and globally.

Students were taught how to identify biased sources in hopes that they would avoid
believing/citing false information, which helps to strengthen their researching skills as well as
cyber-intelligence when they research information on both a large and small scale.

4 (p) Appreciates multiple perspectives within the discipline and facilitates learners’
critical analysis of these perspectives.

This project asked students to view, compare, and contrast three different perspectives and
identify the ways in which they portray the same story/subject. The lesson asked students to
think critically about each of these perspectives— their goals and their viewpoints specifically.
The lesson itself also presented an equal amount of liberal and conservative bias in order to
avoid student’s feeling isolated.