Flintridge Preparatory School: Media Literacy & The Art Of Leaving No Question Unasked

History teacher and 11th Grade dean Dr. Megan Bowman has dedicated much of her professional life to the subject of media literacy. She received a Flintridge Prep Ford Curricular Innovation Grant to study media literacy in 2021 and has participated in coursework funded by the school’s faculty staff professional growth program.

This year Bowman heads up a faculty professional learning community (PLC) on the subject, bolstering conversations about this critical research and life skill. Media literacy is a core component of the 8th grade history and civics curriculum, which Bowman co-teaches, with students examining current events and U.S. policy through a media literacy lens.

One goal of the media literacy PLC is to find common ground about what students need. “All information is biased,” Bowman says. “We’re seeking best practices so we can create a stronger link between media literacy concerns and educate students on traps.”

Bowman and her colleagues are leaning into the Portrait of a Wolf (see page 3), developing habits of inquiry and reflection, igniting curiosity, encouraging and welcoming complex questions. One skill she emphasizes in 8th grade history is lateral reading to fact-check sources. Students are asked to research a source in real time to decode authorship, intention, content, and context. By reading laterally, students review more than one source to corroborate or contradict claims.

Evelyn Kaufman ’28 has enjoyed learning new research skills. “I like making my own thing, finding sources, and then checking on them myself. It’s really interesting—the journey of it,” she says. Lateral reading helped her identify the bias in an article she found. Before even reading her chosen article, which argued in favor of the U.S. decision to use the nuclear bomb in Japan during WWII, she opened a new tab in her browser and looked up the source, which is in the defense industry. “This person has a big say—they want to promote the usage of nuclear weapons,” Evelyn notes.

Curiosity like Evelyn’s is key, says Bowman. “Why would somebody be motivated to have this opinion or to say things this way?” If the answer makes you ask more questions she says, “that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad source. It just means that you need to recognize the bias in your writing.”

Flintridge Preparatory School, 4543 Crown Ave., La Cañada Flintridge, (818) 790-1178 or visit www.flintridgeprep.org.