Five Days, Five Videos: Celebrating U.S. Media Literacy Week 2026
Every day kids are bombarded with messages—headlines, ads, influencer posts, and now an endless stream of AI-generated content that looks every bit as real as the truth. The question isn't whether they'll encounter media, it's whether they'll know how to evaluate it when they do.
That's why Media Literacy Week matters. From October 26–30, the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) leads U.S. Media Literacy Week, a nationwide celebration of the skills every young person needs to navigate a world of media. Inspired by Canada's long-running Media Literacy Week, it brings together educators, librarians, and organizations across the country around one idea: media literacy isn't an add-on. It's essential.
For us at Cyber Civics, this week is personal. We've championed media literacy (and NAMLE) since the day we launched 16 years ago, when "media literacy" was a phrase most schools had hardly heard. In 2011, NAMLE honored me with their Emerging Scholar Finalist Award, and in 2017, with its Media Literacy Teacher Award, both of which I am very grateful to the organization for receiving.
Today, we are humbled and honored that thousands of students learn media literacy through Cyber Civics, our discussion-based curriculum that grew out of our media literacy research. So this year, we're celebrating the way we know best, by putting the videos in our lessons in front of you so that you can share them with the young people in your own lives.
Each day this week, we'll spotlight one of NAMLE's five pillars of media literacy—Access, Analyze, Evaluate, Create, and Act—with a Cyber Civics video that brings it to life. Watch them, share them, use them in your classroom. That's what this week is for.
MONDAY, OCT. 26 — ACCESS
The Key to Writing a Great Search Query
Access isn't only a about having a device and a Wi-Fi signal. It's knowing how to effectively find what you're actually looking for. Most kids use Google mindlessly and rely on whatever answer comes up first. Today that's likely an AI-generated one which, by it's own admission,"may contain errors or hallucinations, and recommends independent verification."
In this lesson, 7th graders learn to build smarter search queries. It's a small skill with a big payoff, because the way you search shapes everything you find. It's a habit that translates over to writing effective AI prompts too.
👉 This lesson is part of Cyber Civics Level 2: Information Literacy for grade 7. Explore the full curriculum: https://www.cybercivics.com/curriculum/level-2-information-literacy
TUESDAY, OCT. 27 — ANALYZE
You Can’t Believe Everything You See
Media literacy can’t wait until middle school. Fourth and fifth graders are already seeing edited photos, filtered faces, and videos made to look real, and most assume what they see is true. In this lesson from Digital On-Ramps, our Cyber Civics curriculum for grades 4–5, students discover that things they find online can be changed, staged, and invented, and they are taught to start asking the questions: Who made this? How? Why? It's the first step to becoming media literate.
👉 This lesson is part of Digital On-Ramps, the Cyber Civics curriculum for grades 4–5. Explore the full curriculum: https://www.cybercivics.com/curriculum/digital-on-ramps-curriculum
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 28 — EVALUATE
Detecting Misinformation: Who’s Behind the Information?
Anyone can post anything online. So before students ask "Is this true?" they need to ask a better question: "Who is behind this?" That one question changes everything. A slick website, a confident headline, or a viral video can come from a journalist, a company selling something, an activist with an agenda—or someone pretending to be any of them. In this lesson, 8th graders learn to think like de-"tech"-tives: investigate the source, figure out what it wants, and decide whether it's worth trusting before they believe or share it. In a world where AI can produce convincing content in seconds, it's the most important habit we can teach.
👉 This lesson is part of Cyber Civics Level 3: Media Literacy for grade 8. Explore the full curriculum: https://www.cybercivics.com/curriculum/level-3-media-literacy
*Questions and strategies in the video were developed by the Stanford History Education Group (now the Digital Inquiry Group).
THURSDAY, OCT. 29 — CREATE
Are you a Maker or a Taker?
Kids spend hours a day with media. The question is whether they're just taking it in—or making something to share with others. Most of what students do online is consume: scrolling, watching, liking, repeat. But media literacy isn't only about decoding what other people make. It's about recognizing that you have a voice, too, and choosing to use it thoughtfully. In this lesson, students take an honest look at their own media habits and ask a simple question: Am I a maker, a taker, or both? It's the first step toward using media on their own terms, instead of allowing it use them!
👉 This lesson is part of Cyber Civics Level 3: Media Literacy for grade 8. Explore the full curriculum: https://www.cybercivics.com/curriculum/level-3-media-literacy
FRIDAY, OCT. 30 — ACT
Social Media and Civic Engagement
It's easy to write off social media as a waste of time—and sometimes it is. But the same apps students use to share memes have helped people around the world raise money, protect the environment, push for policy change, and rally their communities. In this lesson, students explore social media as a tool for civic engagement and start asking a bigger question: "How could I use my voice to make things better?" Because the goal of media literacy was never just smarter consumers. It's better citizens.
👉 This lesson is part of Cyber Civics Level 3: Media Literacy for grade 8. Explore the full curriculum: https://www.cybercivics.com/curriculum/level-3-media-literacy
Five days. Five videos. One goal: raising young people who don't just use media — they understand it, question it, and use it to make things better.
That's what Cyber Civics has been doing in classrooms for 16 years. If you'd like to bring these lessons to your school, preview them for free or request a quote today.
Diana Graber is the Director and Founder of Cyber Civics and Cyberwise. She is also the author of "Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology"
