PBS LearningMedia is a library of more than 30,000 resources that are designed to supplement classroom instruction, aligned to state and national curriculum standards, and created in close collaboration with educators. The library houses all manner of media, including videos, images, audio, interactive materials, and supporting resources such as discussion guides and lesson plans. These supporting resources are critical to implementing the PBS Editorial Standards and to empowering teachers across the country.
The PBS Editorial Standards include accuracy as a core principle, but the standards define accuracy as including “more than simply verifying whether information is correct; facts must be placed in sufficient context based on the nature of the piece.” PBS LearningMedia does a remarkable job of placing facts and information in context by providing support materials for teachers and students. This contextualization is particularly important for content that covers difficult topics.
Contextualizing Youth Mental Health
The Hiding in Plain Sight collection on PBS LearningMedia includes content that features many young people who live with mental health conditions, as well as parents, teachers, friends, healthcare providers, and mental health experts. This includes a full two-part, four-hour film – Ken Burns Presents Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, A Film by Erik Ewers & Christopher Loren Ewers – that provides an intimate look at what it’s like to experience various symptoms of mental illness, as well as the impact of childhood trauma, stigma, and social media.
The film obviously explores incredibly challenging subjects, and producing station WETA recognized from the beginning that the material would need robust support materials. Tom Chiodo, Executive Producer for Special Projects and National Program Development, and Amy Labenski, Senior Director of National Impact and Engagement, at WETA spearheaded the launch of the companion resources, including the Well Beings Mental Health Language Guide “with the goal of raising awareness, reducing stigma and discrimination, and changing the national conversation around our physical and mental health, through storytelling,” according to Labenski. This in-depth guide is made available to educators alongside the film to help inform classroom discussions on this sensitive topic. For example, the guide explains how a person is more than their health condition and recommends using person-first language that focuses on the individual, rather than the illness.
The Hiding In Plain Sight collection on PBS LearningMedia also pairs the film with a Discussion & Event Guide for Schools to help educators create engagement opportunities related to the material. Labenski describes the guide as a tool for “destigmatizing mental illness” because it is specifically designed to help “facilitate conversations within the school and with the entire school community, with tools and tips on who to bring to the table, lists of resources they can access and share, discussion questions specific to the topics in the film, and more.” These supporting resources emerged from a formative evaluation of educators to identify how best to support teachers in this space.
PBS member stations across the country leveraged these materials in their local communities. For instance, WSKG in New York led a companion professional development series, and Montana PBS held a virtual workshop in conjunction with a screening of the film.
PBS LearningMedia Senior Director of Content and Curriculum Kristin Lehner emphasizes that the platform is focused on “not shying away” from difficult topics. Instead, Lehner explains that the goal of PBS LearningMedia is to include “extra guidance that is part of the metadata to guide complex yet brave discussions of topics that we feel need extra guidance” and to “give teachers tips and resources to bring that kind of nuance to things.”
Media Literacy with Above the Noise
This level of nuance is also exemplified by the work of KQED in its production of Above the Noise, which takes teachers and students on a journey to cut through the hype surrounding complex topics to find out what’s really going on. Importantly, the videos come with classroom support materials, including lesson plans and viewing guides.
Annelise Wunderlich, Executive Producer at KQED, describes the program host Myles Bess as the embodiment of the kind of interactive academic energy that the audience can see as a mentor, namely “someone they could look up to, but who didn’t seem too old or out of touch with their reality.” Wunderlich adds that “the urgency to help students navigate their media ecosystem has ramped up” in recent years.
She attributes the program’s success in part to the way in which it has leveraged PBS LearningMedia to distribute companion lessons developed by a team of “former humanities and STEM teachers who now develop media literacy education courses for teachers.”
This work is exemplified through the Above the Noise guide on using lateral reading to make sure an online source is reliable. The series has provided both a teacher presentation and a student activity to support learning outcomes. These classroom resources help support and contextualize related videos about topics like spotting deepfakes.
The goal of the series and the supporting materials is to empower teachers to help students “learn how to think critically about issues that impact them as individuals and as members of their communities,” according to Wunderlich.
Whether for content about mental health, media literacy, or any number of important subjects, PBS LearningMedia prioritizes accuracy by contextualizing materials with supporting resources that guide educators and classrooms as they engage with content.
Contact Standards & Practices at standards@pbs.org.