Learn with Media: Lesson Plans and PD for HumanitiesLearn with Media: Lesson Plans and PD for Humanities
These classroom resources and professional development courses are provided for free by nonprofit public media station KQED.
Classroom Resources
Lesson plans and resources aligned to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and ISTE standards, and geared toward middle and high school classes in English, civics, journalism, history, social studies, art and more.
KQED Youth Media Challenge
Empower your students to share their ideas through audio, video and images. Student submissions are published on the KQED Youth Media Challenge Showcase. Select pieces may be shared on KQED digital and broadcast channels and via PBS and NPR stations around the country. Choose from three FREE standards-aligned projects, complete with ready to use, modifiable curricular supports.
- Call for Change commentary project
- Show What You Know informational project
- First Person personal narrative project
Above the Noise
Above the Noise host Myles Bess takes viewers along on his journey to cut through the hype surrounding controversial topics in the news to find out what’s really going on. Each video in this Emmy Award winning series comes with supports for middle and high school classrooms, including a lesson plan, viewing guide, transcripts in English and Spanish, and sentence frames for diverse learners that encourage student voice and foster civil conversation about complex topics. Get started with one of these popular topics on PBS LearningMedia:
- When Is Your Brain Ready for Social Media? with Common Sense Education
- False Equivalence: Why It’s So Dangerous with Data & Society Research Institute
- Confirmation Bias: Why Do Our Brains Love Fake News?
Professional Learning
Free professional development to help you hone your media making skills and incorporate media literacy into your teaching. For educators in grades K-12, all subject areas and roles.
Live Workshops and Training
See our full schedule of free professional learning for K-12 educators in all subject areas — offered online and in person.
KQED Teach
Bring media making and media literacy to your teaching with free, self-paced, online PD courses that build confidence and skills through step-by-step videos and hands-on activities. For K-12 teachers across all subject areas. Start with a course like
Gain the confidence to create digital media for your classroom and to teach media literacy skills to your students with these free, online courses. Start with a course like
- Evaluating Online Tools for Classroom Use
- Making Video to Inspire Learning
- Analyzing Media Messages: Bias, Motivation and Production Choices
“Super PD resource for making media in the classroom”
-Common Sense Education
PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED
A great way to demonstrate your skills in teaching media literacy. Certification is earned by completing 8 micro-credentials.
More Education Content From KQED
- Deep Look: Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small with Deep Look, a new ultra-HD (4K) short video series.
- Mind/Shift: Explore the future of learning in all its dimensions — including cultural and technology trends, groundbreaking research, education policy and more on this blog and podcast.
KQED Classics
- KQED Learn: Site for student discussions and investigations centered around Above the Noise video prompts. Discussion content is on now on PBS LearningMedia or on Youth Media Challenge. (published 2018-2023)
- Quest: Engaging, relevant science and engineering resources covering topics from biology to geology.
- Do Now: (published 2014 – 2017).
- The Lowdown: (published 2011 – 2018).
Do you miss KQED Learn, Do Now and The Lowdown and want more like them? Try Above the Noise videos and prompts on PBS LearningMedia.
