Used safely and responsibly, social media enhances education, communication, and learning. The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) convened a number of our own expert teachers and librarians, as well as students, and partnered with Common Sense Media to develop guidelines to support both staff and students in the effective use of social media.
The social media guidelines for students 13 and older address four areas:
- Digital image;
- Responsible posting;
- Considering consequences, and;
- Cyberbullying.
This document offers ideas for teaching each area (sourced from Common Sense Media and the Citizenship in a Digital Age handbook and shows educators which Common Core and Information Fluency Continuum standards the suggested lessons align with. There are also infographics for each of the areas, which were created by NYCDOE students and teachers for use by students and teachers. All of the materials cited are available for use by teachers everywhere, without payment or special permission.
In most schools, the librarian or technology liaison plays an important role in ensuring staff and students are prepared for success in the digital age. These individuals can often support other teachers and students with the topics addressed in this guide, and may also provide professional development.
Educators can find ongoing professional development opportunities and all the resources mentioned in this document posted at schools.nyc.gov/SocialMedia and may join the associated Facebook group.
Create the Digital Image You Want
Students learn that to control their own digital images, they must consider how they want the world to identify them. This includes aligning their individual goals with their online images, standing behind their own words, and understanding that families can be helpful partners.
Ideas for the classroom
- Ask students why image is important: How does the way others perceive them extend to the digital world?
- Introduce news articles on young people who have unique opportunities because of their positive digital image or are being denied entrance to the college or job of their choice because of their poor digital image.
- Have students Google themselves or each other and consider how the results might look to a potential employer or friend, a college recruiter, or even a family member.
- Ask students to create and share one sentence to represent how they want to be seen online. When they look at one another’s social media presences (on Facebook, Edmodo, Twitter, etc.), is the image they want to convey coming through? If so, how do they know? If not, what can they change to improve the way they are perceived online?
Lessons from Common Sense Media
Trillion Dollar Footprint
Grade 6-8
What is a digital footprint and what does yours convey?
Breaking Down Hate Speech
Grades 9-12
Create a community culture in which hate speech is unacceptable, both online and offline.
College Bound
Grades 9-12
Information you post on the Internet can affect your future opportunities.
Lessons from Citizenship in the Digital Age
Your Digital Footprint
Grade 5
Whatever information we post publicly about ourselves online can have lasting personal and academic consequences
Respecting The Digital Privacy of Yourself and Others
Grade 7
Behaving responsibly online is essential for safety, security, relationships, and producing high-quality academic work.
Digital Footprint
Grade 11
By keeping certain information private online, they can protect their reputations, safety, and security.
Standards Supported
Common Core RI.5.7.
- Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
Common Core SL.7.3.
- Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
Common Core SL.11.1.
- Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Information Fluency Standard 1: Using Information to Build Understanding
- Investigate Phase: Recognizes the effect of different perspectives and points of view on information.
- Construct Phase: Uses common organizational patterns (chronological order, cause and effect, compare/ contrast) to organize information in order to draw conclusions.
- Construct Phase: Forms opinions and judgments backed up by supporting evidence.
- Construct Phase: Interprets information and ideas by defining, classifying, and inferring.
- Construct Phase: Presents different perspectives with evidence for each.
- Express Phase: Chooses the most appropriate format, tone, and language to communicate ideas in real world formats to different audiences.
Information Fluency Continuum 3: Ethical Behavior in Use of Information
- Demonstrating Social Responsibility: Considers culturally divergent and opposing viewpoints on topics.
Post Responsibly
Students learn to think before they post by:
- Getting permission from their teachers before tagging classmates for school-related work;
- Thinking about whether a parent or relative would be proud or concerned by the content of their posts; and
- Considering whether a post will be hurtful or helpful, embarrassing or promising, or could positively or negatively affect a future opportunity.
Ideas for the classroom
- Review the Department of Education’s Internet Acceptable Use and Safety Policy (IAUSP).
- Whenever you use a social media tool with your class, review proper posting etiquette.
- Start a collection of questionable as well as positive posts and have your students do the same: real world examples are powerful.
- Select a social media tool that provides the option to view and approve all posts before being published.
- Use the social media tool yourself before using it with your students.
- Have students create a class contract defining proper posting, questionable posting, and inappropriate posting. Have the contract posted in the classroom, and have students sign it.
- If you’re not sure of something, need advice, or support, share in the Digital Literacy and Citizenship group on Facebook. There you’ll find educators sharing ideas and building their learning networks.
Lessons from Common Sense Media
The Reality of Digital Drama
Grades 6-8
Does the way we think about digital drama have anything to do with gender?
Oops! I Broadcast It on the Internet
Grades 9-12
What are the consequences of oversharing online?
Feelings on Display
Grades 9-12
Are girls and guys judged differently when they post photos online?
Lessons from Citizenship in the Digital Age
Respecting the Digital Privacy of Yourself and Others
Grade 7
Behaving responsibly online is essential for safety, security, relationships, and producing quality academic work.
Digital Footprint
Grade 11
By keeping certain information private online, they can protect their reputations, safety, and security.
Appropriation Versus Transformation
Grade 12
There is a difference between appropriation and transformation when using someone else’s work.
Additional Resources
“Kids and Socializing Online.” Consumer Information: Privacy & Identity. Federal Trade Commission. September 2011. Web. 21 Feb 2018.
Standards Supported
Common Core R.I.12.1.
- Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
Common Core R.I.12.5.
- Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes the point clear, convincing, and engaging.
Common Core SL.7.3:
- Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
Common Core SL.11.1.
- Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher- led) with diverse partners on grades 11-12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Information Fluency Continuum 1: Using Inquiry to Build Understanding and Create New Knowledge
- Investigate Phase: Recognizes the effect of different perspectives and points of view on information.
- Express Phase: Chooses the most appropriate format, tone, and language to communicate ideas in real world formats to different audiences.
- Investigate Phase: Challenges ideas in text and makes notes of questions to pursue in additional sources.
Information Fluency Continuum 3: Demonstrating Social Responsibility
- Demonstrating Social Responsibility: Considers culturally divergent and opposing viewpoints on topics.
Consider the Consequences
Students learn to consider the consequences of their online actions, discovering that what they do outside of school affects their lives at school, offline, and elsewhere. They also learn strategies for protecting themselves online such as not posting addresses, social security numbers, and other personal information.
Ideas for the classroom
- Have students create a chart of online activities and potential consequences (both positive and negative) to be displayed in class. Create a handout of the product that can also be displayed at home.
- With the class, create a poster with terms, definitions, and examples describing potential benefits (e.g., social action, connecting with experts) and hazards (e.g., phishing, scams, identity theft, cookies) when using the internet.
- Have a counselor, advisor, and/or college admissions officer speak to students about the importance of maintaining a positive digital profile.
Lessons from Common Sense Media
Scams and Schemes
Grades 6-8
What is identity theft, and how can you protect yourself from it?
What’s the Big Deal about Internet Privacy?
Grades 9-12
How do websites collect your personal information, and what can you do about it?
Does it Matter Who Has Your Data?
Grades 9-12
What are the upsides and downsides of companies collecting your data online?
Lessons from Citizenship in the Digital Age
Respecting the Digital Privacy of Yourself and Others
Grade 7
Behaving responsibly online is essential for safety, security, relationships, and producing quality academic work
Phishing and Viruses
Grade 9
Knowing how to navigate the web safely gives us the tools to prevent disruptions and security risks when we are online
Digital Footprint
Grade 11
Keeping certain information private online protects our reputation, our safety, and our security
Plagiarism
Grade 9
Plagiarism prevents us from learning and exploring new ideas and knowledge.
Additional Resources
“Avoid Scams.” OnGuardOnline.gov. The Federal Trade Commission. n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2018.
“Lesson in Action: College Bound.” Common Sense Media. n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2018.
Standards Supported
Common Core SL.7.3.
- Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, evaluating the soundness of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.
Common Core SL.9.1.c.
- Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.
Common Core SL.9.5.
- Make strategic use of digital media (e.g. textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence to add interest.
Common Core W.9.8.
- Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.
Information Fluency Continuum 1: Using Inquiry to Build Understanding and Create New Knowledge
- Investigate Phase: Students recognize the effect of different perspectives and points of view on information.
- Construct Phase: Understands and builds on the ideas of others.
- Investigate Phase: Identifies and uses a variety of technology tools, including web-based interactive tools, to organize information, create a product, and enhance communication with a real world application.
- Investigate Phase: Takes notes using one or more of a variety of note-taking strategies including reflecting on the information.
- Express Phase: Cites all sources used according to standard style formats.
Information Fluency Continuum 3: Demonstrating Social Responsibility
- Demonstrating Social Responsibility: Considers culturally divergent and opposing viewpoints on topics.
- Ethical Behavior in Use of Information: Extends respect for intellectual property rights and copyright by crediting sources of ideas as well as directly quoted material.
- Ethical Behavior in Use of Information: Credits sources by using correct bibliographic format, according to the style selected by the teacher.
Cyberbullying
Students learn the definition of cyberbullying and what to do when they see it happening.
Ideas for the classroom
- Teachers, families, and students should be familiar with the Discipline Code and Bill of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
- Share real stories from the media and discuss them with your students. Consider having your students help with this.
- Discuss how students can behave constructively in such situations and who they might turn to for help if they know someone being bullied or are bullied, themselves. Discuss what the consequences would be, based on the discipline code.
- Know your school’s Respect for All liaison and guidance counselor. Find out how they can support you should cyberbullying situations present themselves.
- Have your principal contact your Borough Field Support Center to set up a Cyberbullying workshop through the Office of Digital Communication + Strategy.
Lessons from Common Sense Education
Cyberbullying: Be Upstanding
Grades 6-8
How do you judge the intentions and impact of people's words and actions online?
Cyberbullying” Crossing the Line
Grades 6-8
When does inappropriate online behavior cross the line into cyberbullying, and what can you do about it?
Taking Perspectives on Cyberbullying
Grades 9-12
How does online cruelty affect the people involved?
Lessons from Citizenship in the Digital Age
Cyberbullying
Grade 6
People use cyberbullying to gain power over others. A cyberbully gains power by forming a bonded group united against a common target.
Cyberbully or Cybersaint
Grade 6
People bully others to exert power and influence over them.
Cyberbullying
Grade 8
Confronting socially irresponsible behavior is just as important as not engaging in it.
Cyberslander
Grade 10
Cyberslander is a form of harassment with the potential to cause long-term harm to a person’s reputation, relationships, and safety.
Preventing Online Cruelty
Grade 10
Everyone has a role to play in preventing and confronting online cruelty.
Additional Resources
“Cyberbullying.” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2018.
“Cyberbullying Toolkit.” Common Sense Media. n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2018.
“Respect for All.” New York City Department of Education. n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2018.
“The Discipline Code and Bill of Student Rights and Responsibilities, K-12.” New York City Department of Education. Sept. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2018.
Standards Supported
Common Core SL.6.1.
- Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Common Core SL.6.1.d.
- Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of the multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.
Common Core RI.7.1.
- Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Common Core SL.8.1.c.
- Pose questions that connect the ideas of several speakers and respond to others’ questions and comments with relevant evidence, observations, and ideas.
Common Core SL.10.1.c.
- Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that relate the current discussion to broader themes or larger ideas; actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions.
Information Fluency Continuum 1: Using Information to Build Understanding
- Investigative Phase: Differentiates between important and unimportant details.
- Express Phase: Presents conclusions and supporting facts in a variety of ways.
- Investigative Phase: Recognizes statements that can be verified.
Information Fluency Continuum 3: Demonstrating Social Responsibility
- Importance of Information to a Democratic Society: Demonstrates tolerance for different opinions.
- Effective Social Action to Broaden Understanding: Helps to organize and integrate contributions of all group members into projects.
- Effective Social Action to Broaden Understanding: Seeks ideas and opinions from others, including experts in the field.