Alice Sheehan from AllSides joins us to discuss media literacy and the importance of understanding diverse perspectives in our fragmented media landscape. AllSides provides balanced news by showing how left, center, and right-leaning sources cover the same stories, helping readers recognize patterns in media bias while developing critical thinking skills.

• AllSides uses a patented technology and multi-partisan team to provide balanced news coverage
• Their media bias ratings examine 16 different types of bias using expert panels and blind surveys
• Seeking multiple perspectives helps clarify your own thinking by understanding why others disagree
• Teachers can use AllSides for current events lessons without appearing partisan
• AllSides recently released classroom dialogue guides with Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Seeing how different media outlets cover the same story reveals how bias shapes narrative
• The X Influencer Bias Chart helps users diversify their social media feeds with different perspectives
• Media literacy involves recognizing that bias exists in all sources, not eliminating it
• Creating healthy information habits means balancing news consumption with offline activities

AllSides is hosting a journalism contest for students to create AllSides-style headline roundups, with three winners receiving $500 and potential publication on their site.

Media bias ratings:
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias

X Influencer chart:

https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/x-bias-chart

Classroom dialogue guides:

https://mismatch.org/dialogue-in-the-classroom/

The Arizona Constitution Project

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Junior Achievement of Arizona provides free, standards-aligned curriculum to help students develop skills in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement. Their programs are designed to make the lives of educators easier by offering flexible implementation options and bringing business professionals into classrooms to provide real-world context.

• Junior Achievement serves 180,000 learners across Arizona in approximately 400 schools, from kindergarten through post-secondary education
• Programs align with existing educational standards and can be delivered in various formats, from single-day experiences to semester-long curricula
• JA BizTown in Tempe allows students to run a simulated town economy for a day, including electing officials and managing businesses
• Critical thinking underpins all JA programs, helping students recognize assumptions and biases while developing analytical skills
• Research shows JA alumni earn more, report higher job satisfaction, and are more likely to start successful businesses
• New 3DE model integrates business case challenges directly into core subjects like math, science, and social studies
• Educators can learn more about programs and find solutions for their specific classroom needs at JAAZ.org

Visit JAAZ.org to explore program options filtered by grade level and learning environment, or learn about the new 3DE model at 3DESchools.org.

The Arizona Constitution Project

Check Out Our Free Lessons on Arizona History and Government!

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Interested in a Master's Degree? Check out the School of Civic and Economic Leadership's Master's in Classical Liberal Education and Leadership

Discover the untold story of Theodore Roosevelt's complex relationship with Jewish Americans in this fascinating exploration of presidential leadership, identity politics, and American pluralism. At a time when America's Jewish population nearly doubled through immigration from Eastern Europe, Roosevelt navigated competing pressures with characteristic energy and contradictions.

The Lower East Side of Manhattan emerges as a vibrant backdrop to this narrative – a neighborhood of both crushing hardship and boundless opportunity for Jewish immigrants. Here, Roosevelt built an unlikely political alliance that helped secure his electoral success while challenging the traditional party alignments of his era. What drove this connection between the aristocratic Republican president and these newly arrived immigrants? Was it genuine sympathy or shrewd political calculation? As with most historical questions, the answer isn't simply one or the other.

Roosevelt's advocacy for persecuted Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe broke with diplomatic traditions of non-interference in other nations' internal affairs. Yet this same champion could occasionally indulge in the stereotypical thinking common among elites of his time. This paradox reflects Roosevelt's own complex character – the boxing enthusiast who won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Harvard scholar who became a Dakota cowboy. These contradictions make Roosevelt not exceptional but quintessentially American, embodying the very tensions that have defined our national character.

Perhaps most relevant for today's conversations about identity and belonging, Roosevelt promoted a vision where Jewish Americans need not choose between their religious heritage and civic identity. By encouraging Jews to embrace their traditions while fully participating in American life, Roosevelt helped shape a pluralistic vision that continues to resonate in our diverse society. His story offers valuable lessons for navigating our era's challenges around inclusion, representation, and what it means to be American.

Whether you're a history enthusiast, educator, or simply curious about this pivotal era in American life, this conversation delivers rich insights into how the past continues to inform our present. Listen now to understand how Roosevelt's relationship with Jewish Americans reveals timeless truths about leadership, diplomacy, and the ongoing American experiment.

See more on Andrew Porwancher and order his book here.

The Arizona Constitution Project

Check Out Our Free Lessons on Arizona History and Government!

Follow us on:
Twitter
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Facebook
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Website

Interested in a Master's Degree? Check out the School of Civic and Economic Leadership's Master's in Classical Liberal Education and Leadership