Misinformation and Media Literacy: Classroom Activities

Starting off class with a "1-Minute Paper" is a great way to get students thinking individually about the veracity of information they consume. Try one of these, then engage your students in a brief discussion. (You can also do this using Padlet for free. With the ability to post anonymously, it's a great way to engage students who might be more introverted.) 

• How do you know if information is trustworthy, credible and reliable? What tips and tricks do you use to determine this? 
• How can you tell if news is fake? What tips and tricks do you use?
• What does "bias" mean? Is there such a thing as "unbiased" news? Or is all new biased to a certain degree?
• How can you tell if a story you’re reading is biased? What clues and characteristics about the story tell you it might be biased?
• Why do you think people believe mis-/disinformation? 

This is a brainstorming activity in which students work in groups that each spend time (approx. 2-3 min.) at 3 different stations. Questions can be written/posted on whiteboards/chalkboards/large post-it easel paper around the room. Students brainstorm by writing their answers/thoughts on the boards/post-its. Each group will have visited each station once. The real challenge is that by the third rotation, students start running out of ideas - but this can be an opportunity for creative, out-of-the-box thinking!

Advantages:

• Focuses students' minds on the lesson topic
• Allows students to initiate their own ideas while building off of/adding on to the work of others
• Involves physical movement, verbal interaction and teamwork

Questions to Post at Each Station:

• What are some ways you can determine an author’s expertise (and hence, credibility)? Be as specific as possible!
• What are some ways you can learn about a group/organization? (ie. a group or org that created a website or is responsible for its content) Be as specific as possible!
• If you had nothing but a computer with internet access, what are some ways you could investigate a claim someone has made? Be as specific as possible!

When you feel your students are ready, let them try their hand at debunking (or confirming!) suspected 'fake' news stories and images.

The stories in this activity would ideally be updated with newer, relevant stories of your choosing. NewsLit's "The SIFT" is a great place to find such stories! 

A question I get a lot from students is "Is there such a thing as an unbiased news source?" It's not always easy to determine the political orientation of a news outlet's bias, the degree to which it is biased or the level of accuracy regarding factual reporting. This is a fun, low-stakes way of exploring this question. 

For a number of years, the CRAAP Test has been the gold standard for website evaluation. While still a valuable tool, experts like Mike Caulfield have instead advocated for the practice of lateral reading (teaching students to read across sources), rather than focusing on a single source, as a means of evaluating the veracity of information. The method he proposes is called S.I.F.T. (Stop, Investigate the source, Find trusted coverage, Trace to original context). Below/attached is a lesson plan I designed based on his technique.

Other potential websites which S.I.F.T. could be used to explore and critically analyze are:

• MinimumWage.com 
• American College of Pediatricians

How to spot a doctored photo or video:

• Use Google Reverse Image Search or TinEye to reverse-search an image.
  • To use Google Reverse Image Search, go to Google Image and click on the camera icon in the search box. Copy-and-paste the photo's url, or upload the image.  
  • You can also right-click the image and select Search Google for image. 
    Look at the search results. Do they come from reputable sites? Are there any links to fact-checking sites that may have already debunked the photo's story?  
• Use InVID to debunk fake news videos.
  • This is a Chrome plug-in designed to help journalists "...save time and be more efficient in their fact-checking and debunking tasks on social networks."
  • After downloading, simply open the plug-in and copy-and-paste the video's url.

Watch one or more of the videos listed in the Videos tab and use the Prompt Questions to facilitate a discussion. 

To make this activity more engaging, try breaking your students into groups, assigning each group a question to discuss among themselves for 5-10 minutes. Groups will then share their discussion points with the class.  

While no longer active, there are plenty of relevant classroom lesson plan and activity ideas to be found on the News Literacy Project's "The Sift." 

And it's also worth checking out the ACRL Sandbox for other great activity ideas!