Creating a Fake News Unit: A First Attempt

According to a study done by Common Sense Media, 31% of teens reported that in the past 6 months, they had shared a news story online that they later found out was inaccurate. Following the inauguration, members of my 8th grade language arts class were quite outspoken in their opinions about current political events, yet I could tell that they were fuzzy on the facts. Coincidentally, they were also coming across a big research project in their history class about researching a black historical figure. I decided to capitalize on their current interests and create a unit that explored the phenomenon of fake news today, while also addressing online research skills and judging the validity of certain online news and information sources.

This unit was a mash-up of different resources, tech. tools, etc. I teach a small group of seven 8th graders for a 50-minute language arts period. My students have language-based learning differences, such as dyslexia. Every middle school student at my school has an iPad as part of our 1:1 program.

1) Intro Hook 

 

Picture Credit: FreePress

I started the Unit by having the students read an article from The Onion: New Report Finds Americans Most Interested In Science When Moon Looks Different Than Usual. I omitted the source so students who knew about The Onion wouldn't know immediately that the article was fake. Turns out I didn't need to because none of my students had heard about The Onion! The article certainly fooled them and they justified that it was real because a) we were reading it in school, b) it was printed out on a piece of paper and c) it had the "look" of a news article with a title, place marker at the beginning, and publication date.

We then explored the "About The Onion" section of the site, and they slowly began to come to the conclusion that the news site was fake, and that the intention of the article was to entertain, not to inform (Appropriateness Disclaimer: Keep in mind that The Onion contains content that may not be appropriate for your students - preview, preview preview!).

I started off the unit this way not to dupe my students intentionally (I honestly didn't know how they would react to the article) but to call into question the validity of news articles and sources. I wanted my students begin thinking about how they could determine a new article's truthfulness and call into question their belief that everything in print and/or given to them by a teacher was real.

We then read another article - yes, my students did appropriately ask if this one was real, which of course provided me with another great teaching opportunity... This time, it was an opinion article on Newsela about the dangers of fake news, recently adapted from an article on Smithsonian.com (1/2017). I've been reading Newsela articles with my students all year. I love this site in particular because I can lower the lexile level so students can access the material at their reading level, while still keeping the article relevant and interesting.

This article was a great discussion starter, and my students were shocked to learn about "click bait" and how fake news actually makes people money. "Well, how do we tell which news is real and which is fake?" one of my students asked. It was like I planted her in the audience. The hook had worked.

2) Avoiding Internet Search Death Spirals

 

I've noticed that many of my students rely on the Google search a little too much.

Don't get me wrong, Google is amazing and wonderful and I wouldn't have gotten through grad school without Google Scholar, but some of my students think that Google will give them all the answers to their research questions, immediately, and without ambiguity. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a student type a question straight from their research directions into Google (such as "What were Muhammad Ali's 3 greatest accomplishments and why?"), click the first link on the results page, and then copy down the first few sentences on that page.

Of course, teachers now have plenty of tools to help combat "free-range" searching such as Google's Custom Search Engine, but I also wanted my students to understand more about how Google works. I also wanted to show them some ways to search more effectively for high-quality resources on their own, perhaps when a teacher does not give them specific search parameters. 

Through my school license, I have access to the Nearpod modules on Digital Citizenship created by Common Sense Media. This has been an incredible resource.

I used the first 18 slides of CSM's Grade 6-8 Unit 1, Lesson 2 (Strategic Searching) for my lesson. This lesson focuses on learning about and practicing internet search strategies. Click here to access the lesson if you don't have a Nearpod license. I modified it a bit to fit the needs of my students (my whole class has diagnosed language-based learning differences) and I stopped before the group activity slides about searching for a suitable park for a company picnic.

Instead, I decided to have students do a more relevant and game-like activity to practice search strategies on the internet...

3) Internet Trivia: Putting Online Research Strategies to the Test

 

I created this Internet Trivia Scavenger Hunt so that my students could practice internet research in a fast-paced, game-like setting. I created a pdf version of this doc and my students chose either to complete it on their iPads (using Showbie) or print it out. I grouped students in teams of three, gave them a time limit, and told them that they needed to record the url of the website from which they gathered information. This website could not be a Google search url or a Wikipedia page. Teams could answer questions in whichever order they pleased. I gave my class about 30 minutes for the scavenger hunt and then looked over their answers and sources that evening.

The next day, we reconvened and analyzed the Scavenger Hunt. This was a great moment for me to point out some websites students used that didn't necessarily have correct information, point out some places to search for certain types of information (the address/contact information of an institution is usually at the very bottom of its website), and to demonstrate useful search terms and methods to find certain information. And yes, I did give prizes to the team that collected the most points. I can't remember what the prize was, but I'm sure it was fabulous...

4) Diving Deeper: Learning to Identify High-Quality Sites (+ Mini-Presentation!)

 

Again, I went back to Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship curriculum on Nearpod: Grade 6-8 Unit 3, Lesson 2 (Identifying High-Quality Sites). This lesson focused on learning how to evaluate websites for usefulness and relevance. Click here for the lesson on the Common Sense Media site. I used the first portion of the lesson about the Huffington Post article about Hurricane Sandy and the fake photos that were spread around the internet about that event. I stopped the Nearpod lesson after I introduced the vocabulary words "evaluate" and "criteria."

I wanted my students to have more practice with understanding how to evaluate news and research websites while simultaneously practicing their presentation skills. Teaching dyslexic students demands that I come up with creative ways to get students to actually read stuff. Instead of just reading the article and talking about it, I printed out and cut up "10 Ways to Spot a Fake News Article" from EasyBib's Blog and gave each student a "way." I asked them to read their section and then create a quick one-slide presentation (using any presentation app) to illustrate their concept and present to their class. Using Airplay, students quickly broadcast their slide up on the board and explained their section in the order of the original article.

A student's slide - prompted by discussion about digitally altered photographs during our Common Sense Media lesson on Nearpod (Unit 3, Lesson 2)

5) Putting Evaluation Strategies to the Test with a QR Code Scavenger Hunt

 

The next step was a test of sorts: I wanted students to evaluate real websites based on the criteria we had discussed. First, I came up with a list of 10 Real and Fake Websites. I got some some excellent "fake" news website resources from this EasyBib blog article. I created QR codes for each website using the free Qrafter app on my iPad, printed them out, and numbered them according to my original list. I then taped the codes up around my classroom for students to find. For a student QR code reader, I chose the free i-Nigma iPad app for its simplicity and good reviews.


I gave students a paper copy of a graphic organizer to complete for each website they came across. The graphic organizer directed students to consider several criteria while evaluating each website.


During the activity, students scanned the QR Codes around the room and completed the graphic organizer to determine if that website was "real" or fake." Students could talk with each other as they moved about the room. The setup gave the activity a station-like feel and kept students active. They loved this activity! Many of them asked me if we could do something like it again. It got me thinking about how I can use QR codes more often in my classroom to turn reading activities into "Scavenger Hunt"-type activities.

Afterwards, we reviewed the websites and discussed whether each one was real or fake and why. If there was debate, I asked students to use specific evidence on their graphic organizers to convince the class why a particular website was real or fake. In particular, the All About Explorers site was a great conversation starter because it looks professionally done, and only after the students really dig into the actual content do they realize that something was fishy with the site and facts didn't seem to line up (like the fact that Christopher Columbus was not, in fact, born in 1951 in Sydney, Australia).

6) But Who is Responsible for Dealing with Fake News? Engaging in a Pro-Con Debate

Alright. So my students had shown me that they were getting better at evaluating websites and taking more of a critical eye to material published on the internet. But I wanted them to explore more about WHY it is so important, especially now, to take a critical eye to news and information sources.

As a class, we read an article on Newsela that explores Facebook and Google's relationship with fake news, recently adapted (11/2016) from a Washington Post article. The article explores the practice of websites controlling the news that their patrons read. As we read and discussed this article, I asked students to keep track of these reasons on a graphic organizer to prepare them for the debate.

I use the Philosophical Chairs style because it provides a structured, predictable, and disciplined format for my students to engage in a debate. Students take sides according to whether they agree or disagree with a central statement. The central statement for this debate was, "Websites like Facebook and Google SHOULD block sites that contain (or might contain) fake news or ads." Students then took turns supporting or refuting this statement based on their own reasons and arguments they found in the Newsela article.

One of the beautiful things about Philosophical Chairs is that a speaker must first summarize the argument of the previous speaker before he/she can introduce his/her new argument. This rule demands that students actually listen to each other and work on summarizing verbal arguments. At first, it was difficult for my students to understand each other's arguments and summarize effectively, but with practice even those who have the biggest struggles with verbal expression now can give an adequate verbal summary.

For the purposes of this debate, I also tracked the summaries on the board so that students could go back and address previous arguments if they wanted (many of them have short-term memory challenges):

During the debate, I saw that my students expressed understanding of the impact of fake news. They also discussed the complexities of calling certain news "true" or "fake" and that the fact checkers need to be informed and educated. Both sides gave different reasons about the importance of discerning fact from fiction and why thinking critically about the source of information matters.

7) Showing What You Know

The final part of this unit was an opportunity for students to express their understanding of fake news, internet research strategies, and evaluating websites. Because of the nature of my school and the particular class I teach, I have the luxury of not having to give out letter grades in my class or for any of my assignments. Instead, I submit anecdotal comments that appear on students' report cards and communicate regularly with parents about student progress.

The teacher I was five years ago would have panicked and worried that the absence of grades would guarantee that my students would do minimal work with minimal effort. I have found though, that my students try just as hard in my non-graded class as they did when I gave them letter grades (I taught all of my 8th grade students when they were 6th graders). I have also observed that they are more likely to take risks, such as make that complicated movie project instead of something more "safe" because they have room to fail.

I decided to capitalize on my unique teaching situation and try something completely out of my comfort zone as a teacher: get rid of most of the directions for the final project. Here were my directions:


Create a presentation/project in which you show your understanding of the issues and topics we have explored in this Unit:

- publishing information on the internet
- fake news
- conducting internet research
- determining if a website is reliable

You can use any presentation app or material you choose (like Google slides, Haiku Deck, iMovie, Garageband, posterboard, paper, etc...)


I did require them to complete a basic planning sheet in which they outlined the materials/apps they were planning to use, the messages they wanted to express, and a rough outline or sketch of their presentation. I wanted students to formulate their own projects based on their own understandings, not what they thought they should include or according to the check boxes on a grading sheet or rubric. I really did want them to express how they understand the unit using a variety of media. I also wanted to see what kind of presentations my students would create, given the lack of constraints in media type, etc.

While they were working on their projects (all work was done in class), it was interesting to see what students delighted in being able to venture off on their own and create, and what students struggled to express their own message without more concrete guidelines. I'm trying to break some of my students from the habit of asking teachers, "Is this good enough?" whenever they hit a fork in the road or run up against a task that might be challenging for them.

Out of my seven students, two chose to create Keynote presentations, one created a poster, two created Google Slides presentations, and two created iMovies. The presentations, like my students, were drastically different in content and format, but they each reflected each students' academic strengths. One student who loves to make movies decided to use the Trailer template on iMovie to create a 1-minute-long video. Initially, I was skeptical that she could pull off a quality presentation in such a short amount of time, but her final project was thought-provoking and used the media she chose in a powerful way. When reflecting on her final project, she admitted that the Trailer template might have been too limiting to give adequate explanation, which she addressed by discussing the movie and her thought process in making the movie before she presented it.

 

My students said that they enjoyed the freedom I gave them but that sometimes they were stuck because they didn't quite know what I was looking for. It reminded me that so often students base their learning on the teacher's expectations, not their own. I realize how often I forget to devote time in my lessons towards supporting students' metacognition and curiosity to "dive deeper" into topics.

A slide from a presentation. This particular student chose to illustrate his stance towards fake news.

Overall, I would have liked students to dig deeper in their presentations and shown more of their critical thinking. I'm still exploring how to challenge students to express their higher order thinking skills while not steering them too much towards my expectations or preconceived ideas about what they "should" know.

Just yesterday, one of my students emailed me and article she found about Google's new fact-checking features. She was excited to share that Google was actually doing one of of the strategies we had discussed in our debate. I hope to continue this dialogue with my students as news unfolds about the fake news phenomenon in our country.

Questions? Let me know in the comments section below!