Fake News - Strategies for Evaluating News Sources

Every week, the NYT publishes a News Quiz for students (or curious adults!). The quiz always includes one media literacy question that lists four recent news headlines — three from The Times and one from a satirical site like The Onion — and ask which is which. Though we often feature wacky news as “distracters,” these are not trick questions. Have your students test their news savvy and discuss the results!

Each week, determine the path one bit of information took to get to you. If it was a powerful photo of a drowned refugee child, did it come via Facebook? Twitter? If so, was it forwarded by a friend from some other friend or feed? Who created the content? Try to trace how information MOVES.

Have your students use this questionnaire to assess the likelihood that a piece of information is fake news. The more red flags they circle, the more skeptical they should be!

Have your students work in small groups to skim the headlines of The New York Times or any other traditional newspaper (www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/ has daily uploads of 900+ newspapers' front pages). Students should mark out with a red X any article or image that they feel would not be published in a country without a guarantee of free speech. Use the worksheet linked about to have students explain the rationale behind their decisions.

The NYT compiled this extensive repository of teaching ideas for the concept of "fake news." It includes many links to articles and multimedia, activity ideas, and also questions to ask students.

This lesson gives students media literacy skills they need to navigate the media, including how to spot fake news. Estimated time - one 50-minute class.

This lesson plan has an embedded quiz that you can use to walk your students through the fundamentals of "fake news."

This lesson plan uses a free online game, Cat Park, to engage students with topics of misinformation and disinformation. The game, published by Tilt Studio through a grant from the U.S. Department of State's Global Engagement Center, is an educational tool to help improve media literacy skills and counter disinformation.

This TEDEd interactive lesson features an engaging short video, followed by an 8-question quiz, and a discussion forum for students to share their views.

Take a look at ways that educators all over the United States are working to fight the spread of fake news and integrate media literacy instruction in their classrooms.