Overview for Teachers

This lesson equips students with the skills to recognise misinformation and fake news online. They will learn how to fact-check information and the importance of being critical media consumers.

Slide 1

Welcome students to the lesson and briefly explain that today’s lesson is about becoming fact-checking detectives to spot fake news. 

Slide 2

Share the lesson objectives of what students will be learning today.

Slide 3

Ask students how they can verify the truthfulness of online stories or facts. Question them about the reliability of online information.

Slide 4

Explain misinformation as false or inaccurate information spread to deceive. You may choose to prepare some age-appropriate examples that are local to your community.

Slide 5

Discuss the process of checking and verifying the accuracy of online claims and why it's essential.

Slide 6

Encourage students to share if they've ever believed something online that turned out to be untrue.

Slide 7

Explain the concept of misinformation, or fake news, and its impact.

Slide 8

Illustrates the reasons behind the spread of fake news. Elaborate on the examples and challenge students with an open discussion on why some people might spread fake news on purpose, while others might do it unintentionally.

Slide 9

Explain that fact-checking simply means looking for trusted sources to verify the information you’ve come across.

Slide 10

Share practical tips for verifying information, such as consulting trusted sources and considering the credibility of the speaker.

Slide 11

Teach students to question the believability of information before sharing it with others as part of being a responsible digital citizen.

Slide 12

Conduct an activity where students become detectives to determine the truthfulness of various headlines.

Slide 13

Students will need a computer with internet access for the following activity. If not, you may choose to conduct the activity together as class. 

Instruct the students that they will be given a list of headlines. Working in pairs, they should go online to find credible sources and fact-check each headline.

Slide 14

Try this example together as a class. 

Go to a search engine (e.g. Google, Bing) and type in the headline. Talk through your thought process out loud as you sift through the results, highlighting credible sources and unreliable sources. 

The answer for this example lies in the NASA page: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/great-wall/ 

Slide 15

Invite students to conduct their own fact-checking mission with these five headlines. Remind them to jot down the links or sources they’ve used to make their conclusions.

Slide 16

“Chocolate was once used as money by the ancient Mayans.”

This is a factual statement. The sources presented on this slide are from Newsweek and Science.org.

Slide 17

“Pizza Hut sets the world record for the largest pizza ever made.”

This is a factual statement. The sources presented on this slide are from CNN and The Telegraph.

Slide 18

“School in Australia cancels school due to emu invasion.”

This is fake news. Students should have realised there is no news coverage of this headline.

Slide 19

“Jonathan, the oldest living tortoise, is over 190 years old.”

This is a factual statement. The sources presented on this slide are from The Washington Post and the Smithsonian Magazine.

Slide 20

“Students in South Korea get $100 for every A on their report card.”

This is fake news. Students should have realised there is no news coverage of this headline.

Slide 21

Recap the lesson and encourage reflection on the importance of being cautious with online information.

Slide 22

Emphasise the key takeaways, reminding students not everything online is true and the importance of fact-checking and responsible information sharing.

Slide 23

Congratulate the students for their thoughtful participation and remind them to fact-checking any information they come across online.