"consider the source"

"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."

~~  Hunter S. Thompson, journalist

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     A few weeks ago I noticed a headline that said in Italy's schools, teachers were helping students learn how to recognize "fake news" and reliable news.

     And I thought, If the Italians can do it, we can do it.

     Then I came across this article from February 2017 -- schools are teaching this in the United States of America, too.

     (Next thought:  If children in public school can learn to analyze real news from fake news, then we adults can learn, too....)

     I thought the article was fascinating, partly because it shows different ways of teaching....

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Headline

"5 Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News"


As the national attention to fake news and the debate over what to do about it continue, one place many are looking for solutions is in the classroom.

Since a recent Stanford study showed that students at practically all grade levels can't determine fake news from the real stuff, the push to teach media literacy has gained new momentum.  The study showed that while students absorb media constantly, they often lack the critical thinking skills needed to tell fake news from real news.

Teachers are taking up the challenge to change that.  NPR Ed put out a social media call asking how educators are teaching fake news and media literacy, and we got a lot of responses.  Here's a sampling from around the country:

Fake news "Simon Says"
In Scott Bedley's version of Simon Says, it's not those two magic words that keep you in the game, but deciding correctly whether a news story is real or not.

To start off the game, Bedley sends his fifth-graders at Plaza Vista School in Irvine, California, an article to read on their laptops.  He gives them about three minutes to make their decision -- they have to read the story carefully, examine its source and use their judgment.  Those who think the article is false, stand up.  The "true" believers stay in their seats.

Bedley says he's been trying to teach his students for a while to look carefully at what they're reading and where it comes from.  He's got a seven-point checklist his students can follow:

1.  Do you know who the source is, or was it created by a common or well-known source?  Example National Geographic, Discovery, etc.
2.  How does it compare to what you already know?
3.  Does the information make sense?  Do you understand the information?

4.  Can you verify that the information agrees with three or more other sources that are also reliable?
5.  Have experts in the field been connected to it or authored the information?
6.  How current is the information?
7.  Does it have a copyright?

[It's -- detective work.]

Subtle changes
Bedley also teamed up recently with Todd Flory at Wheatland Elementary School in Wichita, Kansas, to do a fake news challenge via Skype.  Flory's fourth-graders chose two real articles and wrote a fake article of their own.  Then, they presented them to Bedley's class in California.

The fifth-graders had four minutes to do some extra research based on the presentation, and then they decided which article out of the three were fake.  Most importantly, they had to explain why they thought it was fake.  Otherwise, no points.

Flory says writing the fake news article was more difficult for his students than they expected because they had to make it believable.


"It really hammered home the idea to them that fake news doesn't have to be too sensational," he says.  "It can be a very subtle change, but that subtle change can have big consequences."

Every Friday, Flory's class participates in what he calls Genius Hour.  For example, one Friday his students proposed a question to answer through online research.  But before they took to the Internet, Flory had to walk his students through the steps:  What are reliable and trusted websites?  How do you effectively search on the Internet and verify information?


He uses Skype to connect his students with researchers and scientists from all over the world.  He calls this "authentic research."

"It's so much more powerful for them to do some of this authentic research when they're able to hear from a scientist who's seeing firsthand the effects of climate change," Flory says.  This year's class got to talk to a penguin scientist.

Flory says he's not only teaching his students effective media literacy skills; he is also helping them to be better citizens through global engagement and interaction.

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(This article was written by Sophia Alvarez Boyd.  Second half will be shown here tomorrow.)

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