
© 2011 Ewa Rozkosz, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio
Ideas for E.L.L.s: Finding Reliable Sources in a World of ‘Fake News’ is the headline of my fairly lengthy post at The New York Times Learning Network.
As a companion “Best” list to The Best Resources For Learning Research & Citation Skills, I thought it would be useful to create this one.
I’m using the term “information literacy” here to describe assisting our students developing critical thinking skills to evaluate both web and content in other media forms. I’ve seen the term used to describe broader skills, too. Let me know if you think I’m off-based with my definition.
So, using that definition, here is a beginning Best list, and I hope readers will contribute more:
Show Me Information Literacy Modules
Sarah Bolanos made a great suggestion – Education Resources For Web Literacy from November Learning.
Guest Post: A List Of Useful Resources On Teaching Information & Digital Literacy
How to Teach Students to Evaluate the Quality of Online Information is from Edudemic.
Skills and Strategies | Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources is from The New York Times Learning Network.
How online hoaxes and fake news played a role in the election is from the PBS News Hour:
10 Ways to Spot a Fake News Story is from How Stuff Works.
The plague of fake news is getting worse — here’s how to protect yourself is from CNN.
Of course, there’s the Snopes site to find out what is true and what isn’t true.
Why Students Can’t Google Their Way to the Truth is from Ed Week.
What Are You Doing to Teach Students to Spot Fake News Stories? is by Bill Ferriter.
Evaluating Sources in a ‘Post-Truth’ World: Ideas for Teaching and Learning About Fake News is from The New York Times Learning Network, and is just about the most exhaustive list of teaching ideas and resources you’re going to find on the topic.
5 Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News is from NPR. It includes a number of helpful ideas, including a discussion about, and link to, my NY Times lesson plan.
Long Before There Was ‘Fake News,’ There Were ‘Fake Photos’ is also from NPR.
How to Spot Visualization Lies is from Flowing Data.
It’s possible to ‘vaccinate’ Americans against fake news, experiment shows is from The L.A. Times.
Not sure what’s fake? You need a librarian. #factsmatter and @IFLA have something to help. #iamalibrarian @CILIPinfo @ALALibrary pic.twitter.com/Vl6OphtHmc
— Dawn Finch (@dawnafinch) January 30, 2017
I taught my 5th-graders how to spot fake news. Now they won’t stop fact-checking me. is from Vox.
TOK and “fake news”: 3 tips, 2 downloads, and 3 resources is a helpful resource for Theory of Knowledge and other classes.
Facebook Publishes Tips For Identifying Fake News
5 Steps to Improve Your Media Literacy
Fake news – a lesson plan is from The Teacher James, and is for ELLs.
9 lessons to boost media literacy is by Frank Baker.
Storyzy is an interesting new tool that lets you verify quotes. Unfortunately, it only goes back to 2015, but is continually updated. You can read more about it at TechCrunch. I’m also adding it to The Best Places To Find Quotations On The Web.
HOW TO CALL B.S. ON BIG DATA: A PRACTICAL GUIDE is from The New Yorker.
As we wait to find out what happened in London, remember: Early reports will be wrong. Retweet with care.https://t.co/g5TqgwluLz pic.twitter.com/LgMUUu7LqU
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) June 3, 2017
Here’s a good PBS News Hour report:
Factitious is an engaging online game to teach about fake news. It could be a fun activity to do to finish-up a more extensive lesson on the topic.
You can learn more about it at NPR’s article, To Test Your Fake News Judgment, Play This Game.
Ofsted is right – the battle against fake news can be won in the classroom is from The Telegraph. This is useful not for the article, but for “The Five Types of Fake News” excerpt it includes from another source.
13 Tips for Teaching News and Information Literacy is from The School Library Journal.
How to spot fake social media photos before you hit the share button is from iMore.
The Real Problem with Fake News is by Erik Palmer.
Media Literacy Student Challenge | Explore Your Relationship With News is a useful lesson plan from The NY Times Learning Network.
The Only Way to Defend Against Russia’s Information War is from The NY Times.
Learning To Spot Fake News: Start With A Gut Check is from NPR.
Italy Takes Aim At Fake News With New Curriculum For High School Students is from NPR.
In Italian Schools, Reading, Writing and Recognizing Fake News is from the NY Times.
Digital Literacy is from Teaching Tolerance.
Civic Online Reasoning is new from The Stanford History Education Group.
Fake It To Make It is an online game about fake news.
The Future of Fake News is from Edutopia.
Excellent questions from the wall of my daughter’s classroom. pic.twitter.com/ntgKHYG9eU
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) December 14, 2017
My ‘fake news list’ went viral. But made-up stories are only part of the problem. https://t.co/8jUYauWH9n
— Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) December 3, 2016
Via @NPR: Stanford Study Finds Most Students Vulnerable To Fake News https://t.co/BrGdppWboE
— Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) December 3, 2016
Folks believe because they want to believe: Fake news works because it taps into basic human instinct https://t.co/9XUBtR35GU
— Jill Tucker (@jilltucker) December 2, 2016
Very good resource for teaching students about fake news and the importance of checking sources properly. https://t.co/w6k3u1Xk7p
— Carl Hendrick (@C_Hendrick) November 21, 2016
NEW: Students Need Help Detecting Fake News. @fbaker w/ key resources.https://t.co/K0wHTOA5vU #medialiteracy @ncte #elachat #sschat #civics pic.twitter.com/5GrwBrTsLC
— MiddleWeb (@middleweb) November 20, 2016
Use This Checklist To Find Out If You’re Looking At Fake News https://t.co/LnAnda6kMH via @CraigSilverman
— Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) December 10, 2016
Turns out it doesn’t work (for democracy) to say students don’t need facts & ‘can just look it up on google.’https://t.co/PXwiPfWMNn
— Doug Lemov (@Doug_Lemov) December 9, 2016
A compliation of advice/recommendations for helping students think critically about fake news (#medialiteracy) https://t.co/KjPO6VG7bi
— Frank W. Baker (@fbaker) December 7, 2016
Want the honest truth about fake news? Use this lesson plan to teach your students not to fall for it. https://t.co/sO05B9MWRT pic.twitter.com/L4i0tcejGw
— KQED Education (@KQEDedspace) December 14, 2016
A perspective from the HE community – How Can Students Be Taught to Detect Fake News and Dubious Claims? – CHE https://t.co/vJpp00TgjS
— Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (@ElyseEA) December 13, 2016
After Comet Ping Pong and #Pizzagate, teachers tackle fake news https://t.co/xEQaDgKa56
— Post Education (@PostSchools) December 12, 2016
Fake news: an insidious trend that’s fast becoming a global problem https://t.co/sYtjRT4KFX
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 12, 2016
How can you distinguish fake news from the facts? The Newseum has resources that can help: https://t.co/r2gOFPyl4R
— Newseum (@Newseum) December 11, 2016
Via @NPR: The Classroom Where Fake News Fails https://t.co/ShiMSdNzDN
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 22, 2016
Joining hands with librarians to safeguard truth https://t.co/qwKGgVbO9L
— Sam Wineburg (@samwineburg) December 27, 2016
In the age of fake news, teachers have more responsibility than ever to teach skepticism, respect for evidence, corroboration, logic.
— Jack Schneider (@Edu_Historian) December 27, 2016
How to Teach High-School Students to Spot Fake News https://t.co/Opz3SksBP9
— Jim Burke (@englishcomp) December 25, 2016
Before ‘Fake News’ Came False Prophecy is from The Atlantic.
Lesson plan: How to teach your students about fake news is from PBS.
News you can use: Infographic walks you through 10 questions to detect fake news is from The Seattle Times.
What I wrote about IB ToK: How I teach my students to be on guard against fake news https://t.co/zMcVyO2Tc4 via @TheWorldPost #IB #IBForAll
— kelleyl (@EduKelley) December 31, 2016
The Smell Test: Educators can counter fake news with information literacy. Here’s how. https://t.co/oosQudLswZ pic.twitter.com/M4dhsLMZDi
— SchoolLibraryJournal (@sljournal) January 1, 2017
my latest: 4 things schools can do to stem the plague of digital misinformation https://t.co/sK2mp88IcN
— Sam Wineburg (@samwineburg) January 4, 2017
Fact-Checking Won’t Save Us From Fake News is from Five Thirty Eight.
An Exercise to Sift for Sources Amid a Blitz of Fake News is from The NY Times.
Well-Regarded News Literacy Site Lets You Create Virtual Classroom For Free Now
Media Lit Connections has published a special issue on ESL and Media Literacy.
Fake videos are on the rise. As they become more realistic, seeing shouldn’t always be believing is from The Los Angeles Times.
Here are the tools that could be used to create the fake news of the future is from The Washington Post.
Photography and Image Manipulation is from The Smithsonian Learning Labs.
A journalistic fix for fake news? A new venture seeks to take on the epidemic. is from The Washington Post.
Depressing Research Study Conclusion Of The Idea: Fake News Is More Popular Than Real News
The BBC IReporter is a new online game from the….BBC that’s designed to help students identify fake news. It doesn’t seem as good as other ones you can find on this list.
Can You Believe Your Own Ears? With New ‘Fake News’ Tech, Not Necessarily is from NPR.
How to Prevent Smart People From Spreading Dumb Ideas is from The NY Times.
Poynter receives $3 million from Google to lead program teaching teens to tell fact from fiction online is from Poynter.
Thinking like a fact checker… shares links to some excellent information literacy resources.
Using Short Video Clips to Teach Media Literacy is from Middleweb.
A Web Tool That Lets People Choose Their Own ‘Sources of Truth’ is from The Atlantic.
Study: “Repeated exposure to false statements can lead people to believe those falsehoods”
Can You Spot the Deceptive Facebook Post? is an interactive quiz from The New York Times.
The News Hour is an online game from NATO (yes, NATO) “designed to help readers identify online misinformation.” Unfortunately, you can only play it if you are logged-on to Facebook, which makes it problematic to use with students at school. You can read more about it at this Forbes article, NATO’s Latest Weapon: A Facebook Game For Fake News Countering.
Why California’s new media literacy law for schools could backfire is by Sam Wineberg, and appeared in The Washington Post. It’s pretty thought-provoking.
Mind Over Media – New Resource for Teaching Propaganda and Media Literacy is a blog post appearing in Richard Byrne’s blog, and shares a new and useful resource.
“ICIVICS” UNVEILS NEW INFORMATION LITERACY GAME
Is This True? A FAKE NEWS DATABASE is from Politico.
Critical News Literacy in Action is from The Mikva Challenge.
NEWSGUARD CREATES CREDIBILITY RATINGS OF NEWS WEBSITES
Like all the Crash Course videos, they talk far too fast, and you’ll want to reduce it to .75, even in non-ELL classrooms. But this one is good:
“LISTEN TO DISCERN” OFFERS USEFUL INFORMATION LITERACY RESOURCES
What Is Fake News and How Can I Spot It? is from Seventeen and offers some excellent advice and tools on online “news.”
USEFUL LIST OF “UNRELIABLE WEBSITES”
I taught my 5th-graders how to spot fake news. Now they won’t stop fact-checking me. is from Vox.
Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy is from CNN.
Google announced that they’ve added media/information literacy lessons to their digital citizenship curriculum.
SEEING ISN’T BELIEVING: The Fact Checker’s guide to manipulated video is a new -and very impressive – Washington Post interactive.
Teach the Techniques of Media Manipulators appeared in Middleweb.
“BAD NEWS GAME” IS SUPPOSED TO TEACH STUDENTS INFORMATION LITERACY
20 Questions To Help Students Think Critically About News is from Teach Thought.
Real Media Literacy: Spotting a Fake Story is from Frank Baker at Middleweb.
Ways to Strengthen Students’ Information-Literacy Skills is the headline of one of my Education Week Teacher columns.
How to Read the News Like a Fact Checker is from Facing History.
NEW CURRICULUM FOR TEACHING ONLINE INFORMATION LITERACY LOOKS FANTASTIC!
Where Do We Get Our News and Why Does It Matter? is an informational literacy lesson from Facing History.
News and Media Literacy Resource Center is new from Common Sense.
Fighting Disinformation Online: A Database of Web Tools is a pretty exhaustive list.
Sifting Through the Coronavirus Pandemic is from Infodemic.
INTERNATIONAL FACT-CHECKING DAY
Bringing fact check information to Google Images is a new feature from Google.
Common Craft Explains Disinformation is from Richard Byrne.
News Radius is supposed to give you the views on different issues from various political perspectives.
Fake news and critical thinking in ELT is from Adaptive Learning in ELT.
To Recognize Misinformation in Media, Teach a Generation While It’s Young is from The NY Times.
Can Your Students Tell the Difference Between Fact and Fiction? is from Ed Surge.
How To Teach Kids Media Literacy is from The HuffPost.
Lesson of the Day: ‘How to Deal With a Crisis of Misinformation’ is from The NY Times Learning Network.
The News Literacy Project has announced NewsLit Nation, a network for educators.
It Seems To Me That This Infographic On “How To Spot Fake News” Could Be Useful In Class
NY TIMES PUBLISHES USEFUL ARTICLE ON MEDIA LITERACY
“The News Evaluator” Is A New Interactive Designed To Help Teach Information Literacy
“HARMONY SQUARE” IS AN ONLINE GAME DESIGNED TO TEACH TEENS ABOUT DISINFORMATION
How to use fake news critically in the classroom is from The British Council.
Teaching About Our Climate Crisis: Combining Games and Critical Thinking to Fight Misinformation is from The American Educator.
Go Viral! is a new online game developed by the University of Cambridge to combat misinformation about COVID. Here’s a video about the game:
GOOGLE UNVEILS FACT-CHECKING RESOURCES
It doesn’t take long to learn how to spot misinformation online, Stanford study finds is from Stanford.
Students (and Many Adults) Can’t Tell Fact From Fiction Online. Here’s How to Help is from Ed Week.
What Fact-Checkers Know About Media Literacy—and Students Should, Too is from Edutopia.
Beware partisan ‘pink slime’ sites that pose as local news is from The Washington Post.
Op-Ed: Schools can help arm Gen Z to fight the misinformation wars – Los Angeles Times https://t.co/RZ9hgxA6CM
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) August 2, 2022
Check out this @KSchulten @NYTimesLearning piece with tips for getting the most out of @MediaLiteracyEd‘s #MediaLitWk, which begins next Monday! @holden @mediawise @ciullalipkin https://t.co/wXmCuzwjp2
— The News Literacy Project (@NewsLitProject) October 20, 2022
😵💫Election season is ♨️right now, & emotions are high, so it’s a perfect time to discuss media literacy!
💻 Here’s an #ELL2point0 graphic from our archives to help.
🤔Are there sites you would add to this list?
📌Also, don’t forget to VOTE.
🔗 https://t.co/Dy3ARLVQlo pic.twitter.com/166sXOFDDY
— 🌍 Michelle Shory 💻 (@michelleshory) October 30, 2022
Check out this article that we published in the Policy Forum of Science! https://t.co/u3uLgSAYQF
In the paper, we outline a case for preparing students to evaluate scientific (mis)information on the internet and we share some strategies and ideas that might help.
— Daniel Pimentel (@danrpimentel) October 27, 2022
Cranky Uncle is a not-very-splash, but effective, information literacy game that you can play in a browser or download as an app. Players learn various common strategies that can be used to manipulate consumers of news.
Talked about the importance of teaching news literacy in schools with @AudieCornish recently. “This past fall, a first-of-its-kind Illinois law requiring all high schools to teach students about media literacy went into effect” https://t.co/9Mndjzaljw
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 8, 2023
Finland is testing new ways to teach students about fake news. Media literacy is part of the national core curriculum starting in preschool. Here’s what other countries can learn from its success. https://t.co/DAHDwl2Cuh
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 11, 2023
CTRL-F is yet another educator resource for teaching information literacy.
Clarity provides links to different news articles on current topics, and rates them according their supposed political perspectives (which may or may not be accurate).
TAKE AN ONLINE TEST TO SEE HOW SUSCEPTIBLE YOU ARE TO MISINFORMATION
A tip for improving students’ digital literacy: Incorporate the videos we made with John Green’s @TheCrashCourse into your instruction. Topics include how to verify claims on social media, search smarter, and use Wikipedia wisely.https://t.co/BRviKpD59W pic.twitter.com/jU3mJVRifi
— Stanford History Education Group (@SHEG_Stanford) September 8, 2023
OpinionGPT is interesting. On just about any topic, you can adjust for different biases, and get an “opinion.”
Hi Larry,
Do check out Mozilla Foundation’s Web Literacy resources – they’re quite good: https://teach.mozilla.org/
Cheers,
–Dave / glean.org
using curation tools, for instance scoop.it, could be a nice way of training students for information literacy.
I will have a presentation on this approach in a meeting in october
a recent presentation at Science&You is on slideshare
best regards
Gilbert