To protect our students in the online world, it is crucial to teach about digital literacy. Digital literacy protects students against fake news and the dangers that come along with fake news. To teach about fake news and its dangers within the middle years curriculum I think the best approach is to take a lighthearted approach towards fake news. Exposing kids in the grade 6-9 range to real fake news may be damaging at this age, and it would be much more beneficial to teach about this topic in a less serious matter. To do this, I would first split the lesson up into three miniature lessons as to not be an overwhelming amount of information. I would start with this ted talk video on how to choose your news followed by a class discussion on the video. https://youtu.be/q-Y-z6HmRgI
I would follow this up the next day with a video by the same channel titled “Can you spot the problem with these headlines?” This video I would use to not only start a great class discussion but also to give my students a feeling for where they are in terms of recognizing these fake news titles. https://youtu.be/w1CeRpfByG8
For my last resource I would use to move from a discussion on fake news specifically to a more broad topic of logical thinking as a whole I would use Lessons in Critical Thinking edited by Peter Pappas. This resource relates back to the topic of fake news while also challenging students to take what they have learned and apply this logical thinking to many subjects. https://peterpappas.com/2017/05/fight-fake-news-with-critical-thinking.html
Hi thanks for sharing! I think that middle years is such a unique age range to teach with the developmental stages that the students are in. I think this is really the age group that we need to be targeting the most about Digital Literacy so that they can be safe online!