Fake Your Own News

• Preparation

  Learning Progression

  In this lesson, learners will:

  1. Discuss the emotional impact of fake news
  2. Break down the components and features of fake news
  3. Remix anad create fake news
  4. Rate their fellow learners' efforts and discuss their experiences
  5. Reflect on their learning

  Scaffolding and Resources

  In our last lesson, Legit-O-Meter, learners developed skills to critically evaluate news sources and to spot misinformation. In this lesson, learners can further hone their critical evaluation skills by exploring the strategies used to create misinformation and by deconstructing misinformation.

  The following are some additional activities to help your learners further develop their evaluation skills to deal with fake news.

  • PBS NewsHour Fake News Lesson plan
  • KQED Fake News Lesson plan

  The following are some first person accounts from people who have created fake news and their motivations

  • NPR Interview with a fake news creator
  • New York Times profiles the fake news creation process

  Preparation Instructions and Tips

  Print out the Emoji flashcards for your learners. You can use either the online or print versions of the worksheets depending on your needs.

  Select an article, or a batch of articles, for learners to engage with and remix in the lesson

  • Use a pre-populated batch from the Legit-O-Meter lesson. See the Legit-O-Meter article batches for ideas.
  • Or create your own batch. See the Legit-O-Meter article selection template for ideas.

  Article Selection Guidelines

  • Pick a topic – Select a topic that is debated, though also appropriate for your learning community. You can also try to pick a topic that has already generated fake news coverage, such as stories about climate change or sports scandals. You can use topics and articles from the Legit-O-Meter activity here, or select a new topic to use.
  • Select your articles – Select articles that are reputable and credible for your learners to remix into misinformation. And remember, you can contact your school or local public library if you need help selecting sources.
  • Tip - For this activity you can assign groups of learners the same article to remix or give each group different articles from a common theme, such as a sports controversy
  • Tip - Consider going local with this activty and have your learners engage with articles that report on things in the local community. Misinformation often targets issues that people care about, and local issues can have the potential to inspire an emotional reaction. Check with your school or a local librarian for help selecting local news articles!

  Facilitation Tips

  • This lesson includes a main activity and an additional, optional activity. The optional activity is more advanced and can work as an activity for a separate follow-up class or as an activity extension for a longer class period (such as a 90 minute class period)
  • This lesson can work well as a group activity that can encourage collaboration, discussion, and teamwork.
  • Test out X-Ray Goggles to familiarize yourself with the tool. You can use X-Ray Goggles for the online version of this activity. If you are in a situation without the needed technology, you can run this activity offline with paper versions of the worksheets.
  • Try completing the Fake Your Own News worksheets on your own first
  • Instructors can customize this activity by determining how to divide learners into groups and how many articles or topics to use for the Fake Your Own News activity

  Vocabulary

  • Bias - From Legit-O-Meter, we learned that bias means to be in favor of or against an idea, issue, etc. Bias can sometimes make a person more or less likely to believe information.
  • Demographic group - A segment of a population with shared characteristics, such as age or income

• Introduction

  15 minutes

  Two Lies and a Truth Game - 5 minutes

  • Have learners divide into small groups (4-5 learners)
  • Explain how the game works - 1 learner in the group will tell two lies and a truth and the rest of the group will try to guess which is the truth
  • Have learners play

  Opening discussion - 10 minutes

  Discussion questions

  • What strategies did people use to fool others with their lies? How did you feel about lying or being lied to?
  • Think back to the Legit-O-Meter activity - what strategies did fake news and misinformation use to trick or manipulate people?
  • What are some reasons that people might believe misinformation?
  • What are reasons that someone would create fake news?

  Introduce the Fake Your Own News activity

  • Emphasize that misinformation and fake news often try to use emotional appeals in bad ways to fool people.
  • Emphasize that people can make money off of successful fake news stories (when stories go viral they can make money) and that fake news stories can have dangerous real world consequences.

  Setting up X-Ray Goggles - Have your learners follow the steps on the main X-Ray Goggles site to install X-Ray Goggles and try out a sample activity.

• Online Activity

  25 minutes

  Instructions

  • Have learners remain in their groups
  • Learners use the web address generated by the instructor to access their online worksheet and their assigned article
  • See all Mission:Information materials, organized by lesson, in this Mission:Information Google Drive Folder. Please use the links below to make a copy of the online worksheets which are in Google Forms.
  • Fake Your Own News online worksheets - Worksheet 1 and Worksheet 2. Note that these links will take you to a login screen. Login with a Google account (any Google Education account will work) and then confirm that you wish to make a copy when prompted.
  • Groups will open their assigned article in X-Ray Goggles
  • Groups will use the guided worksheet to remix their article in X-Ray Goggles and create a fake news article that meets an assigned emotional goal. Note that instructors can repeat emotional goals depending on the number of learners and groups in the class. Groups can be assigned the following goals:
  1. Make readers angry
  2. Make readers sad
  3. Make readers afraid
  4. Make readers laugh
  • Groups will try to inspire that emotion in a large number of their classmates in order to fool them with false information. Their classmates will get to vote on the articles using emojis
  • The more flashcard votes a group gets, the more “successful” their fake news article is, and the more money they make.

  Online Activity Extension

  30 minutes

  Use this activity for longer class periods, as an optional extension, and/or with more advanced learners.

  • Have learners remain in their groups and work with the same article
  • Introduce learners to the second Fake Your Own News worksheet which gives learners a target demographic group instead of an emotional goal. Note that instructors can include other demographic groups of their choosing and instructors can repeat demographic groups depending on class size.
  • Discussion prompts: Why might people use demographic groups? What are the implications of grouping people together in demographic groups? What are the implications (including ethical) or targeting information at demographic groups?
  • Target demographic groups include the following:
  1. Millennials - a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century
  2. Baby Boomers - a person born in the years following World War II, when there was a temporary increase in the birth rate.
  3. Silicon Valley tech company employees - people employed at tech companies, like Twitter or Uber, located in northern California
  4. Rust Belt residents - people who live in a region of the US that includes the upper Midwest. This region has suffered an economic decline in recent years.
  • Groups use the web to conduct basic research on their target demographic group to determine some of their interests and concerns
  • Groups use the guided worksheet to remix their assigned article to appeal to their assigned demographic group

• Offline Activity

  25 minutes

  Instructions

  • Have learners remain in their small groups
  • See all Mission:Information materials, organized by lesson, in this Mission:Information Google Drive Folder.
  • Instructors will give each group a print article and a print worksheet
  • Groups will fill out a guided worksheet that walks them through creating a fake news story that meets an assigned emotional goal. Note that instructors can repeat emotional goals depending on the number of learners and groups in the class. Groups can be assigned the following goals:
  1. Make readers angry
  2. Make readers sad
  3. Make readers afraid
  4. Make readers laugh
  • Groups will try to inspire that emotion in a large number of their classmates in order to fool them with false information. Their classmates will get to vote on the articles using emojis
  • The more flashcard votes a group gets, the more “successful” their fake news article is

• Reflection and Assessment

  10 minutes

  Closing Discussion

  • Have groups share their work.
  • Other groups will vote on how the articles made them feel with emoji flashcards
  • Share how many flashcard votes and money each group earned. Then show them an example of a real fake news story and its consequences. Example - False coverage in the New York Times on chemical weapons in Iraq which helped strengthen public and political support for the 2003 invasion. You can find more examples of fake news stories and their consequences at sites like Snopes, Fact Check.org, and PolitiFact.
  • Learners individually complete a brief reflection prompt on the activity.

  Reflection questions for learners

  • What insights did you gain into how fake news is created?
  • How did today’s activities make you feel?
  • What strategies can you use to make sure you aren’t fooled by fake news?
  Next activity→Run the Presses