Fake news reaches more people and spreads more quickly than the truth (Science, 2018) and is believed around 75% of the time (Silveman & Singer-Vine, 2016), meaning millions of people may have been fooled by fake news (Allcot & Gentzkow, 2017). It is vital to help people to develop skills to recognise fake news as they are our first line of defence against fake news.

Each session pack includes:

  • A set of slides presenting the activities we designed to help young people to recognise and challenge fake news.
  • A short teacher guide with rough timings and materials you may need for the session.

We recommend that you work through all sessions in the order they are presented as our research evaluated the impact of the project based on following the full programme, but you can of course dip in and out and use sessions which are most important and timely for your students. Each session should last 50 minutes to 1 hour and includes a starter, main activity and closing activity. All include a short video from an influencer to contextualise learning. The sessions are designed for learners aged around 11-13.

Sessions

  • Session 1: Fake News This session will introduce young people to the topic of fake news and help them develop the skills to recognise fake news.
  • Session 2: Fake Photos This session will help young people develop skills in recognising when photos may have been edited, reflect on why people might edit photos and the impact this can have.
  • Session 3: Fake People This session will focus on fake news in social media. This includes spotting fake accounts, fake news and staying safe online.
  • Session 4: Fake Stories (Conspiracies) This session will explore conspiracy theories, why people might believe them and how to spot them online.
  • Session 5: Fake Videos In this session we will explore fake videos, giving young people the tools to learn what to look for on videos which may not be real and the impact this can have.
  • Session 6: Keeping it Real In this session, young people will bring together their knowledge from all the different sessions to create resources to help teach people younger than them about fake news.

You can also download the complete set of files here.