PBS NewsHour Classroom's partner Student Reporting Labs (SRL) has developed a series of media literacy lessons in partnership with the the Poynter Institute's MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network. These lessons cover ground from understanding deep fakes and intentional misinformation to political partisanship, bias and satire so students can confidently separate fact from fiction and understand the motives behind content posted online, including on social media.
These lessons were made possible with the support of Google.
Lesson plan: "I can’t believe it when I see it!" A primer on spotting misinformation
Students will learn how and when to fact-check in order to prevent the spread of information that is misleading or inaccurate.
Lesson plan: How to fact-check partisan social media posts
Students will learn to identify and fact-check politically motivated claims around the Inflation Reduction Act by reading laterally and upstream and narrow searches to find original congressional documents.
Lesson plan: How to understand statistics and data in the news
Students will learn how misleading statistics and data can spread misinformation and how to fact-check data.
Lesson plan: How to spot manipulated media, from "cheap fakes" to misleading photos
Students will learn how online media can be manipulated to spread misinformation and how to recognize manipulated media.
Lesson plan: How to spot misinformation in long-trusted local news
Students will learn what "pink slime journalism" is, how it can result in biased and partisan misinformation online and how to fact-check news organizations.
Lesson plan: How to identify satire before sharing it as misinformation”
Students will learn how to recognize satirical news sources from legitimate news sources and why satire is effective in communicating an idea.
Lesson plan: Trick or truth? Why social media posts hit the misinformation sweet tooth
Students will learn how to use more effective search phrases and assess the reliability of the search results and why posts that appeal to emotion can lead to the spread of misinformation.
Lesson plan: How to spot manipulated media, from "cheap fakes" to misleading photos
Students will learn how online media can be manipulated to spread misinformation and how to recognize manipulated media.
Lesson plan: Gun laws and book bans -- how to find the missing context
Students will learn how to identify and fact-check social media posts that remove important context from the information to evoke strong emotions.
Lesson plan: How to spot fake screenshots on social media
Students will learn clues to help them identify fake social media screenshots and how fake screenshots impersonating people or organizations make them more likely to spread misinformation.
Lesson plan: How to check online images for context
Students will learn how to know when a social media image should be checked and how to check to make sure it accurately reflects the information in a social media post.
Lesson plan: How to detect deepfakes and avoid disinformation
Students will learn different “deep fake” techniques, how to recognize fake videos made by artificial intelligence and the positive and negative uses of technology.
Lesson plan: Tactics for talking with conspiracy theorists at holiday gatherings
Students will learn what conspiracy theories are, how people are convinced by them and how to have a conversation with family members with different views without it turning confrontational.
Students will learn to recognize “greenwashing,” why businesses use misleading practices and how to be informed consumers.
Lesson plan: Zombie facts -- How to bury misinformation that keeps coming back to life
Students will learn why they should evaluate a post that evokes strong emotions, how to research with effective keywords and how to sort through the search results.
Lesson plan: How to fact-check the "fact" pages on Instagram
Students will learn to identify “fact” pages that often contain misleading information and how to fact-check them.
Lesson plan: The good, the bad and the ugly facts about Wikipedia
Students will learn how to use the site responsibly and check for accuracy and misinformation.
Lesson plan: How to fact-check scientific claims that you see online
Students will learn to identify and evaluate scientific claims and recognize when their social media feeds become an echo chamber.
Lesson plan: How to separate fact from fiction in a new era of artificial intelligence
Students will learn how ChatGPT works, why it could spread misinformation, and how to identify media made by artificial intelligence.
Lesson plan: How to identify show-off ‘performative’ posts on social media
Students will learn to evaluate bias in online content used for personal gain or popularity.
Lesson plan: How to analyze climate change stories online
Students will learn to evaluate climate change claims on social media and go through search engine results for the best sources to verify or debunk the claims.
Lesson plan: How to throw cold water on internet conspiracy theories
Students will learn what conspiracy theory is, why people are influenced by them and how to fact-check them.
Lesson plan: The deceitful practice of quoting someone out of context
Students will learn how manipulated quotes can spread conspiracies and how to "read upstream" to better assess facts.
Lesson plan: Three types of manipulated video used to spread misinformation
Students will learn how video is manipulated to spread misinformation, how to recognize a manipulated video and how to fact-check.
Lesson plan: What to do when "trusted sources" share misinformation
Students will learn how to fact-check information from experts and how to use lateral reading.
Lesson plan: How lateral reading helps debunk sensational claims
Students will learn how social media posts can cause the spread of misinformation and how to verify or debunk claims.
Lesson plan: How to detect ads disguised as "helpful" news stores
Students will learn when a “news story” may be an ad for a product or service and how they’re made to seem credible.
Lesson plan: Debunking Denver Airport conspiracies
Students will learn how to debunk a conspiracy theory.
Lesson plan: How social media algorithms create echo chambers
Students will learn how algorithms work, how algorithms can create echo chambers and what confirmation bias is.
Lesson plan: "AI Ian" shows you how not to be duped by AI technology
Students will learn how to not be fooled by AI technology by identifying computer-generated speech or imagery and how to track it to its original source.
Fill out this form to share your thoughts on Classroom’s resources. Sign up for NewsHour Classroom’s ready-to-go Daily News Lessons delivered to your inbox each morning.
