Can Your Students Spot Fake News? Here are 71 Links to Help

It's all around us. It's permeated Facebook, Twitter, all social media and the Internet. Yet I have seen adults fall for these hoaxes all the time. It's been hard for me to not say anything when I see these stories repeated and shared daily. Many times I have just referenced snopes.com. Yet people fall for this all the time. What about our students? Are they able to adequately evaluate what they are seeing? As I've mentioned before, when I left my school district after my budget dwindled to zero dollars, they did not replace me. That put the entire student population at risk, because presently the district does not have a single certified media specialist! K-12. No one to teach media literacy. No one there to advise and assist students working on research papers. No one.

Below I have collected a slew of resources to aid teachers and their students with the task of spotting fake news. The articles, guides, lesson plans and videos deal with the importance of evaluating websites. If you have any more to add, please comment below.

UPDATED: 4/19/17

ARTICLES
4 Steps Schools Need to Take To Combat Fake News- Huffington Post

5 Ways to Spot Fake News- from Common Sense Media

The 5 Types of Fakes News- from Huffington Post

6 Ways to Spot Fake News- from Snopes

10 Ways to Spot a Fake News Article- from EasyBib

The Classroom Where Fake News Fails- from NPR

Fake News Fooling Millions- from Scholastic's Up Front Magazine

Fake News Sites to Watch Out For on Facebook

Fighting Fake News- American Libraries

Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites- N.Y. Times

Higher Ed Takes on Fake News Epidemic- from Education Dive

How Photos Fuel the Spread of Fake News

How Savvy Are Your Students? 7 Fake Websites to Really Test Their Evaluation Skills-EasyBib

How to Spot Fake News (and Teach Kids to Be Media Sayvy)- Common Sense Media

Most Students Don't Know When News is Fake, Stanford Study Finds- Wall Street Journal

A News Literacy Tool Kit for a "Post Truth" World- Joyce Valenza's blog

The Real History of Fake News- from The Columbia Journalism Review

The Smell Test: Educators Can Counter Fake New with Information Literacy- SLJ

Students Need Our Help Detecting Fake News- from MiddleWeb

Three Historical Examples of "Fake News"- Scientific American

What are You Doing to Teach Students to Spot Fake News Stories?- by Bill Ferriter

What Stands Between Fake News and Students? Educators- from NEA


GUIDES TO WEBSITE EVALUATION
Misc.
Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources

Credible Sources Count- view a 10-minute interactive tutorial about how to find sites you can trust. EXCELLENT!

EasyBib Website Evaluation Guide

Finding Reliable Information Online- slide presentation from middle school teacher Sean Hinger

How Savvy are Your Students? 7 Fake Websites to Really Test Their Evaluation Skills- EasyBib

*Kathy Schrock
 *The 5 W's of Website Evaluation

 *Critical Evaluation of a Website- high School

 *Critical Evaluation of a Website- middle school

 *Critical Evaluation of a Website- elementary school

Ten Questions for Fake News Detection- infographic checklist

University of Berkeley Library- an excellent tutorial on finding information on the Internet

Website Evaluation Guide- from EasyBib


INFOGRAPHICS

NEWS BIASES CHART by Vanessa Otero

Ten Questions for Fake News Detection- infographic is in PDF form

LESSON PLANS
Brain Pop: Fact and Opinion- interactive fun for the younger kids

Evaluating the Purpose of a Website- from EasyBib

Evaluating Sources in a 'Post-Truth' World: Ideas for Teaching About Fake News- NY Times Lessons

Fake News vs. Real News: Determining the Reliability of Sources- NY Times Learning Network

Fighting Fake News- includes Common Core standards

"He Said, She Said"-Reliable Sources- from School Journalism site

Hoax or No Hoax? Strategies for Online Comprehension and Evaluation- from ReadWriteThink; grades 9-12

Hoax? Scholarly Research? Personal Opinion? You Decide- lesson for high schoolers

How to Teach Your Students About Fake News- from PBS NewsHour; grades 7-9

I Heard it 'Round the Internet: Sexual Health Education & Authenticating Online Information- grades 7-9

Media Literacy and Fake News- from C-SPAN; grade not specified, but probably 9-12



VIDEOS

 

WEBSITES

FactCheck- project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center

Fake News Sites to Watch Out For on Facebook-

Fake News Watch- updates regularly; lists Fake/Hoax Websites, Satire Websites and Clickbait Websites.

Politifact- checking U.S. politics

Museum of Hoaxes- bogus web sites from A to Z

News Literacy Project- assists students in discerning real vs. fake news

Snopes- fact-checking site

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