How to Spot Fake News Websites Activity Cards

Equip your students with essential digital literacy skills using our carefully curated set of 15 interactive how to spot fake news websites activity cards. Designed specifically for elementary students, these cards will guide them in identifying and debunking fake news on the internet. Take the first step in combating misinformation and nurturing responsible digital citizens.

Benefits:

• Cultivate Critical Thinking: Foster a generation of critical thinkers who question information sources and make well-informed judgments.
• Digital Literacy: Empower your students with the necessary skills to navigate the internet responsibly and confidently.
• Fact-Checking Proficiency: By practicing with real-life examples, students will gain hands-on experience in fact-checking, a vital skill in today’s digital age.

What’s included:

• 15 ‘How to Spot Fake News’ worksheets
• 15 QR codes
• 15 hyperlinks to each website
• ‘How to Use Cards’ instruction page
• ‘How to Check an Image’ instruction page
• ‘Real or Fake’ reading comprehension text
• Easel activity

Ways you can use this resource:

• E-Safety & digital citizenship lesson
• PSPE Lesson
• Guided reading groups
• Literacy Center or Station
• Computing Center or Station
• Independent reading and research practise
• Small group work
• Whole group work
• Homework activity with parents
• Parent workshop to educate them about online safety

How to teach the students using the cards:
Choose a card for your lesson. I recommend using one card for the whole class to start. Give students around 15-20 minutes to scan the QR code and look at the website. Ask them to work through each point on the checklist and find evidence to support each of their answers.
Come back together as a class and look at the website together. Go through each point on the checklist as a group and discuss how you know the site real/fake.
Once you have gone through the checklist of real and fake features, take a class vote.
After how to use the cards has been modelled to the students, allow them to explore the cards in pairs or independently. Each card should take between 10-15 minutes as students become more familiar with the process of checking.

How to use the cards:

1. Scan the QR Code
2. Look through the site
3. Read the checklist
4. Tick off what you see
5. Count the number of fake vs real clues
6. Verdict: Real or Fake?

• As always with the internet, we cannot control the popup ads which appear on the sites. If the students see something inappropriate in the pop ups, they should tell the teacher and together you X and cross away the pop up. It is important to educate them how to deal with the pop ups so if they encounter them on their own, they know what to do, rather than avoiding all sites with pop ups.*