“Teaching Current Events in the Era of Fake News”

Thanks for attending one of my workshops!

• TAAPS Conference Workshop (TAAPS Presentation)
• Eanes ISD Social Studies Workshop (Eanes ISD Presentation)
• SXSW EDU (SXSW EDU Presentation)

Additional Materials

• Colin Kaepernick lesson materials
• Mini-DBQ: Impact of Social Media
• DBQ: Space Exploration
• DBQ+: Middle East Government + Arab Spring
• DBQ+: Modern Conservatism + Tea Party
• Prism: Students can highlight any text you input and you get visual data; great tool for starting a discussion on a written source!
• Media Bias Chart

More Resources on Current Events in the Classroom

This is a link to my Google Drive that includes every lesson plan or classroom resource I’ve created to link current events to my curriculum, including curriculum connections, writing prompts, and document analysis activities.

My Top Five Resources for Current Events in the Classroom

1. Anti-Social Studies Season 2: I mean, obviously. This is my podcast that covers the historical context of current events (available on this website, iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher).
2. CNN 10: Daily 10-minute videos summarizing major news stories
3. “The Learning Network” (New York Times): Resources for using NY Times articles in the classroom, including “Article of the Day,” news quizzes, and lesson plans linked with articles
4. “Crash Course – Current Events”: The Vlog Brothers (John and Hank Green) occasionally make short videos going over important current events.
5. Teaching with the News (Brown University Choices Program): My favorite resource for current event lessons! Some are offered for free but if your school is willing to pay for the premium resources they are 100% worth it. (Good applications for World Geography and Cultures and other social studies classes.)

Lesson Plans and Teacher Resources

• 50 Ways to Teach with Current Events (New York Times): A compilation of 50 amazing resources, grouped by reading/writing, speaking/listening, games/quizzes, photos/infographics, design/creativity, making connections, and building skills
• Teaching with the News (Brown University Choices Program): My favorite resource for current event lessons! Some are offered for free but if your school is willing to pay for the premium resources they are 100% worth it. (Good applications for World Geography and Cultures and other social studies classes.)
• Anti-Defamation League Lesson Plans: These are fully formed lesson plans centered around difficult current events. They also have versions called “Table Talk” that you can use with family and friends. Amazing resource!
• Strategies for identifying fake news in a high school history classroom (“Real Teaching in an Era of Fake News” by Will Golglazier): Blog post from a high school history teacher with great ideas about incorporating media literacy strategies into content-driven lessons (and even traditional assessments!)
• “Lesson Plan: How to teach your students about fake news” (PBS): short lesson plan for middle and high school with activities to help kids identify fake news
• Common Sense Education: Lessons, reviews, and resources about digital citizenship and edtech

Research and Articles

• “Study: Most Students Cannot Distinguish Fake and Real News” (Wall Street Journal)
• “Stanford researchers find students have trouble judging the credibility of information online” (Stanford Graduate School of Education)

Games!

• Bad News game: This is a fantastic tool for teaching kids how easily people can manipulate fake news for their own gain. It also embeds little challenges to see if kids can detect fake news. Educator info sheet is included!

Is this real or fake news?

• Snopes: The definitive fact-checking site and reference source
• Media Bias Fact Check: I have my students use this to check the bias/perspective of various news sources
• “Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook: Fake News Edition” (“On the Media”, WNYC Studios): Podcast episode with additional resources about identifying fake news
• Media Bias Chat