Can Your Students Recognize Bias? 8 Strategies That Can Help

• Technique 2: Begin with the fundamentals—discuss what faux information really is
• Technique 3: Attempt a faux fact-check exercise
• Technique 4: Train the SIFT methodology
• Technique 5: Construct up their information vocabulary
• Technique 7: Train college students the various kinds of faux information
• Technique 8: Speak about how faux information makes cash

We’ve all seen it: A scholar turns in a paper full of information from Wikipedia or TikTok, and if you ask in the event that they checked their sources, they shrug. Right now’s college students reside on-line, however few have been taught the way to consider the data they discover.

College students falling for faux information isn’t simply occurring in your classroom. A new report from Common Sense Media discovered that 72% of teenagers reported they’ve been misled by faux content material on-line, and 35% shared that AI will make it tougher to belief whether or not the data they see is correct or not. 

It’s clear that media literacy issues, not solely to us however to our college students. So, how can we educate college students the talents to separate truth from fiction? There’s a method for that! (Eight, really!). Get began with these sensible, easy-to-use methods to assist college students spot faux information, consider sources, and develop into extra assured essential thinkers.

Technique 2: Begin with the fundamentals—discuss what faux information really is

Simply because your college students hear the time period “faux information” doesn’t imply they perceive what it means or the way it works. 

Kick off with a easy class dialogue or group exercise. Ask:

• What do you assume faux information is?
• Have you ever ever believed faux information? What occurred?
• What makes faux information harmful?
• What can we do once we’re undecided if one thing’s true?

You should use the Merriam-Webster article on fake news to supply a historic definition and provides some context. The objective right here is to spark consciousness. College students may be shocked by how a lot of their information or content material consumption is formed by issues they by no means cease to query. To maintain constructing college students’ information, we love News Literacy Project’s Daily Do Now Slides. These five-minute bell-ringers are aligned to the Framework for Teaching News Literacy and reinforce information literacy vocabulary and ideas. 

Technique 3: Attempt a faux fact-check exercise

Wish to make issues actual quick? Present college students the spoof web site All About Explorers: Christopher Columbus and ask them to lookup details about him. They’ll rapidly discover wild claims like “Columbus was born in 1951” and understand one thing isn’t proper.

Ask college students:

• What tipped you off?
• Is that this biased or simply false?
• How will you inform the distinction?

This opens the door to conversations concerning the distinction between misinformation (false data shared in error) and disinformation (false data deliberately shared). It additionally makes clear why fact-checking issues. 

Train college students lateral studying, a method skilled fact-checkers use to rapidly spot misinformation. This student-friendly video explains the way it works. We additionally love News Literacy Project’s Checkology, digital classes taught by journalists that information college students by way of real-world examples from social media and information websites, serving to them separate truth from fiction. 

Technique 4: Train the SIFT methodology

Mike Caulfield, a digital literacy skilled and the writer of Verified: How To Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions About What To Believe Online, teaches lecturers the way to introduce the SIFT method to college students, and this simple four-step device is a must-teach. Right here’s how this fact-checking technique works: 

1. Cease – Earlier than you imagine or share, pause. Is that this supply acquainted? Emotional? Outrageous? That’s a sign to decelerate.
2. Examine the supply – Who created this? Do a fast search. Are they credible? Biased?
3. Discover higher protection – Search for different respected sources reporting the identical factor.
4. Hint claims again to the unique – Click on again to the supply, quote, or photograph. See the place it really got here from.

Put up SIFT on an anchor chart in your classroom, or use it as a guidelines anytime your college students have to verify their sources.

Technique 5: Construct up their information vocabulary

Bias. Declare. Proof. Supply. These would possibly sound like textbook phrases, however serving to college students actually perceive them can remodel how they eat media. As soon as youngsters can title what they’re seeing, they’re much less prone to fall for what isn’t true.

Transcend the fundamentals and add in some newer media literacy phrases, particularly ones college students are encountering on social media, which is where teens get most of their news. 

• Algorithm – The behind-the-scenes code that decides what reveals up in your feed. It’s designed to indicate you what you’re more than likely to have interaction with, not essentially what’s balanced or true.
• Clickbait – Headlines meant to seize your consideration with drama or shock. Typically deceptive.
• Deepfake – Movies or audio clips altered with AI to indicate somebody saying or doing one thing they didn’t. Tremendous convincing—and harmful.
• Disinformation – False content material unfold on goal to deceive.
• Misinformation – Incorrect data unfold by individuals who imagine it’s true.
• Echo chamber – An setting the place individuals solely see views that reinforce their very own, typically due to algorithms.
• Generative AI – Instruments like ChatGPT or picture creators that generate new content material, generally mixing details and fiction.
• Sponsored content material – Adverts disguised to appear to be actual information. Train youngsters to ask “Who made this and why?”
• Verification – The behavior of checking to see if one thing is true or reliable.

Create a media literacy phrase wall so these phrases are seen and simply accessible, or contemplate letting college students construct their very own dictionary all year long. 

College students are visible learners, and pictures are highly effective. So are phrase selections.

Evaluate two headlines about the identical story. Or pull up two variations of an article, and ask college students to identify variations in tone, phrase alternative, and picture choice. What’s the affect?

Ask college students:

• How do visuals affect how we really feel?
• What phrases are loaded or emotional?
• Do the articles embody sources or quotes?
• Are key details lacking or spun in a selected route?

This helps them understand that journalism isn’t nearly details, it’s additionally about framing.

Technique 7: Train college students the various kinds of faux information

Not all faux information seems the identical. Assist college students establish:

• Satire – Meant to be humorous or exaggerated, not factual (like The Onion).
• Clickbait – Consideration-grabbing headlines that oversell the story.
• Hyperpartisan information – Strongly biased information that pushes one aspect.
• Invented information – Fully made-up information.
• AI-generated misinformation – Pretend articles, pictures, and even “eyewitness” accounts created with generative AI.

Make it enjoyable: Attempt a faux information scavenger hunt the place college students hunt for one in every of every kind of pretend information and clarify why it suits that class.

Technique 8: Speak about how faux information makes cash

Lots of faux information and biased content material exists for one purpose: revenue. The extra clicks, the more cash. 

Have college students create a trailer or slideshow known as “Pretend Information Is Massive Enterprise.” They will analysis advert income fashions, sponsored content material, and the way faux tales journey quicker than true ones. It’s an important alternative to debate media ethics too.

Serving to college students learn to separate truth from fiction is without doubt one of the most essential expertise we will educate them. The world of data is messy and loud. However with the best instruments, youngsters can be taught to decelerate, ask sensible questions, and resolve for themselves what’s actual, and that’s a ability they’ll use lengthy after they depart our school rooms!

Need extra methods for the way to educate media literacy? Take a look at AI Literacy Guide: How To Teach It, Plus Resources to Help.