October Media Literacy Challenge :: Week 3
Are you a superhero of fake-fighting, or do you need a few sessions of media literacy boot camp?
As the United States ramps up for midterm elections, we’re giving educators the tools they need to elevate students’ news and media literacy skills with the Britannica Digital Learning October Media Literacy Challenge. Every Monday in October, we’ll share new resources and activities that support media literacy skills development in students.
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Shared by the University of Virginia Library, the Source Deck is a great activity to get students evaluating and discussing sources. Educators can easily build a Source Deck around any current events topic and, in this activity, we’re using it to bring together a discussion on fake news and source evaluation.
Fight the Fake: A Source Deck Activity
The Source Deck is something I learned about at a conference several years ago and couldn’t wait to try with a group of students. Shared by the University of Virginia Library, the Source Deck is a great activity to get students evaluating and discussing sources. A Source Deck can easily be built around any current events topic, and I think using this activity to bring together a discussion on fake news and source evaluation is pretty brilliant.
Although you will want to tailor this to include sources available within your library’s database collection, here are a few sample source cards on fake news:
Get the Sample Fake News Source Deck
Click the photo to get your own copy of the deck, then customize it for your class.
Add to this source deck by finding articles from your school or library’s collection of resources, populating it with mostly current articles. Don’t be afraid to throw in a few out of date resources to spark conversation. Also, pulling very current sources from the headlines, from both reputable and questionable sources, is a great way to spark conversation during the evaluation process of this activity.
Before students begin to evaluate the resources you select, discuss the Five W’s of Website Evaluation. Then, have students use the Evaluating Resources Graphic Organizer to work in pairs to evaluate a few of the sources from the source deck. Wrap up the activity by revisiting the Five W’s and how they can be used to evaluate sources and combat fake news, or test your students’ knowledge with Britannica’s Media Literacy Kahoot!
⇒ Media Literacy Kahoot: Evaluating Sources
⇒ Infographic: The Five W’s of Website Evaluation
⇒ Graphic Organizer: Evaluating Resources
About the October Media Literacy Challenge
This month-long activity series will help educators lay a strong foundation for media literacy discussions, share must-have resources with students, explore sources and how to evaluate them, and ultimately put student skills to the test with a next-level scavenger hunt. Will you join our quest to help tweens and teens become well-equipped, critical, and thoughtful consumers of media and news?
edWebinar — Fight Fake News: Media literacy for students
Join the challenge! Mark your calendars for these activity release dates:
- WEEK 3 (October 15) — Fight The Fake: How does your source stack up?
