5th Grade Media Studies Fake News Unit

I see my fifth grade media studies class four days a week for 11 weeks. For the last three weeks of the marking period, we take part in a fake news unit and complete a few projects. First, students learn about fake news by participating in a fake news video game where they become news reporters responsible for spreading information in a widespread format from the BBC and then reflect on their learning by completing an assignment.

Next, students take their knowledge a step further by writing their own article based on their favorite book and are required to include "trustworthy" sources in their articles. After they complete this, students received a numbered file folder and we set up a gallery walk. Students spent five minutes at each "station", read the articles their peers wrote, and gave feedback on a post-it. Underneath the article is a taped mini poster with "talk moves" on it that helped guide students' process of giving helpful feedback.

Finally, students received their feedback and reflected on how trustworthy their sources actually were as closed the unit with this activity. xoxo