Fake News Quiz

Teaching Kids to Think Critically About News and Avoid Fake Stories

• In October 2016, social media posts and rumors claimed that creepy clowns were planning to attack students across the country, which turned out to be a hoax.
• Many kids across the country are learning to think critically about information they see in the news and on the internet.
• Only 44% of kids feel they can tell real news stories from intentionally wrong or inaccurate "fake news."
• One-third of kids have shared a news story online that they later found out was inaccurate.
• Kids can avoid falling for fake news stories and become better consumers of real news by slowing down and checking the evidence, source, and bias.
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion, as well as between fact and fiction, is crucial for democracy to work.
• Six students from St. Francis International, a Catholic school in Silver Spring, Maryland, said they got most of their news from watching television programs on local or national networks such as Univision.
• The students practice skills they learned from Checkology, a News Literacy Project tool that covers journalistic principles such as fairness, using balanced sources, and the difference between fact and opinion in news and political propaganda.
• Propaganda officials try to win readers or viewers to their side, and opinions are good to read, but facts should not contradict.
• The teacher, Danina Garcia-Fuller, tests her younger students with a website that appears to provide information on an animal called the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, which is entirely made up.
• The lesson is to "double-check the information you're seeing" and "question everything - including things that I say."
• Teaching kids to think critically about news and avoid fake stories is an increasingly important skill at a time when stories can spread lightning-fast, and seemingly anyone can make a website to frame opinions, or outright lies, as facts.

Teaching Kids to Think Critically About News and Avoid Fake Stories

• In October 2016, social media posts and rumors claimed that creepy clowns were planning to attack students across the country, which turned out to be a hoax.
• Many kids across the country are learning to think critically about information they see in the news and on the internet.
• Only 44% of kids feel they can tell real news stories from intentionally wrong or inaccurate "fake news."
• One-third of kids have shared a news story online that they later found out was inaccurate.
• Kids can avoid falling for fake news stories and become better consumers of real news by slowing down and checking the evidence, source, and bias.
• Distinguishing between fact and opinion, as well as between fact and fiction, is crucial for democracy to work.
• Six students from St. Francis International, a Catholic school in Silver Spring, Maryland, said they got most of their news from watching television programs on local or national networks such as Univision.
• The students practice skills they learned from Checkology, a News Literacy Project tool that covers journalistic principles such as fairness, using balanced sources, and the difference between fact and opinion in news and political propaganda.
• Propaganda officials try to win readers or viewers to their side, and opinions are good to read, but facts should not contradict.
• The teacher, Danina Garcia-Fuller, tests her younger students with a website that appears to provide information on an animal called the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, which is entirely made up.
• The lesson is to "double-check the information you're seeing" and "question everything - including things that I say."
• Teaching kids to think critically about news and avoid fake stories is an increasingly important skill at a time when stories can spread lightning-fast, and seemingly anyone can make a website to frame opinions, or outright lies, as facts.