Media Literacy - How to Spot Fake News
Media Literacy: How to Spot Fake News
Lesson duration is: 50 minIntroduction
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Media Literacy: How to Spot Fake News
Spotting misinformation isn't just about basic fact-checking; it's about breaking students' passive consumption habits and training active, critical verification under real-world conditions.
This resource cuts through viral sensationalism to provide practical evaluation frameworks, turning instinctual scrolling into disciplined digital analysis.
What is 'fake news'?
This open-ended prompt shifts students from passively accepting media definitions to actively evaluating the boundary between deliberate disinformation, satire, and sensationalist reporting in Media Literacy.
Stretch: Challenge students to justify whether clickbait headlines qualify as 'fake news' or merely aggressive marketing, citing a real-world news example to support their reasoning.
Device-Free: Run a quick think-pair-share where students write their 10-word definition on mini-whiteboards and hold them up simultaneously to identify common class criteria.
Real or Fake?
The following questions are based on widely circulated news stories. You need to decide whether they are real - or fake news!
Information slide to set the next activity.
Some of the examples may be sensitive so please review and hide/alter as required.
Tupac is alive and well and living in Cuba
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
Tupac Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on 7 September 1996 and died six days later. The official coroner’s report confirms this. There is no credible evidence he is alive.
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
Conkers must be played with safety goggles in primary schools because of Health and Safety
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
There was no nationwide ban. One isolated school used goggles during a teacher demonstration for safety reasons, and the story was exaggerated by the press.
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
Mass Exodus of Millionaires Leaving the UK
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
This story was based on flawed data from Henley & Partners, misinterpreting LinkedIn profiles.
In fact, fewer than 1% of wealthy people emigrated—far from an “exodus” .
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
Birmingham City Council banned Christmas and replaced it with ‘Winterval’ to avoid offending non-Christians
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
In 1997–1998, Birmingham City Council used the term 'Winterval' as a marketing brand for a series of winter events, including Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, and Chinese New Year.
Christmas was never banned. In fact, Christmas lights, carol services, and references to Christmas were prominent in the city's events and advertising.
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
5G caused Covid-19
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
This was scientifically debunked by public health bodies. 5G is non-ionising radiation and cannot transmit viruses.
https://fullfact.org/health/5G-towers-humans-animals-plants/
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
Nurseries in the UK have to sing 'Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep' to be politically correct
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
In 2006, a nursery in Oxfordshire encouraged children to invent their own versions of nursery rhymes to promote creativity and inclusion.
One child came up with “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep”, and staff celebrated the creativity.
Some staff used both “black” and “rainbow” versions during circle time.
No official ban was ever in place, and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is still used.
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
Migrants given free 5-Star hotels while veterans sleep on streets
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
Some asylum seekers were temporarily placed in budget hotels due to housing shortages during COVID. The 5-star claim was false, and veterans also receive targeted support.
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
The Southport killer was an asylum seeker
REAL
FAKE
This true or false multiple-choice format forces students to rapidly scrutinise headline markers, flushing out common misconceptions about what makes a news story legitimate versus mere sensationalism.
Stretch: Challenge students to rewrite the 'false' headline to make it structurally sound and unbiased, justifying which emotive or clickbait words they chose to remove.
Device-Free: Read the headlines aloud and have students vote 'true' or 'false' using a simple thumbs up or thumbs down, pausing to ask one student from each side to defend their choice.
THE FACTS
What Happened: A false name (“Ali al-Shakati”), religion, and country of origin were circulated on platforms like X within hours of the attack on children in Southport.
Real Truth: The attacker was a British citizen named Axel Rudakubana, not an asylum-seeker, but the rumours triggered violent riots across the U.K. and stoked misdirected hatred against innocent people.
Why It Matters: Demonstrates how rapidly misinformation spreads and fuels hate, prompting MPs to seek stricter online safety rules.
This slide grounds the core analysis by deconstructing the misleading elements of the headline, providing students with the essential factual context required to recognise how information was manipulated.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify the specific cognitive bias this headline originally exploited, citing a similar real-world story from recent media coverage to support their analysis.
Device-Free: Display the factual breakdown on the main display and ask students to annotate printed copies of the original headline using highlighters to mark exactly where the truth diverges from the clickbait.
Can you think of any other examples of 'fake news'?
This open-ended prompt shifts students from passive listening to active, deeper evaluation by asking them to identify and interrogate real-world cases of media manipulation beyond standard textbook examples.
Stretch: Challenge students to categorize their example as either deliberate disinformation or unintended misinformation, justifying their reasoning with specific evidence of author intent.
Device-Free: Conduct a rapid pair-share where students pitch their example to a partner, who must challenge its authenticity using two verification questions before recording it on a mini-whiteboard.
How is fake news damaging?
This activity builds a collaborative vocabulary bank highlighting the societal and political consequences of misinformation, drawing out students' prior awareness of the real-world harm fake news causes.
Stretch: Challenge students to select the most significant impact term from the generated cloud and justify why it poses a greater threat to democratic processes than the others.
Device-Free: Give each student three sticky notes to write key impact words on, then have them stick them on a central wall to collaboratively group them into thematic categories.
Why do you think individuals and some news organisations push fake news?
This word cloud task prompts students to pool their understanding of underlying motives—such as financial gain, political influence, or engagement farming—building a collaborative vocabulary bank around media incentives.
Stretch: Challenge students to select one motive from the generated pool and justify whether political agenda or financial profit presents a greater threat to editorial integrity.
Device-Free: Have students write their top motive on a mini-whiteboard and hold it up simultaneously, grouping common themes across the room to create a human frequency map.
How can you spot fake news?
This open-ended prompt shifts students from passive media consumption to active, deeper evaluation by requiring them to explicitly articulate concrete verification techniques for spotting fake news.
Stretch: Challenge students to evaluate which single verification check (such as domain analysis, reverse image search, or lateral reading) is most reliable, justifying their choice with a real-world example.
Device-Free: Run a quick pair-share where students write three verification checks on mini-whiteboards and rank them in order of reliability before comparing their top criteria with the rest of the class.
Top Tips to Spot Fake News
Deliberately used made up exaggerated headlines for the gif. The unintentionally Orson Welles lookalike is an AI fake news vendor!
Top Tips to Spot Fake News
Very pleased with LessonUp's AI tool with 'Pladimir Vutin' here! If you haven't used it yet give it a try!
Top Tips to Spot Fake News
It really is called the CRAAP test! Also comedy exaggerated headlines in the gif.
Top Tips to Spot Fake News
The classic Trump/Pokemon card collection fake image!
Top Tips to Spot Fake News
The animations shouldn't take long to load in!
What should you do before sharing information?
Think before you share.
Post it immediately after reading.
Only share if it's from a friend.
Share it if it looks interesting.
This multiple-choice check flushes out common misconceptions about online sharing habits by testing students' structural understanding of the essential verification steps required before circulating news.
Stretch: Challenge students to evaluate which distractor option represents the most common real-world mistake people make on social media, justifying why impulse sharing remains so pervasive.
Device-Free: Read the question and options aloud, asking students to vote by holding up cards lettered A–D or writing their chosen option on mini-whiteboards along with a one-word justification.
Why is checking the author important?
To find their personal opinions.
To see their social media accounts.
To verify their credibility.
To check their popularity.
This multiple-choice diagnostic targets common student oversights around source provenance, verifying whether learners can distinguish genuine subject expertise from authoritative-sounding bias.
Stretch: Challenge students to find an anonymous online post and evaluate whether a lack of clear attribution completely invalidates its claims, citing specific corroborating evidence.
Device-Free: Read the prompt and options aloud, having students hold up mini-whiteboards showing their chosen answer alongside a single keyword explaining their rationale.
What should you do with clickbait headlines?
Share it immediately.
Believe it without question.
Read the full article.
Ignore it completely.
This multiple-choice prompt targets common impulsive scrolling behaviours, testing whether students can identify deliberate emotional manipulation in clickbait and apply disciplined verification steps before reacting or sharing.
Stretch: Challenge students to locate a recent sensationalised headline online and rewrite it using neutral, objective language, justifying which specific sensationalised terms they edited out.
Device-Free: Read three sample headlines aloud and ask students to hold up mini-whiteboards displaying 'Clickbait' or 'Legitimate', calling on selected students to explain the structural red flags they spotted.
What should you check first about a source?
Does it have a catchy headline?
Is it a reliable news outlet?
Is it trending on social media?
Is it a popular blog?
This multiple-choice check verifies students' structural understanding of source evaluation, flushing out common misconceptions that clean web design or high follower counts equate to genuine editorial credibility.
Stretch: Challenge students to apply lateral reading to evaluate a domain's extension and publication history, justifying whether the source maintains genuine editorial transparency.
Device-Free: Read the prompt and options aloud, having students hold up mini-whiteboards showing their chosen answer alongside a key term explaining why that verification check takes priority.
What does CRAAP stand for?
Context, Reliability, Authorship, Astuteness, People.
Consistency, Relation, Actuality, Availabilty, Presuppositions.
Cheapness, Roles, Acuity, App-based, Preventable.
Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose.
This multiple-choice diagnostic tests whether students can accurately recall the core pillars of the CRAAP test, verifying their structural understanding of standard source evaluation frameworks.
Stretch: Challenge students to select one pillar of the CRAAP acronym and explain how ignoring it could lead a reader to accept a biased news article as fact.
Device-Free: Write the CRAAP acronym vertically on the whiteboard and ask students to write what each letter stands for on mini-whiteboards before holding them up to check consensus.
Help Others to Spot Fake News
Older relatives are particularly vulnerable to fake news.
Articles and advertising are often aimed at fears and concerns of senior citizens
Use your knowledge to advise them!
This slide contextualises the real-world social application of media literacy, examining how generational differences in digital media consumption leave certain demographics particularly vulnerable to online misinformation.
Stretch: Challenge students to draft a practical, non-confrontational verification guide tailored for older relatives, justifying why empathetic communication is more effective than direct correction.
Device-Free: Conduct a two-minute paired role-play where one student acts as a supportive relative explaining how to double-check a dubious social media link using three simple verification steps.
How could you check that this article is fake?
This open-ended prompt shifts students from passive reading to active, deeper evaluation by forcing them to systematically scrutinise a complete article for structural red flags, factual inconsistencies, and hidden bias.
Stretch: Challenge students to select one flagged claim from the text and perform lateral reading to cross-reference it against two independent, reputably sourced news outlets, justifying their findings.
Device-Free: Distribute printed copies of a news article and have students work in pairs to annotate suspicious quotes, missing attributions, and emotive language using highlighters.
Spotting Fake news
This slide breaks down key structural red flags within an article layout, providing students with a foundational checklist to identify manipulated formatting, missing metadata, and dubious source indicators.
Stretch: Challenge students to analyse a dubious news layout and rank its visual red flags in order of severity, justifying which marker is most deceptive to an untrained reader.
Device-Free: Display the article on the main board and have student volunteers physically circle layout hotspots with dry-wipe markers while explaining their rationale to the class.
Spotting Fake news
Spotting Fake news
Continued focus.
What patterns do you notice with fake news?
This open-ended prompt shifts students from passive media consumption to active, deeper evaluation by asking them to identify and articulate recurring structural patterns across deceptive online content.
Stretch: Challenge students to select one recurring pattern, such as emotional priming or outrage bait, and justify how social media algorithms systematically amplify that specific structure.
Device-Free: Run a quick carousel task where student pairs write one observed pattern on a mini-whiteboard and swap with a neighbouring pair to add a real-world example supporting it.
Fill in the blanks
Don't take everything you read at face value.
Always check the information - where has it come from? Is it a reputable source? Who has written it?
Find the story on different sites
Have images been manipulated or are they A.I.?
Is someone trying to make you believe a lie for a reason?
Don't be manipulated
This fill-in-the-blanks exercise focuses on technical vocabulary retrieval, testing whether students can accurately identify key terminology related to cognitive bias and psychological manipulation in online media.
Stretch: Challenge students to select two missing terms and write a concise summary explaining how digital platforms exploit these exact mechanisms to retain user attention.
Device-Free: Project the cloze passage on the main screen and have students write the missing target vocabulary on mini-whiteboards before holding them up simultaneously.
Don't be manipulated
Don't take everything you read at face value.
Always check the information - where has it come from? Is it a reputable source? Who has written it?
Find the story on different sites
Have images been manipulated or are they A.I.?
Is someone trying to make you believe a lie for a reason?
Information slide with revealing bullet points.
What are you going to do differently going forward?
This definitive wrap-up slide prompts independent reflection on the core learning goal, requiring students to consolidate their learning and commit to concrete behavioural changes in how they verify digital information moving forward.
Stretch: Challenge students to identify which personal cognitive bias or scrolling habit they find hardest to overcome, justifying how their new verification routine will directly mitigate it during daily social media use.
Device-Free: Have students write their personal 'media rule' on a sticky note and attach it to the exit door as a physical exit pass before leaving the room.
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