Four Steps to Fact-Checking
Start by having students complete the quiz in the student chapter Your Fact-Checking Profile. Ask them to share their result and whether they think it is accurate. (If you like, you can have them do this as homework.)
Tell students that you are going to do a quick “refresher” on how to verify information so that they can help their families and correct false or misleading information when they see it. Emphasize that this is just to remind them of things they have most likely already learned.
Finding the Source
Have students watch the video in the student chapter Finding the Source and then go through the chapter’s content with them.
Ask:
- In what situations that step would be more or less useful: when is it easy to follow a claim or story back to its original source?
- When would that be more difficult? (For example, Instagram posts and TikTok videos don’t usually include a link to any claims being made.)
Verifying the Source
Next, have them watch the video in the Verifying the Source student chapter and go through the content.
Ask students how they can tell whether a source is biased or not.
(A biased source starts with what they believe and then chooses or interprets the facts to fit those beliefs. Someone who is actually an expert on something will probably have stronger opinions about it than someone who isn’t – but they’ll be better-informed opinions.)
Checking Other Sources
Now have them watch the video in the Checking Other Sources chapter. Go through the chapter content and ask students why the News tab is more useful for this step than the standard search. (It only shows news sources that really exist—though they may each have their own biases.)
Explain that sometimes if this step doesn’t turn up any results — in other words, if no other sources are covering a story — that’s a sign that you should be skeptical. Point out the value of Wkipedia in identifying consensus (what most people who are expert on a topic think is supported by the evidence) Finally, mention that sometimes it can be useful to limit your search to only sources that you already know are reliable.
Using Fact-Checking Tools
Have students watch the video in the chapter Using Fact-Checking Tools and go through the chapter content.
Ask students what kinds of claims or stories would be easier or more difficult to verify using fact-checking tools. (For instance, a big news story is more likely to be fact-checked; things that happen in Canada are less likely to be fact-checked, because we have fewer fact-checkers.)