International
Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
April 2
2017
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
A critical mind is an essential tool for all ages,
especially at a time of massive online misinformation.
Introduce your class to the basics of fact-checking
and help them navigate through an ocean of
information, rumors, hoaxes and lies.
(Estimated time required: 75 minutes)
For more on International Fact-Checking Day visit
factcheckingday.com
Structure
of the lesson
A. News consumption
4
B. News discussion
5
C. Watch
6
D. News annotation
7
E. Basic fact-checking
tools
11
F. Produce
13
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
4
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
A.
News
consumption
Duration: 10 minutes
1. Briefly explain the difference
between mandatory and voluntary
voting systems. (Countries with
mandatory voting require all
eligible voters to vote – or face a
penalty. Voluntary systems do not.
You can find some historical
background on the topic here:
http://www.oldsite.idea.int/vt/comp
ulsory_voting.cfm)
Give each student the handout
(available after page 15 of this
guidebook) and ask them to take
a personal stand on this topic.
2. After they have expressed their
opinion, ask them to choose one
article among the three listed below
the survey. One is a truly neutral
story with data and sources. The
other two are made-up articles
expressing polar opposite opinions
on mandatory voting without
presenting any data or sources.
The goal of this exercise is for each
student to assess how their own
opinions influence them in making
decisions about the
content they share.
The personal position of each
student is irrelevant. The important
thing to analyze is how and
whether their position prevented
them from recognizing which article
was substantiated by facts.
After the students have read the
articles and chosen one they prefer,
lead a discussion fleshing out the
reasons for the decision. In this
handbook you will find questions to
facilitate the debate.
5
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
B.
News
discussion
Duration: 10 minutes
Lead a short discussion, on the
reasons behind the choices made
by individual students.
The idea is to trigger a debate
on how our pre-existing ideas
and beliefs push us towards
sharing news or information that
is consistent with them, without
double-checking their validity or
content. The message of this activity
is that it is important to read the
content before sharing and decide if
it is based on solid and reliable data.
Set of questions suggested:
- Why did you choose to share
that article?
- Did you read the full article before
answering the question?
- What do you think the strongest
argument made by that article is?
- Do you believe this article to be
truthful? Why?
- Would you use this article as a
source for a school assignment?
- If you had a different position,
would you have shared that same
article?
- Do you think this article is
persuasive to people who don’t
have that position? Why?
6
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
C.
Watch
Duration: 2 minutes
Show students the short animated video that explores the difference
between facts and opinions, news and hoaxes (available at factcheckingday.
com/lessonvideo from March 27). It may be worth to ask either at this stage,
or when looking at the tools to fact-check online information, the general
questions suggested at the start of this lesson plan by the New York Times
Learning Network. goo.gl/gCQ6hm
7
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
D.
News
annotation
Duration: 10 minutes
Draw a distinction between opinion
and fact.
What is a fact? A fact is something
that can be checked and backed
up with evidence, e.g. In 2017,
“Moonlight” was awarded with the
Oscar for best picture. We can
check these details by looking at
Oscar records.
A fact can be shared with its
source (i.e. according to the
website of the Academy Awards,
“Moonlight” won in 2017) or
without.
What is an opinion? An opinion is
based on a belief or point of view. It
is not based on evidence that can
be checked, e.g. La La Land is
better movie than Moonlight. Some
people might think it is the opposite.
Ask the students to go through the
articles and highlight in different
colors the parts that are opinions,
the parts that are facts with a
source and those that seem like
facts but don’t mention sources.
Ask the class to share their
findings, with one student
presenting each annotated
excerpt.
(On the next page, find the
articles annotated by us: yellow
denotes opinions, orange
indicates a fact without source,
green is fact with a source.)
8
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
22 countries where voting
is mandatory
News 1
Many of these countries are from Latin America and most of them have a
minimum voting age of 18 years.
Despite all of the U.S. media’s fanfare about Tuesday’s midterm elections,
most eligible voters likely will duck their civic duties on Election Day.
Historically, nearly one-third fewer U.S. voters show up to the polls during
a midterm election than a presidential election.
However, 22 nations around the world make voting mandatory for its
citizens, often starting at age 18, according to the CIA World Factbook.
Several of these countries are in Latin America with a handful allowing
citizens to age out of compulsory voting by as early as age 65. In Australia,
failure to vote can result in a $20 fine, The New York Times reported.
Altogether, an estimated 744 million people live in nations with compulsory
voting laws.
Country
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Congo, Dem. Rep.
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
Greece
Honduras
Lebanon
Luxembourg
Mexico
Nauru
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Singapore
Thailand
Uruguay
Age of
Eligibility for
Mandatory Voting
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
21
18
18
20
18
18
18
21
18
18
Population
43,024,374
22,507,617
10,449,361
10,631,486
202,656,788
77,433,744
4,755,234
10,349,741
15,654,411
86,895,099
10,775,557
8,598,561
5,882,562
520,672
120,286,655
9,488
3,608,431
6,703,860
30,147,935
5,567,301
67,741,401
3,332,972
9
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
In countries with a voluntary
voting system, the quality of
life is better.
News 2
Countries with voluntary voting do much better
on quality-of-life indexes than those that have a
compulsory voting system.
The quality of life in countries with voluntary voting is much higher than in
countries that have a compulsory voting system.
It is an indisputable reality. Not being forced to vote is better for citizens’
quality of life. The fact that most Latin American countries — often
unstable democracies — have a compulsory voting system is evidence
enough that the rest of the world should not emulate this system.
Countries with voluntary voting experience overrall better quality of life,
lower corruption levels and larger GDPs. The facts show that a voluntary
voting system is far better than a compulsory one, and changing from
voluntary to mandatory could be a huge mistake.
10
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
The voluntary voting system
will sink the world into chaos
With a compulsory voting
system Trump would never
have won.
News 3
Voluntary voting is failing democracies. Suffice it to note that even in a
strong republic like the United States an undemocratic abomination like
Donald Trump was able to win an election.
The statistics show this clearly. If the American presidential vote had been
compulsory, higher turnout among non-white voters would have reversed
the result at the polls.
The same was true with the Brexit referendum in the UK. It is time
for more countries to review the voluntary vote system before their
democracies get subverted by charismatic authoritarians.
11
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
E.
Basic fact-checking tools
Duration: 20 minutes
In the second half of the class,
go through some practical steps
students can take to find out if a
story is genuine or a hoax. Below
you can find one example, but feel
free to adapt the process to a fake
news story that is more relevant to
your students.
1. Start from this alarmist
Facebook post about Californian
fish contaminated by Fukushima
radiation. Note the “THIS” in
all-caps.
https://goo.gl/TX4XYq
2. Follow the link of the story.
You land on an “alternative news”
website with no about section.
https://goo.gl/ioqxHh
3. Launch a reverse image search
on Google Images. The second
result you get is from Snopes, a
popular debunking website.
https://goo.gl/SpZ8Mk
4. Snopes has a detailed story
explaining why that map has
nothing to do with Fukushima
radiation. It has been realized after
the Tohoku earthquake in March
2011 and shows the wave height of
the tsunami that followed. So, it’s a
tsunami map, not a radiation map.
https://goo.gl/sfe5Wl
5. The caption of the second image
is not correct, either. If you launch
another reverse image search,
the first results you get are about
the Great Pacific garbage patch
and not “Radioactive Debris from
Fukushima approaching North
America’s western coast”.
https://goo.gl/Zw9fRi
6. The same is true for the third
picture. It’s not about Californian
coasts, but about a starfish
incident happened in England in
2013, as reported by British press.
https://goo.gl/FDxkF8
12
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
Notes for the teachers
You can easily launch a reverse
image search on Google Images
(by pasting the link or uploading
the picture -- or even with a right
click on Google Chrome). Another
good reverse image search tool is
TinEye.
Buzzfeed - These 6 Easy Steps
Will Help You Spot Fake News
Every Time
https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/detect-fake-news-like-a-pro
1. ALL CAPS titles are usually
used in clickbaiting, i.e. attempts to
catch the attention and clicks of the
reader. As defined by Techcrunch,
clickbaiting is the “intentional act of
over-promising or otherwise misrepresenting — in a headline, on
social media, in an image, or some
combination — what you’re going
to find when you read a story on
the web” Many fake news stories
are introduced by ALL CAPS titles,
especially on social media.
2. When you land on a website, the
first thing you should do is to check
where you are and who is behind
the pages you are reading. If you
cannot find any information about
the author or any “About” section,
it’s better to be suspicious.
Another option is to launch a
search on Whois Lookup. You can
easily discover who has registered
a domain name and get contact
details. Sometimes, as it is in the
case of our story from ConterCurrent News.com the registrant is
not available for privacy reasons.
In some circumstances, this can be
another red flag, because most of
fake/clickbaiting websites withhold
this information.
3. A reverse image search allows
you to instantly identify where an
image has already been used.
4. Encourage your students to go
beyond Google to confirm a story:
useful background information is
available on other websites, such
as fact-checking websites. In the
case of the debunked “Fukushima
radiation”, there was a detailed
debunking on Snopes.com. All
around the world there are a lot of
fact-checking websites, as detailed
by the Duke University Map at this
link https://goo.gl/vRax1E.
5. Background information. This
story about Fukushima radiation is
one of the most shared on social
media during the last year, according to data taken from Buzzsumo:
more than 195.000 shares on Facebook. Buzzsumo is a search engine specialized on the discovery
of viral stories on social media.
According to Buzzsumo data, also
other viral stories on Fukushima
use the same pictures.
Additional background reading
On the Media - Visual guidelines
https://media2.wnyc.org/i/800/800/l/80/1/
OTM_Consumer_Handbook_FakeNewsEdition_800.png
The News Literacy Project - Ten
Questions for a Fake News Detection
http://www.thenewsliteracyproject.
org/sites/default/files/GO-TenQuestionsForFakeNewsFINAL.pdf
NPR - Fake Or Real? How To
Self-Check The News And Get The
Facts
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/12/05/503581220/
fake-or-real-how-to-self-check-thenews-and-get-the-facts
The New York Times Learning
Network Lesson Plan
https://www.nytimes.
com/2017/01/19/learning/
lesson-plans/evaluating-sourcesin-a-post-truth-world-ideas-forteaching-and-learning-about-fakenews.html
NPR - 5 Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/12/05/
503581220/fake-or-real-how-to-selfcheck-the-news-and-get-the-facts
13
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
F.
Produce
Duration: 20 minutes
Each student should create a
poster, gif, meme, cartoon or
short video that they would share
on their social networks or the
school’s, with advice on how to
differentiate fake or misleading
news from other types of content.
Some tools that can be used
Gif - giphy.com
Poster - pablo.buffer.com
Meme (pic+slogan)
memegenerator.net
Encourage them to share the
outcome of their activity on their
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat
or Instagram accounts using the
hashtag of International FactChecking Day (#FactCheckIt).
The goal is to find an effective and
creative way to spread awareness
about the importance of fact
checking among their peers, using
language and formats that belong
to their everyday life and
experience.
They can also work divided into
small groups.
#FactCheckIt
14
International Fact-Checking Day
Produce
Some examples
Lesson Plan
Teaching materials
International Fact-Checking
Day 2017
Print the 4 pages
In this order.
1
International Fact-Checking Day
Teaching materials
Survey to deliver the
students in the first activity.
1.Choose the option that you agree with:
I think that the voluntary voting system is better than the
mandatory voting system.
I think that the mandatory voting system is better than the
voluntary voting system.
2. Choose one of these three articles you would
share
22 countries where voting is mandatory.
In countries with a voluntary voting system, the
quality of life is higher.
Many of these countries are from Latin America and most of them have a
minimum voting age of 18 years.
Countries with voluntary voting do much better on quality-of-life indexes
than those that have a compulsory voting system.
To read the complete article
go to page 2
To read the complete article
go to page 3
The voluntary voting system will sink the world into chaos.
With a compulsory voting system Trump would never have won.
To read the complete article
go to page 4
2
International Fact-Checking Day
Teaching materials
Article 1
22 countries
where voting
is mandatory
Many of these countries are
from Latin America and most
of them have a minimum
voting age of 18 years.
Despite all of the U.S. media’s
fanfare about Tuesday’s midterm
elections, most eligible voters likely
will duck their civic duties on Election
Day. Historically, nearly one-third
fewer U.S. voters show up to the
polls during a midterm election than
a presidential election.
However, 22 nations around the
world make voting mandatory for
its citizens, often starting at age
18, according to the CIA World
Factbook. Several of these countries
are in Latin America with
a handful allowing citizens to age out
of compulsory voting by as early as
age 65. In Australia, failure to vote
can result in a $20 fine, The New
York Times reported.
Altogether, an estimated 744
million people live in nations with
compulsory voting laws.
22 countries where voting is mandatory.
Many of these countries are from Latin America and most of them have
a minimum voting age of 18 years.
Country
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Bolivia
Brazil
Congo, Dem. Rep.
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
Greece
Honduras
Lebanon
Luxembourg
Mexico
Nauru
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Singapore
Thailand
Uruguay
Source
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/ 22-countries-voting-mandatory/ | CIA World Factbook
Age of
Eligibility for
Mandatory Voting
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
18
21
18
18
20
18
18
18
21
18
18
Population
43,024,374
22,507,617
10,449,361
10,631,486
202,656,788
77,433,744
4,755,234
10,349,741
15,654,411
86,895,099
10,775,557
8,598,561
5,882,562
520,672
120,286,655
9,488
3,608,431
6,703,860
30,147,935
5,567,301
67,741,401
3,332,972
3
International Fact-Checking Day
Teaching materials
Article 2
In countries with a
voluntary voting system,
the quality of life is higher.
Countries with voluntary voting do much better on quality-oflife indexes than those that have a compulsory voting system.
In countries with a voluntary voting system, the
quality of life is higher.
Countries with voluntary voting do much better on quality-of-life indexes
than those that have a compulsory voting system.
The quality of life in countries with
voluntary voting is much higher than
in countries that have a compulsory
voting system.
It is an indisputable reality. Not being
forced to vote is better for citizens’
quality of life. The fact that most Latin
American countries — often unstable
democracies — have a compulsory
voting system is evidence enough
that the rest of the world should not
emulate this system.
Countries with voluntary voting
experience overall better quality of
life, lower corruption levels and larger
GDPs. The facts show that a voluntary
voting system is far better than a
compulsory one, and changing from
voluntary to mandatory could be a
huge mistake.
4
International Fact-Checking Day
Teaching materials
Article 3
The voluntary voting
system will sink the world
into chaos
With a compulsory voting system Trump would never have won
The voluntary voting system will sink the world into chaos.
With a compulsory voting system Trump would never have won.
Voluntary voting is failing
democracies. Suffice it to note that
even in a strong republic like the
United States, an undemocratic
abomination like Donald Trump was
able to somehow win an election.
The statistics show this clearly. If the
American presidential vote had been
compulsory, higher turnout among
non-white voters would have reversed
the result at the polls.
The same is true with the Brexit
referendum in the UK. It is time for
more countries to review the voluntary
vote system before their democracies
get subverted by charismatic
authoritarians.
2017
International Fact-Checking Day
Lesson Plan
factcheckingday.com