{"id":452,"date":"2025-04-27T00:31:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-27T00:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/?p=452"},"modified":"2025-04-27T00:31:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-27T00:31:01","slug":"teaching-misinformation-to-young-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/?p=452","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Misinformation To Young Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For my creation activity, I plan to develop a misinformation curriculum targeted at younger elementary students, specifically students in grades 1 and 2 that are ages 5\u20137. This topic is important because, as we explored in Module 6: Combating Misinformation at Different Scales, misinformation needs to be addressed early. The Discussion Board #6 addressed \u201cWhose Responsibility is it to Solve the Misinformation Problem?\u201d The class agreed that misinformation needs to be addressed in a multilevel approach, by individuals, governments, and technology companies. One discussion cited an article \u201cIllinois Is The First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy\u201d <\/a>. Two quotes from the article \u201cThere’s a widespread misconception that because young people are adept at using digital devices, that they are also skilled at making sense of the information that those devices provide.<\/a>\u201d and \u201cMany assume that if a social media influencer has tons of followers, it means they’re trustworthy.<\/a>\u201d show how this can be a problem. An experiment mentioned in the article cited \u201can anonymous Facebook video<\/a>\u201d that was shown \u201cto more than 3,000 American high school<\/a>\u201d students. The video showed people stuffing ballot boxes during a presidential election primary. The students were asked if there was \u201cstrong evidence of voter fraud in the U.S.\u201d \u201cOnly 3 students were able to determine that the video was actually voter fraud in Russia, not the United States.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe\u00a0Stanford History Education Group\u00a0(SHEG), found that middle and high school students overwhelmingly failed to demonstrate the skills necessary to distinguish credible sources from unreliable ones.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article continues \u201cBut the real barrier is making this happen in the course of a regular school day. Often media literacy is a one-off lesson from a librarian, which isn\u2019t enough. We haven\u2019t seen many efforts to integrate it into the curriculum \u2013 across subjects, with students being asked to evaluate whether sources are trustworthy.<\/a>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another group at Stanford University<\/a> performed a study with college students and their ability to detect false information. The majority of the students could not properly identify misinformation<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Bobbie Eisenstock, a journalism professor at California State University \u201cMedia literacy is an essential life skill,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s probably more critical now than it ever has been because we live in such a complex digital society. Media technology is reshaping how we learn, play, interact, communicate and how we engage in everyday life.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Media Literacy Policy Report<\/a> tracks how many states have passed legislation \u201cconcerning K-12 media literacy or digital citizenship education.<\/a>\u201d \u00a0Currently approximately 19 states have passed some legislation requiring schools to provide digital literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinland is consistently ranked as Europe’s most media literate country<\/a> and the skills needed to spot online hoaxes are on the school curriculum.\u201d \u00a0Finland starts teaching students about misinformation in kindergarten.<\/a> Exposing students to the identification of misinformation early in their education <\/a>appears to be effective. This exposure can be through games, including \u201cplaying Sherlock Holmes<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am planning on becoming a lower elementary school teacher and I would like to develop some lessons on misinformation that can be used for younger students, age 5-7 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this young audience, I will use a visual and interactive approach, incorporating pictures, videos, and games into my curriculum. Young learners engage and learn best through play. Repetition helps strengthen their skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My initial design includes the following games and activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Real or Not” Game \u2013 I will show pictures, both real and made-up to younger students and have the students guess which are real. The students will provide an explanation as to why they think the pictures are real or fake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSpot the Difference\u201d Game\u2013 I will use two versions of the same picture; one picture will be real; the other picture will be edited. An example is a picture of a street which would be the real picture. The second modified picture will include a fish walking across the street on its tail. The students will provide an explanation as to why they think the pictures are real or fake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misinformation in Fairytales Activity \u2013 We will read the story The Boy Who Cried Wolf<\/em>\u201d and discuss what happens with lies and how lies are considered misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think that using a visual and interactive approach will be effective because younger students enjoy games. Games keep students engaged and help students learn while having fun. By starting at a young age, students will learn through repetition how to identify misinformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claybourn, Cole. What Is Media Literacy? What Parents Need to Know.<\/em> US News & World Report November 14, 2023.  https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/education\/k12\/articles\/what-is-media-literacy-what-parents-need-to-know<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

France-Presse, Agence. Finnish youth taught how to spot disinformation. <\/em> VOA News December 24, 2024. https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/finnish-youth-taught-how-to-spot-disinformation-\/7912218.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kivinen, Kari. In Finland, We Make Each Schoolchild a Scientist<\/em>. Issues in Science and Technology. Vol. XXXIX, No. 3, Spring 2023. https:\/\/issues.org\/finland-education-misinformation-social-resilience-kivinen\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media Literacy Policy Report<\/em>. Media Literacy now. https:\/\/medialiteracynow.org\/policyreport\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medlin, Peter. Illinois Is The First State to Have High Schools Teach News Literacy.<\/em> NPR August 12, 2021. https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/08\/12\/1026993142\/illinois-is-the-first-state-to-have-high-schools-teach-news-literacy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spector, Carrie. As the 2020 election approaches, Stanford scholars teach skills to judge fact from fiction online.<\/em> Standord Graduate School of Education. October 8, 2020.  https:\/\/ed.stanford.edu\/news\/2020-election-approaches-stanford-scholars-teach-skills-judge-fact-fiction-online<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wineburg, Sam, Joel Breakstone, Nadav Ziv, & Mark Smith. Educating for Misunderstanding: How Approaches to Teaching Digital Literacy Make Students Susceptible to Scammers, Rogues, Bad Actors, and Hate Mongers<\/em>. Working Paper A-21322, Stanford History Education Group, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2020. https:\/\/purl.stanford.edu\/mf412bt5333<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For my creation activity, I plan to develop a misinformation curriculum targeted at younger elementary students, specifically students in grades 1 and 2 that are ages 5\u20137. This topic is important because, as we explored in Module 6: Combating Misinformation… Read moreTeaching Misinformation To Young Children<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","content-layout-excerpt-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460,"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslie-burton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}