Spotting Fake News Lesson Plan Suitable for Intermediate to Advanced

Goal: to recognize the difference between real and fake news related to COVID-19

Warm-up: (10 minutes) Ask student: How do you keep up with the news? Do you trust the information you get? Have you seen a lot of information on social media about the new coronavirus? What do you know about fake news?

What does the quote mean? “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

Word Study: (15 minutes) Download and share the Word Study on your screen. Complete the fill-in-the-blank and pronunciation activities to prepare for reading.

Reading and Speaking: (30 minutes) Download and share the Separating Real from Fake News Story story on your screen. Ask the student to read each section aloud, stopping to check comprehension, using questions at bottom of article.

Now your student can practice recognizing fake news. Download and share the Spotting Fake News Exercise on your screen and work through the questions.

Grammar: (20 minutes) The news story makes use of the present progressive verb tense. This is a helpful verb tense for students to use when expressing an action that is in progress. Watch this video that explains the verb tense. Then share the News Story again and ask the student to identify sentences using this verb tense. Then share this Grammar Worksheet. Use the annotation features of Zoom to let the student complete the worksheet.

Listening: (20 minutes) Share this 3-minute, interactive video from Ted-ED “How False News Spreads.” The video pauses frequently to ask questions. Check your student’s understanding by asking him or her to answer verbally.

Wrap-up: (15 minutes) As a fun activity, share this online quiz to put your student’s fake-news spotting ability to work some more on social media posts about COVID!

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