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Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News
The advent of the 24-hour news cycle, citizen journalism and an increased reliance on social media as a trusted news source have had a profound effect not only on how we get our news, but also on how we evaluate sources of information, share that information and interact with others in online communities. When these issues are coupled with the “fake news” industry that intentionally spreads false stories designed to go viral, educators are left facing a new and challenging landscape. This book will help them address these new realities.
Fact vs. Fiction provides educators with tools and resources to help students discern fact from fiction in the information they access not only at school, but on the devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks.
Fact vs. Fiction provides educators with tools and resources to help students discern fact from fiction in the information they access not only at school, but on the devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks.
207 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2018
44 people are currently reading
619 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
September 9, 2019
Second read. Fabulous resource for educators striving to teach media and critical literacy skills.
December 3, 2021
The term "fake news" gets thrown around a lot in conversation and in the media, but are we really immune to it, even if we believe we can discern it from truth? How can we effectively teach our students/patrons to identify when they are being duped, and do we really understand who is "to blame" for spreading all these fake narratives? These questions are addressed in Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News by Jennifer Lagarde and Darren Hudgins. The book describes the psychology behind our susceptibility to fake news, as well as the different ways it can entice us (i.e. clickbait, confirmation bias, conspiracy theory, etc.). Each chapter concludes with reflection questions, and several suggested learning exercises are listed throughout that educators can use with their students (or, in my case, librarians with their patrons).
The book did an excellent job of describing the very real consequences of falling for fake news that I believe would be eye-opening to many readers. Several real-world instances are described throughout, including "Pizzagate" and the horrifying Sandy Hook conspiracies that led to the threatening of innocent people. I appreciated all the suggested learning exercises, which I have found incredibly helpful. For example, the book contains language and communication skills for respectful disagreement (i.e. "Let me share some contradicting evidence with you" vs. "You're wrong!"). These are applicable, real-world skills that students can use day-to-day, and that would help me form an educational program for youth. I also appreciated the self-assessments, QR codes connecting to other assessments, and reflections throughout; I learned quite a bit from self-testing myself on identifying fake news.
This book isn't quite targeted at public librarians, but I think it is certainly relevant for that profession. I think all of us librarians have encountered a patron, young or old, who has fallen for a fake news story, and this book equips us with ways to respectfully counter that false information. Educators of all kinds will find helpful skills, definitions, and exercises in this book to use with students of all ages. I also thought the language in this book was conversational and accessible for teen patrons, and would certainly recommend it to that group as well!
The book did an excellent job of describing the very real consequences of falling for fake news that I believe would be eye-opening to many readers. Several real-world instances are described throughout, including "Pizzagate" and the horrifying Sandy Hook conspiracies that led to the threatening of innocent people. I appreciated all the suggested learning exercises, which I have found incredibly helpful. For example, the book contains language and communication skills for respectful disagreement (i.e. "Let me share some contradicting evidence with you" vs. "You're wrong!"). These are applicable, real-world skills that students can use day-to-day, and that would help me form an educational program for youth. I also appreciated the self-assessments, QR codes connecting to other assessments, and reflections throughout; I learned quite a bit from self-testing myself on identifying fake news.
This book isn't quite targeted at public librarians, but I think it is certainly relevant for that profession. I think all of us librarians have encountered a patron, young or old, who has fallen for a fake news story, and this book equips us with ways to respectfully counter that false information. Educators of all kinds will find helpful skills, definitions, and exercises in this book to use with students of all ages. I also thought the language in this book was conversational and accessible for teen patrons, and would certainly recommend it to that group as well!
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November 18, 2021Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News written by Jennifer Lagarde and Darren Hudgins. This book is a fun and educational look at the idea of fake news that has been widely popularly discussed since the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Fact vs. Fiction is one of the first books in educational book publications to address fake news. It understands the psychology of fake news and the role of social media in spreading information. The issue of discerning fake news from fact has recently created problems trusting knowledge and understanding what a point is. The book contains self-assessment and reflection exercises after the chapters, which benefited my experiences of the readings within each chapter. In addition, it is full of practical resources like charts, sites, and examples to use while teaching students. Teaching how to differentiate between valid information online and disinformation is crucial in today's world.
The terms fake news, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, post-truth, and other words used to describe this fast pace news system; were described in the book very accurately. News, both fake and real, is occurring twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Society has become accustomed to receiving their news immediately and all the time. Waiting for information and waiting to see if the news is accurate is not part of our culture. There are several platforms to receive news, social media, online news channels, and cable news twenty-four hours a day. Access to the news daily makes it difficult to distinguish and judge what fact is and Fiction.
I support the teaching of literacy skills in schools to all age groups of students. For example, I am teaching librarian patrons to understand and recognize search results that are excellent sources. In addition, critical thinking skills taught in schools and libraries can provide society with the tools needed to distinguish fact from Fiction.
I have used some of the skills learned from the book to help my teenage patrons decide what a good resource for a school report is.
The authors of Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News do an excellent job of describing and explaining fake news and how it has become part of our popular culture. This book offers teachers, librarians, and parents the tools and resources they need to help their students and children discern Fact from Fiction. The overload of quick information delivered through social media and the news is overwhelming when trying to think of what fact is and what Fiction is critical.
In the book, QR codes and other accessible resources are provided within the text. Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News is essential to read teachers and librarians. This book is an important book to read and put into educators' and librarians' hands. All age levels can benefit from the resources and information provided throughout the text. This book will continue to be valid as time passes, and the term "fake news" is used with less meaning.
The terms fake news, propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, post-truth, and other words used to describe this fast pace news system; were described in the book very accurately. News, both fake and real, is occurring twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Society has become accustomed to receiving their news immediately and all the time. Waiting for information and waiting to see if the news is accurate is not part of our culture. There are several platforms to receive news, social media, online news channels, and cable news twenty-four hours a day. Access to the news daily makes it difficult to distinguish and judge what fact is and Fiction.
I support the teaching of literacy skills in schools to all age groups of students. For example, I am teaching librarian patrons to understand and recognize search results that are excellent sources. In addition, critical thinking skills taught in schools and libraries can provide society with the tools needed to distinguish fact from Fiction.
I have used some of the skills learned from the book to help my teenage patrons decide what a good resource for a school report is.
The authors of Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News do an excellent job of describing and explaining fake news and how it has become part of our popular culture. This book offers teachers, librarians, and parents the tools and resources they need to help their students and children discern Fact from Fiction. The overload of quick information delivered through social media and the news is overwhelming when trying to think of what fact is and what Fiction is critical.
In the book, QR codes and other accessible resources are provided within the text. Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News is essential to read teachers and librarians. This book is an important book to read and put into educators' and librarians' hands. All age levels can benefit from the resources and information provided throughout the text. This book will continue to be valid as time passes, and the term "fake news" is used with less meaning.
November 29, 2021
Anyone who has not been living under a rock for the past seven years has heard the term 'fake news' bandied about on the news, in the media, and likely, in the family WhatsApp chat. Whether it is your grandma re-posting viral threads about 9/11 rescue dogs, or the President of the United States just making it up as he goes along (while accusing anyone who presents an alternative viewpoint as propagating said 'fake news') it is apparent that we need to face this Fake News Epidemic head on.
This, of course, begins with our youngest citizens - and in the classroom. If you are a teacher, librarian, or teacher-librarian, this book is an excellent one to get you started. With all the resources available to help you disseminate this issue to your students, I liked this one especially because it gave me the quick and dirty on the why, the how, and most importantly - the what now?
It is the perfect size for an overworked educator, as it isn't terribly long and gives a lot of great, practical advice and lessons you can use with your students straightaway. And most importantly, it is chock-a-block full of resources, including handy QR codes, to help you on your way to getting your students (and your grandma) to re-evaluate how they view the information they are being constantly confronted with.
This, of course, begins with our youngest citizens - and in the classroom. If you are a teacher, librarian, or teacher-librarian, this book is an excellent one to get you started. With all the resources available to help you disseminate this issue to your students, I liked this one especially because it gave me the quick and dirty on the why, the how, and most importantly - the what now?
It is the perfect size for an overworked educator, as it isn't terribly long and gives a lot of great, practical advice and lessons you can use with your students straightaway. And most importantly, it is chock-a-block full of resources, including handy QR codes, to help you on your way to getting your students (and your grandma) to re-evaluate how they view the information they are being constantly confronted with.
December 26, 2021
I found Jennifer Lagarde on Twitter and her posts were a godsend when I was teaching a media literacy class. This book became the backbone of my curriculum. Packed with resources. I have since been assigned to a different class but still use the concepts because it applies to all the information we consume.
January 1, 2019
This is a very important book that every social studies & language arts teacher, plus definitely every teacher-librarian, should own and use to help teach students how to be critical readers and evaluators of information in today's on-line world. I highly recommend this excellent book!
January 18, 2020
This easy to read text provides some great background information about fake news as well as some good teaching suggestions and resources. It leans perhaps more to middle and senior school.
March 2, 2020
An outstanding job addressing this important topic.
July 10, 2020
"We can no longer point to any source and guarantee that its information is 100% accurate and without bias. We must teach our students to deconstruct media, in all its forms, and to uncover any underlying messaging"
"We can’t teach kids to make good choices without actually giving them choices"
This was a great dynamic read on the topic of media and information literacy, I highlighted a bunch of passages and found some helpful resources. Although it's US-centric, some of the reflections and strategies proposed resonated with my experience in other contexts.
"We can’t teach kids to make good choices without actually giving them choices"
This was a great dynamic read on the topic of media and information literacy, I highlighted a bunch of passages and found some helpful resources. Although it's US-centric, some of the reflections and strategies proposed resonated with my experience in other contexts.
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August 10, 2024This book provides some good resources. Unfortunately, it feels pretty repetitive. It also was pretty abstract— didn’t give a lot of concrete ways to incorporate this into the classroom.
January 13, 2021
A must read! Full of plenty of resources to get any librarian started to teach fake news lessons.
May 15, 2022
A wonderful professional book for teacher librarians! Lots of examples of lessons to use with classes to help students discern between fact and false information.
March 11, 2020
A must read for school librarians and all teachers teaching how to evaluate information for accuracy. A special strength of this new work is advice on how to teach these skills in the current context of mobile device usage by students.
March 23, 2019
A terrific companion title to Sara K. Ahmed's Being the Change. I read paperback version but know that eBook version is available on Hoopla.
February 2, 2021
Purchased during ISTE 2019, actually read it as professional development post-Capitol insurrection, because I felt the intense need to re-evaluate my entire media literacy program for K-5.
Incredibly helpful resource, with quality implementation ideas for elementary and even tips for how to modify into the lower grades. Chapters 1-4/8 were good for framework and developing a PD session, Chapters 5-7 better for concrete lesson plans/ideas for student use. Recommend diving into each article and resource as you come into it, rather than saving things to look at later.
The mobile device focused fake news assessment alone is worth the cost of the book. So looking forward to testing out Scott Bedley's game, Kim Wilken's Foiling Fake News, and Arika Dickens Two Truths and a Lie unit with my own students.
Incredibly helpful resource, with quality implementation ideas for elementary and even tips for how to modify into the lower grades. Chapters 1-4/8 were good for framework and developing a PD session, Chapters 5-7 better for concrete lesson plans/ideas for student use. Recommend diving into each article and resource as you come into it, rather than saving things to look at later.
The mobile device focused fake news assessment alone is worth the cost of the book. So looking forward to testing out Scott Bedley's game, Kim Wilken's Foiling Fake News, and Arika Dickens Two Truths and a Lie unit with my own students.
December 28, 2018
Teachers are given the task of teaching students how to navigate through our information filled world. Many educators have little training and even fewer resources to assist them with this task. This book, Fact Vs Fiction does a wonderful job of providing educators with strategies & rationale which can be applied in the classroom with elementary through high school age students. The authors have provided resources to assist students with tasks such as: evaluating information to determine its validity. Teachers will find this book a necessary addition to their professional library. It’s content is relevant, desperately needed and user friendly. I, for one will be recommending it to my teacher friends.
February 24, 2021
This a a fairly short read that would benefit any K-12 educator. As FDR said, “We may not be able to prepare the future for our children, but we can at least prepare our children for the future.” Teaching kids (and adults) how to spot fake news, how to recognize the types of fake news, and that the truth matters is important now, more than ever. Kids need to learn to be media/news literate. They need to know how to get to the facts and they need to know the red flags and signs to watch for to spot fake news. “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” ~ Margaret Mead This book does a good job with this timely topic.
March 13, 2019
This is a genuinely good introduction to using media literacy education to address the problems associated with “fake news” and dis/misinformation. The discussion and explanation sections for each chapter will be helpful for newcomers but many of the suggested resources are freely available on guides created by librarians. I would suggest this to new teachers and teachers with lots of experience who are interested in engaging with media literacy in their classrooms but are unsure of how to get started.
January 5, 2020
Every teacher should have this book. Any parent who wants to reinforce lessons about proper sources should have this book. There are not a lot of books I need to own - this is one I need and will be referencing again and again.
What I appreciate:
Numerous websites and infographics
Real life lessons and feedback
Stories still prevalent in our news today
Photos giving examples of what we see daily on social media
I will be using these lessons in my Literacy Enrichment class. The book really is a "must have".
What I appreciate:
Numerous websites and infographics
Real life lessons and feedback
Stories still prevalent in our news today
Photos giving examples of what we see daily on social media
I will be using these lessons in my Literacy Enrichment class. The book really is a "must have".
July 10, 2020
I was introduced to this book for a class that I'm taking on library methods; I found it very engaging and well written. It's full of tons of practical resources (charts, sites, examples) for teachers (or parents, even) to use when trying to learn and teach younger people how to differentiate between valid information online and mis(or dis)information. An excellent read with some targeted points. Continues to be even more valid as time passes and the term "fake news" is used with more frequency and less meaning.
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July 23, 2022This is a great book! It explains that our own biases can prevent us from seeing the true news story. Or that if we hear something once and it is wrong we are likely to still believe the false story. One example that was given was that one one reporter who was reporting on an earthquake in Mexico City heard from a rescuer that a girl was trapped. They went on to say her name was Frida Sofia. Everyone began praying for this girl. Eventually it was found out that there was no Frida Sofia and no one was trapped in the building. Yet, people still talk about poor Frida Sofia.
June 29, 2020
More of “why to teach” than “how to teach” critical thinking in the age of fake news, the book spends most of its time preaching to the choir. Chapters 5 and 6, though, provide QR codes for resources, thereby enabling the choir to compose its own hymnal. According to their posts on Twitter, the authors are planning a follow-up book of lesson plans and instructional strategies; can’t wait to sing along.
January 6, 2021
Some of the references are outdated (such is the nature of technology reads) but there are many sound principles and activities that can be used and modified by educators. Current (as of January 2021) misinformation/disinformation identification skills need to go beyond the adjusted CRAAP method used in this text. Hopefully, the authors and the publisher will update this text with more information on how to act like fact checkers.
February 7, 2023
This book was selected by my professor to read for our class on 21st Century Media Literacy. I learned so much from this book about how the internet has changed our access to news and how that change has impacted the versions of fact we consume. Additionally, this book impacted me a lot professionally, providing me with the tools to equip my 3rd graders on how to navigate the never ending stream of information we receive. I would highly recommend this book to all my educator friends!
July 26, 2024
The danger with books about technology is that they can get out of date fast. This one would benefit from an update that includes Snapchat & Tik Tok/Shorts/Reels (i.e. assessing videos rather than just articles), but in general the information continues to be valuable. The real benefit in this book comes from the resources--I am interested to see how many of the resources/websites they list are still up and running and/or have been updated themselves.
May 2, 2020
Recommended by others in the literacy/education world, this is a great resource for K-12 teachers. This is a great introduction to the world of Fake News and the terminology and skills teachers should be passing on to students in many content areas. I'm excited to start designing lessons for my students!
May 13, 2020
This is a fantastic resource for educators who are looking for ways to help their students (and themselves) discern credible information. In this era of fake news and clickbait, we need this more than ever. I especially love how the authors emphasize that we need to integrate these lessons into all of our curriculum, rather than just in one-off digital citizenship lessons.
September 21, 2020
This is a great tool for teachers and librarians to curate ideas about how to cover the subject of fake news. We each need to spend more time examining what we read instead of just taking it as truth and moving on. This book looks into the growing issue of fake news, why it is out there, and what we can do about it.
I will be using this multiple times in the future!
I will be using this multiple times in the future!
September 23, 2020
Excellent read! Great materials and inspiration for class activities that can be easily adapted to online teaching. This one is a treasure trove that will be a constant presence on my teaching desk for the foreseeable future. It has exercises and strategies for students of all ages and (seasoned) adults as well. So glad I found this one!
December 8, 2025
The authors concern is on point and pushes the importance of teaching critical thinking skills, it also offers a number of valuable resources to use immediately. However, unfortunately, since 2018 fake news has exponentially expanded and now includes the ever elusive and growing beast that is AI. An updated version is most definitely warranted.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews