View Content #28078

The purpose of this activity is to provide intermediate learners with awareness and knowledge of the factors contributing to the spread of misinformation via the various media they engage with. It was designed in concert with this week's Topic of the Week. 

Objectives:

Learners will be able to:

• Identify features of news articles, blogs, and social media postings that indicate the level of credibility of the source.
• Write a blog post explaining major factors contributing to the national and global spread of misinformation.

Modes: Interpersonal, Presentational

Materials: Vocabulary list (an example is provided here for adaptation), butcher paper or poster board, Plague Inc. (available on Steam, Google Play, and in the App Store), target language news posts

Procedure:

1. Divide learners into groups and introduce them to vocabulary dealing with media and mass communication by providing them with a vocabulary list (a sample list that provides words that may be helpful during gameplay is here). After a few minutes of silent reflection and review of the list, the learner groups will engage in a gallery walk/carousel in which they answer various questions posted on butcher paper or poster board around the classroom:

     a. What media are most likely to promote the spread of (mis)information?

     b. What local (country-level) factors may contribute to the spread of (mis)information around the globe?

     c. What do you think makes a person believe false news story and/or misinformation?

     d. Do you think that viral news is credible? Why?

     e. What people groups are the most persuasive in sharing misinformation?

2. After discussing some of the responses as a class, have the learners play Plague Inc. (the Fake News Update, accessible in the top right corner of the home screen) for twenty to thirty minutes. As they play, learners will take notes of major events as they occur on their own sheets of paper. Encourage learners to start the fake news story in a large country so that gameplay is achievable during the allotted time.

3. After gameplay concludes, revisit the questions from the gallery walk/carousel using the Think, Pair, Share format. Ask your learners to explain the extent to which their answers have changed based upon their gameplay experiences.

4. Next, provide learners with an overview of tips for spotting false news. A good example is https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/4-tips-spotting-fake-news-story. After discussing the tips, show learners target language posts (e.g., social media posts and article headlines). For each post, learners will form a line based on how credible they think the posts are (indicate which side is low credibility and which side is high credibility). Ask various students to justify their opinions using the tips you discussed.

5. Using the tips, their notes from gameplay, and handouts as inspiration, learners will write a short blog in which they identify three factors that contribute to the spread of false news. They should encourage counter action in their blogs.

Notes:

• If necessary, review blogs and appropriate rhetorical and structural devices learners may need to be aware of before completing Step 6. You may also wish to review commands or other structures appropriate to making suggestions in the target language.
• Language teachers may want to delve more into country-specific data when exploring this issue with learners. This post is a couple of years old, but it provides a nice synthesis of what specific countries are doing to target misinformation campaigns.
• Language teachers are encouraged to adapt the vocabulary list provided for their learners’ specific needs.
• As is the case with any game, teachers should play Plague Inc. before using it in class.
• Plauge, Inc. is available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Kroean, Norwegian, Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, and Turkish.