Librarians in Seattle Are Teaching Little Kids To Identify Fake News

5th grade curriculum in 2017: School librarians now teaching kids how to spot fake news in Seattle https://t.co/lZSworjyRN pic.twitter.com/khRd1N8HbV

— Mike Rosenberg (@ByRosenberg) February 6, 2017

Fake news is a major issue.

No, we don’t mean the sorts of reporting that the president often conflates with “fake news.” CNN is not fake news. Poor poll numbers are not fake news.

Fake news is exactly what it sounds like: it’s made-up fiction that is designed to get clicks and revenue by preying on those who simply don’t realize that they’re reading nonsense.

That’s where these librarians in Seattle come in. They recognize how serious the fake news problem is, so they’re arming their kids with the tools to identify it.

According to the Seattle Times, librarians like Lakeside School’s Janelle Hagen are “equipping students to fight through lies, distortion and trickery to find their way to truth.”

She explained her decision to teach classes on “digital life” and media literacy to fifth- and eighth-graders like this:

It was because of all of the buzz (about fake news). You can look at the Google analytics, and the search for “fake news” was unprecedented. It’s our job as teachers to address what’s going on in the world.

To Hagen, addressing that means walking her students through the steps to identify all types of messages. From propaganda to advertising, opinion pieces to straight reporting, they learn the telltale markers for each.

Here is the site that Hagen uses to help her kids review articles and understand their individual biases. Give it a try yourself.

[image: screengrab]

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