Don't Believe Everything: Media Literacy Unit for Grades 5–9

A ready-to-teach media education pack on hoaxes, disinformation and advertising, with an illustrated student book, slides, quiz, flashcards and worksheet.

Students meet hundreds of news stories, videos, ads and posts every day. "Don't Believe Everything: Hoaxes, Disinformation and Advertising" is a media education unit for lower secondary school (Grades 5–9). It helps them see who makes the media, why those creators want their attention, and how to tell truth from fiction.

The illustrated 36-page student book has a clickable table of contents and ten sections. It covers who makes the media, how to tell news, opinion and advertising apart, and the difference between a hoax, disinformation and misinformation. It then moves on to verifying information, clickbait and emotions, edited photos, videos and deepfakes, algorithms and information bubbles, conspiracy theories, and being a responsible author. It ends with the 10 Golden Rules of a Media-Literate Person, which you can hang up in your classroom.

You don't have to build the lesson from scratch. The pack includes an editable PowerPoint presentation (16 slides), a 2-page lesson plan, and a worksheet with 12 tasks and an answer key. For revision there is a 12-question interactive quiz and 16 flashcards. The quiz and flashcards run in a browser and can read the text aloud. The flashcards also come as a CSV file for import into Quizlet or Anki. The book text is provided as a Word file, so you can shorten it, adapt the wording or adjust it for your class.

The result is a complete set of materials you can use right away, with less preparation time. You can be confident that the topic is covered in a logical order, from basic concepts to practical habits for sharing information responsibly.

What's included:

• Book text for editing (Word)
• Illustrated student book (PDF), 36 pages, with clickable table of contents
• Presentation (PowerPoint, editable), 16 slides
• Flashcards for import into Quizlet/Anki (CSV), 16 cards
• Lesson plan (PDF), 2 pages
• Interactive quiz (12 questions) + flashcards in the browser, with read-aloud function (HTML)
• Worksheet with answer key (PDF), 11 pages, 12 tasks

Who it's for: Teachers of Grades 5–9 (lower secondary school) who want ready-made materials for teaching media education, and who want to save preparation time. The student book is written for pupils in these grades. Licence for one teacher and their classes.