Language Resident: Katherine Pérez Gutiérrez  (cred. to José Gómez & Tamara Olivos)

Class theme/topic discussed : Fake News

Goal of the class 

  • To exchange information in an argumentative way
  • To hypothesize about the veracity of different news
  • To understand, summarize and present a piece of news as a professional TV presenter

Class structure

  • Activity 1 Intro questions: : Students answer some questions about different ways of keeping up with news (TV, online newspapers, etc.), the time they dedicate to it, the importance it has, etc. 
  • Activity 2 Fake News Video: I show them one video of a piece of fake news from an online newspaper (El Mundo Today) with lots of comic fake news. They answer some questions about it and, in case students do not figure out that the piece of news is fake, I reveal it and tell them about the existence of this online newspaper. 
  • Activity 3 Pieces of News: Students receive different pieces of news. Most of them will be fake, except for one. In pairs, they have to read the piece of news, understanding it to be able to summarize the main content. 
  • Activity 4 Discussion Students present their news in a very professional way, as if all the news were true and very serious. They will have to discuss afterwards about which news are fake and which one is true. 
  • Activity 5 White Lies:  Fake news are full of lies, so students talk about white lies. Are they good or can they be good sometimes? Do they lie a lot? Are they good liars? Have you ever been caught lying?
  • Activity 6 Follow-up Excuses:  Students are given a list of hypothetical situations and have to come up with excuses to avoid getting into these situations. 

Resources used

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

  • This was a great class for both section. They talked a lot in their small breakout groups. Because using handouts on zoom is harder, having each news article on a different google doc made it easier to share with students.  
  • The intermediate class needed some extra help with the vocabulary on the articles so it is good to jump back and forth between breakout rooms for that section.