News or Ads?

Students will:

• Be able to distinguish between actual content and advertisements on a website. 
• Understand why it is important to use the actual content and ignore the advertisements. 

Vocabulary Words:

1. Fake news: Fake news are false stories that appear to be news, spread on the internet or using other media.
2. Advertisements: Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to inform or influence people who receive them,

To prepare for this lesson:

• When students are on the Internet, especially in first grade it is very tempting to click on the advertisements on the sites. It is often difficult to distinguish between the actual content and the ads. 
• The 21Things4Students website has several Quests that the teacher should visit to learn more about media literacy and clickbait. 
• First graders are most likely not going to be on any sites that are not pre-approved by the teacher. Unfortunately, many of the kid-approved sites have advertisements. Students need to know not to click on the ads and just read the real content. 
• Think about sites that your students currently visit. Are there advertisements on any of them? Below are several popular first-grade sites. Use any of these sites below to point out the advertisements to the students. 
  • Cool Math
  • Symbaloo (this is a social bookmarking site for teachers - but there are advertisements unless the teacher upgrades to the pro account)
  • Fun Brain
  • Math Playground
  • National Geographic
  • Safe Kid Games

See the Accommodations Page and Charts on the 21things4students website in the Teacher Resources. 

Directions for this activity:

1. The teacher will ask the students if they know what an advertisement is.
2. The teacher will ask them what their favorite advertisement is on the television. 
3. The teacher will ask if the advertisements are ever annoying or if they feel the advertisements have interrupted their program. 
4. The teacher will then talk about advertisements on the Internet and how they can interrupt what the students are doing. 
5. The teacher will project several websites that students use with advertisements. 
6. The teacher will explain that the students should not click on the advertisements. Reasons for not doing so are:
   1. The ads will take them away from the actual content.
   2. Clicking on an ad could give the computer a virus so it does not work properly anymore. 
   3. The ad could lead to inappropriate material. 
   4. The ads will be a time waster and the students will not get their work done. 

Different options for assessing the students:

• Observations
• Check for understanding
• The teacher will assign websites to the students and will assess if they stay on task.