UNICEF invites schools to join an all-Ukrainian media literacy lesson

For the World Media and Information Literacy Week that is celebrated on 25-31 October, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) invites Ukrainian schools to join the national media literacy lesson.

The lesson aims to develop the ability to identify fakes and resist their negative influences. A UNICEF-supported U-Report youth survey found that only 14 per cent of adolescents and young people always check the information. At the same time, young people spend much time on the Internet and consume significant amounts of content every day.

>Download lesson materials

The lesson is designed for 7-11 grade school students and is based on the BreaktheFake educational series with Ukrainian superstars identifying and refuting the myths about COVID-19 and vaccination. Those teachers who will use the lesson plan will receive a certificate from UNICEF and a chance to win prizes.

To participate in the draw, the teachers should:

• conduct a lesson and take several photos of a lesson with students (or screens if a lesson was conducted online); 
• post them on Facebook with the hashtag #BreakTheFake; 
• be sure to fill out a form by following the link by 15 November inclusive.

Certificates will be sent out to all participants who have met the conditions. The results of the draw will be announced on 30 November. 

The lesson can be conducted as a full-fledge learning exercise online or offline. Also, teachers can take certain components of the lesson to incorporate them into their classes in various disciplines that require media literacy skills, such as history, law, biology, and others.

Educational videos are a crucial component of the lesson. Six series explain the origin of fakes, the nature of conspiracy theories, why bloggers shouldn't always be trusted, what are marker words in posts that should make you alert, and what are helpful methods to verify a photo or video. Ukrainian stars Jerry Hale, Alla Kostromichova, Anna Trincher, Alina Pash, Kostya Klepka and Dasha Kvitkova are the video’ main characters. Nikita Dobrynin serves as the educational series host. Experts of Ukrainian key fact-checking organisations helped create the series. The lesson was developed by Marina Dashko, a teacher-methodologist, author of educational materials on media literacy.

The project was created with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and ING Bank.