dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

"A lesson on QAnon for teachers to use in class"

A QAnon sign is seen at a rally in Beverly Hills, Calif. The rally was part of a weekly gathering of pro-Trump demonstrators supporting the police and denouncing the Black Lives Matter movement. (Christian Monterrosa/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Valerie Strauss

August 25, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

During the school year, I publish lessons from the nonprofit News Literacy Project, which aims to teach students how to distinguish fact from fiction in the age of digital communication and a president who routinely denounces real news as “fake.”

The lessons come from the project’s newsletter, the Sift, which takes the most recent viral rumors, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and journalistic ethics issues and turns them into timely lessons with discussion prompts and links. The Sift, which is published weekly during the school year, has more than 10,000 subscribers, most of them educators. It resumes publication on Sept. 14.

Earlier this year, I published a lesson for teachers from the Sift to use in class to explore with students the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims that President Trump will save the world from a “deep state” cult of pedophiles who eat children, worship the devil and run the country’s most powerful institutions.

I am republishing it now because this summer the QAnon theory has entered mainstream politics, with Trump embracing political candidates who support it."

{Then author gives links on, essentially, what to think and what to tell the 'children' to think, as well.}

"Discuss: What are the characteristics of conspiratorial thinking? How can entirely baseless conspiracy theories “feel” so right to some people? What role does evidence play in conspiracy theories? Why do you think conspiracy theories tend to arise during periods of great social and economic change? How do fear and anger contribute to the belief in conspiracy theories?

Here are most lessons from the Sift:

Five tips for students on the coronavirus pandemic

Three doctored covid-19 protest photos — and other lessons on fake news"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/08/25/lesson-qanon-teachers-use-class/