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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 8 of 12

Digital Citizens

Safe, smart and respectful online

What your child practices

Staying safe and respectful online, protecting privacy, spotting misinformation and disinformation, understanding how feeds are curated, and thinking about audience and purpose in digital and media texts.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.11; 8.R3 · judging online information and staying safe online

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Protect your privacy: ask a trusted adult before sharing personal details.
  2. Misinformation is false information shared by mistake. Disinformation is spread on purpose.
  3. Feeds are curated: chosen and arranged for you. Be respectful when working online.

Example: A website asks for your home address to enter a contest. What is the best response? Your address is private information. Check before sharing anything. Answer: ask a trusted adult and check whether the site is legitimate before sharing

Digital Citizens in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 8 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Reading Detective and before Write It Better.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Why did the post spread so fast?

    A Post That Spread

    Last Tuesday, a photo went around the school group chat: a long line of people outside an electronics store, with the caption “Free phones tomorrow! Share now!” Within an hour it had 400 shares.

    Nobody checked the store's website, which said nothing about a giveaway. The photo was actually from a sale three years earlier.

    • People shared it without checking because it was exciting.
    • Social media shows only true posts.
    • The store paid for it.
    • Its facts had been checked.

  2. Question 2

    Someone sends you a hurtful message online. Which is a good first step?

    • forward it to the whole class
    • reply with an insult
    • delete it and tell no one
    • do not reply, save the message and tell a trusted adult

  3. Question 3

    What kind of information is this post?

    A Post That Spread

    Last Tuesday, a photo went around the school group chat: a long line of people outside an electronics store, with the caption “Free phones tomorrow! Share now!” Within an hour it had 400 shares.

    Nobody checked the store's website, which said nothing about a giveaway. The photo was actually from a sale three years earlier.

    • an official advertisement
    • a curated news report
    • a verified announcement
    • false information that spread quickly

  4. Question 4

    What is one downside of a curated feed?

    Why Your Feed Looks Like That

    Video apps keep track of what you watch, like and skip. Then they use that information to choose what to show you next. If you watch three skateboarding videos, you will probably see more.

    This can be helpful, because you find topics you enjoy. But it also means each person sees a different, curated version of the app, and you may rarely see views that differ from your own.

    • You may rarely see views different from your own.
    • The app stops working.
    • You never find topics you enjoy.
    • Every person sees exactly the same videos.

  5. Question 5

    What does copyright protect?

    • only paper books
    • the reader's right to copy anything online
    • a creator's rights to their original work
    • any text posted publicly

  6. Question 6

    Your digital footprint is…

    • a password
    • the size of your device
    • the speed of your internet
    • the trail of information about you that is left online

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