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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 8 of 16

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8W6; 8W7 · 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 8 of 16 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    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.

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

  2. Question 2

    A toy commercial that airs during cartoons is most likely aimed at which audience?

    • science teachers
    • retired people
    • children and their families
    • toy factory workers

  3. Question 3

    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.

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

  4. Question 4

    Why do the apps track what you watch?

    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.

    • to choose what to show you next
    • to stop you from watching
    • to delete videos you skip
    • to teach you to skateboard

  5. Question 5

    What does it mean that content is curated?

    • It has no author.
    • It is always false.
    • Someone or something selected and arranged it.
    • It was made by a robot.

  6. Question 6

    Your digital footprint is…

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

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