A couple of weeks ago TED-Ed released a video about spotting misleading headlines. I quickly added that lesson to my list of resources for helping students become discerning news consumers. This week TED-Ed released another video that I’m adding to that list of resources.

This One Weird Trick Will Help You Spot Clickbait is a TED-Ed video that teaches viewers how headlines are created to entice readers to click on an article. The video also explains how a small kernel of truth or a small and inconclusive study will be manipulated to create an article and clickbait headline.

Applications for Education
Extend this TED-Ed lesson by having students spend some time looking at a set of headlines and articles to spot the clickbait. Or have students try to create their own clickbait headlines based on short research studies that they find or that you provide to them.