4.3.1.2.1 The Worksheet. Brian Bilston’s poem titled From the Encyclopaedia of Alternative Facts in which the author lists numerous false beliefs and misconceptions served as the basis of this worksheet (Appendix I). The worksheet comprises the following activities: In the warmer, the students have to describe the pictures and they also add a creative, sensationalist headline to each of them, hence, both the students’ creativity and background knowledge are activated while they also get familiar with some misconceptions and hoaxes. Then, for developing students’ reading comprehension, the students work on the poem first, then they read some stories complementing the content of the poem. The start with a gap-filling activity: students fill in the gaps of the poem with the given words. Then, students get a short hoax with a glossary that they read individually or in pairs. Each student or pair reads about one hoax, then the students are asked to form groups and give a short summary of the story they have read. Moreover, they are asked to discuss the reasons why some believe these hoaxes. In the first creative writing activity, the students are asked to write another stanza to the poem after they brainstorm and collect some ideas. Then, the stanzas are displayed or redistributed and commented on by the other students. For the argumentation and discussion activity, five lines of the poem, which are highly controversial but relatable, were selected and students are asked to collect arguments for and against the statements. The activity enables students to put themselves in another person’s shoes and think of some counterarguments that could be listed by the other side. Then, either at the end of the class or at home, students rewrite the poem so that it reflects reality: Here, they have to use their research skills to fact check the poem and look behind each misconception so that they can debunk them and present the facts they have found. In the next lesson, these poems are displayed, and the class members comment on them and vote on the best version. The last activity is a mini research project which includes a short in-class presentation: students are asked to search for more hoaxes from the 21st century and present one in class. The worksheet was created together with my colleague and the pilot study (with a slightly different cohort of students), with special focus on creating the material, was published in the IATEFL-Hungary Conference Selections (Divéki & Pereszlényi, 2021).

 

4.3.1.2.2 Results from the Reflective Journal. The atmosphere of the lessons appeared in all my research journal entries about this sequence and there are two aspects of this that should be addressed in connection with this. At the beginning of the sequence, where the students were asked to come up with sensationalist headlines for the known hoaxes, they were noticeably having a lot of fun because they were encouraged to use their creativity. It seemed important to create a good mood at the beginning of the activity sequence because even though the poem seemed entertaining, it dealt with important issues, which were addressed in the follow-up activities. It was also essential to create a safe environment, where everyone can express their opinion, and where all opinions were respected. As these groups had been working together for weeks before they were asked to do these activities, it did not pose a problem, the environment was already friendly. A notable moment must be mentioned though: In Group A, there was an Iraqi student who shared some unpopular opinions on gender equality, which was shocking for some students judged by their facial expressions. Even though some students experienced some discomfort after hearing such a comment, they managed to reply in a polite and constructive way. The most memorable part of each activity sequence was the gallery walk activity I set up, where the students’ rewritten poems were displayed. The students were then asked to walk around and leave comments under the new poems about what they liked in them. The rewritten poems were the testimony that the students read up on the misconceptions and hoaxes and some of them went even further and included more debunked hoaxes and misconceptions. Voting on the best student work lifted some students’ spirit and the winners were celebrated in most of the groups.

 

4.3.1.2.3 Student Feedback. The students were also asked their opinions of the lessons, and all in all, 22 of them took the time to fill in the feedback form. Based on the open-ended questions they had to answer about the usefulness of the sequence and what they learnt about the world, they generally found the activities useful and engaging and somewhat informative as well. Respondent 16’s feedback captured the aims of the lesson very well:

 

Regarding the question of why these activities expanded their knowledge about the world, most students were not always specific. Some students (n = 9) noted that they managed to learn some new pieces of information and broaden their scope of knowledge. Some pointed out that these activities made them look up information (n = 3) that they would not have been interested in before these lessons. As Respondent 16 put it, “the quote ‘do your research’ rang true after every one of these classes”. Some responses (n = 7) imply that the activities made the students think about the ongoing issues in the world or how easy it is to influence people. A few students (n = 2) added that as a result of the classes they would not believe everything that is on the Internet and one of them would do some research before formulating opinions. As Respondent 3 put it, from then on, “I think we will be better at distinguishing fake news from real ones”. Even though the main aim of the sequence was not vocabulary development, eight students remarked that they learned many new expressions during the lesson from the readings about popular hoaxes. Finally, some students (n = 3) appreciated that they could develop their speaking and argumentation skills and engage in discussions about controversial topics.