5.3.1.2.1. Results from the Reflective Journals. The activity sequence entitled From the encyclopaedia of alternative facts was first piloted in the university setting, so the aims of the worksheet and its detailed description can be found in 4.3.1.2. In the framework of this study, even though the activity sequence was tried out in four different groups, with the participation of 51 students, only two teachers (Bella and Alma) submitted a research journal, which made content analysis rather difficult. Similar to the university setting, students found the first activity dealing with hoaxes rather engaging, and what Bella welcomed most about the activity was that it gave her “insight into how much students read and/or believe the news” (J/AF-B-1). In the activity where students had to come up with creative headlines, mostly the generally “more creative students” participated eagerly, but as Bella remarked, it was “not a task for everybody” (J/AF-B-1). In both groups, the students seemed to enjoy the poem, and they thought that the fill-in-the-gaps activity was easy for them. Alma and Bella both wrote in detail about the group work activity, where the students had to engage in a jigsaw reading task, read about different hoaxes, tell each other about their stories and decide on the most interesting hoax. In Alma’s group, she made sure the students read the activities by giving them an extra task, in which they had to write four true and four false sentences about the stories read. Bella raised their interests by announcing the story titles and letting them choose the stories for themselves: in this way, they could pick what to read according to their preferences, and she found it a “perfect opportunity to differentiate” (J/AF-B-1). Bella also addressed exercise 6 in her journal entry extensively: in this task, the students had to come up with arguments for and against some statements in the poem. As she saw it, this activity created much more involvement in her group than the creative activities, which she put down to the fact that her students either specialize in History or in IT. She remarked that this activity was very similar to the ones they did in preparation for the advanced level language exam, so the students “had a blast” while enumerating the arguments (J/AF-B-1). The following excerpt from her entry vividly captures the way she facilitated this session:

 

Both Bella and Alma commented that they loved the activity sequence because the topic was interesting, the activities were varied, and the students seemed genuinely engaged during the session.

 

5.3.1.2.2. Results of the Student Feedback. From the four groups, 44 students assessed the activity sequence. In response to the first question (How much did you enjoy the activities in the lessons?), they gave it an average of 4.20 (SD = .97), which signals that they were quite satisfied with their lessons. The second question enquired into how much they think the sequence helped them develop their language skills, which they rated with an average of 3.86 (SD = .79). Finally, they were asked to what extent the activities helped them develop their 21st-century skills, with the average mean of their answers being 3.73 (SD = .95). The top 21st-century skills they think the sequence developed were communication skills (36), creativity (27), and their researching (24) and presentation (24) skills.