After working in groups to analyze primary sources related to a historical hoax, learners will discuss how people managed to be fooled and work to identify one of the biggest April Fools jokes in history.

Concepts

april, primary source analysis, the 5 w's, Research, secondary source analysis, primary sources, secondary sources, april fools day

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• As an extension activity, have learners design hoaxes related to their cross-curricular knowledge, with information they are learning about in other classes such as science, literature, and mathematics

Classroom Considerations

• No answer key is included; however, it will be quite helpful to go through each of the steps yourself and identify the correct answers before beginning the lesson with your students

Pros

• Engaging way to introduce primary and secondary source analysis
• All activity materials included

Cons

• None

Common Core

RH.6-8.1 RH.6-8.2