AI is not merely transforming the tools students use, it is transforming how they interpret the concept of truth itself. And in order to teach students to seek out truth rather than blindly accepting what comes across their feed, we must encourage them to question thoughtfully.

Across the globe, students scroll through TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and AI generated content for entertainment, connection, and to combat boredom. But while artificial intelligence offers instant responses and endless content, it doesn’t inherently help students ask better questions, or discern which answers are worth trusting. And while students may not scroll social media specifically seeking news and current events, the content they view influences their views of the world surrounding them.

As algorithms feed students information aligned with their interests and beliefs, they may be left vulnerable to misinformation, bias, and emotional manipulation. As educators, now more than ever, it is vital that we teach students to question what they read and view, seek out potential inaccuracies, and discuss the cultural impacts of endless streams of information (with its positive and negative aspects).

Yet how might we fit this into instructional minutes with multiple demands on our time? The answer is in an interdisciplinary, integrated approach. Relevant learning in any content area can include literacy lessons in media and AI.

The Misinformation Moment

How can we teach students to combat misinformation? How might they learn healthy habits of fact checking?

To navigate this world, students can benefit from embedding pedagogy from history/social studies. These historical thinking questions can work for any content area.

• Who is the source?
• What’s the context?
• Whose voices are being centered, or silenced?
• How has this issue played out in the past?

Habits of Questioning Across Content Areas

Questioning opportunities provide students with practice evaluating claims, analyzing perspectives, and thinking critically about the world around them, across subject areas. This fosters empathy and connection, while teaching students how narratives are shaped, challenged, and retold.

📚 English Language Arts (ELA)

Text: While students can utilize nearly any fiction or non-fiction book to consider these questions, the example below aligns to Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, a literary text mentioned in Common Core ELA Standards appendices as an exemplary text for grade 5.

• Who is the source? What is the author’s background and purpose?
• What’s the context? What was happening historically (e.g., the Great Depression, Mexican repatriation)?
• Whose voices are being centered or silenced? How are migrant workers represented? Whose perspective is missing?
• How has this issue played out in the past? Compare the story to real historical events involving immigration and labor rights.

📐 Math

Topic: Data from historical and modern sources provide a plethora of opportunities to teach students to question assumptions and view media with a critical eye. The following questions can be used as students explore redlining and housing discrimination through analysis of data.

• Who is the source? Who collected the housing and lending data?
• What’s the context? When and why was this data collected? What policies were in place?
• Whose voices are being centered or silenced? Whose experiences are reflected in the numbers?
• How has this issue played out in the past? Connect data patterns to the historical impact of redlining and racial segregation.

🌍 Geography/Environmental Science

Topic: Within science, students can investigate human interaction with the environment across history and in current events to practice their critical questioning techniques. The questions below relate to natural disaster response in different regions

• Who is the source? What agencies or news sources are reporting on the response?
• What’s the context? What political, economic, or social factors shaped the response?
• Whose voices are being centered or silenced? Are local communities represented in recovery efforts or decisions?
• How has this issue played out in the past? Compare responses to Hurricane Katrina with those in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

🎵 Music/Art

Topic: Art is an expression of the history and societal influences in which it has been created. Consider engaging students in conversations about art from varied time periods and perspectives.

How has this issue played out in the past? Connect artistic expression to social movements and resistance.

Who is the source? Who created the work and why?

What’s the context? What was happening in society at the time?

Whose voices are being centered or silenced? Whose pain or hope is being expressed?

Next Steps: Use Storytelling and Inquiry as Pedagogical Anchors

Students across the nation want to be creators, often seeing social media platforms as method of sharing their voice. A powerful and engaging way to combat misinformation is to teach students to be ethical storytellers themselves. When students ask questions, examine evidence, and construct narratives, they build ownership of learning—and become more skeptical of oversimplified, one-sided content.

Prompt:
“Who gets remembered, and who decides?”
This essential question can anchor a mini-inquiry project where students research and present on a lesser-known figure from history, tying it to themes such as representation, bias, and equity.

From Scroll to Scholar: Helping Students Reflect on the Feed

Instead of just asking students to “use AI responsibly” or “don’t trust everything you see online,” we can go deeper:

• Recognize the patterns algorithms reward.
• Trace how digital ideas echo historical narratives.
• Notice emotional manipulation and historical amnesia in viral content.

Ideas for Tomorrow

1. Integrate Primary Sources into ELA Time
   Use historical photos, letters, or audio clips to analyze author perspective and source reliability alongside your reading curriculum.
2. Introduce a Quick “Claim Checker” Protocol
   Any time a student makes a historical claim (even if an offhanded comment), have the class pause and consider: Who said it? What’s the source? Is there evidence?
3. Start a Digital Historians Journal
   Have students reflect weekly on something they saw online and ask, “What’s the historical context of this idea?”

Why This Work Matters

If we want students to understand their world, participate in democracy, and to push back against manipulation, we can’t wait until high school to teach them how. The foundations of civic reasoning, empathy, and inquiry start now, in elementary and middle school classrooms where curiosity thrives. And this can be practiced across content areas.

AI isn’t going away. But neither is our ability to help students think deeply, question boldly, and learn from the past.