Real or Deepfake? KS3 Media Literacy Lesson Pack – 8 Scenario Cards, Checklist, Answer Key

You have 40 minutes and a Year 8 class that has already seen six AI clips before breakfast. They are not impressed by “do not believe everything”. They want something to argue about.

This pack hands each table eight printed scenario cards – a headteacher “announcement” nobody at school has made, a footballer asking pensioners to ring a number, a photo of a teacher that appeared at 22:40 on a Friday, a six-second voice note from a friend asking for GBP 20 – and a checklist they can use without you in the room.

What you get (A4 PDF, 9 pages, black-and-white friendly)

• 8 scenario cards, written to be cut out, one set per table
• The eight tells pupil checklist (face, eyes, edges, audio, hands, light, the file, the story)
• Starter with four claims to vote on, answers on the same page for you
• “Three doors”: verify, report, or do nothing – the part most resources skip
• Exit ticket, a four-level marking ladder and a full answer key with the reasoning to accept
• Differentiation for SEN, EAL and the pupil who already runs a Discord server
• Variants for one 60-minute lesson or four ten-minute form-time slots

Why it works

Nothing in the pack is an image. Every scenario is a written description, so you never put a real deepfake of a real person in front of a class, and the discussion stays on evidence and action rather than on whose face was cloned. Pupils leave with a habit, not a slogan: before you forward it, find where it came from.

Curriculum (England)

Computing KS3 – evaluate digital content for accuracy and trustworthiness. PSHE / RSHE (statutory) – media literacy, the influence of algorithms, online relationships. UK examples current to October 2026, including the Online Safety Act duties on platforms.

Printing

Class of 30 in tables of four: pages 5-6 x8, plus page 4 and page 7 per pupil. No login, no internet, no app in the room.

Safeguarding note

Cards 3 and 6 name a child and a member of staff deliberately: they are the two cards that turn “spot the fake” into “what do I do now”. If a live incident is already running in your school, use pages 4 and 7 and leave the cards out.

How this pack was made

AI assistance was used to draft and structure the text and to typeset the PDF from a build script written for this resource. No AI-generated images appear anywhere in it, and no scenario describes a real person. Every page was reviewed and corrected by the author before publication.