Implementation plan

Grades 6–8 Implementation Plan

Pacing, prerequisites, and extensions for the middle-school band.

The activities

  • Grade 6 — Fair Use Detective. A student creator wants to remix a photo, a song clip, and a quote into a class project — but is it legal? Follow the evidence and crack four locks to close the case. (TEKS §126.17)
  • Grade 6 — Phishing Patrol. Strange messages are flooding the sixth-grade group. One promises free coins, another warns your account is about to be deleted. Which are real and which are bait? Study the messages and crack four locks to clear the case. (TEKS §126.17)
  • Grade 7 — Spot the Spin. A post is racing across the internet, and thousands are sharing it without checking. Your job is to slow down, read past the spin, and unlock the truth. (TEKS §126.18)
  • Grade 7 — Clickbait Detector. A headline is screaming for your tap and racing across every feed. Your job is to slow down, read past the bait, and unlock what is really going on. (TEKS §126.18)
  • Grade 8 — Evaluate the Source. A trending article is spreading fast, but something about it doesn't add up. Analyze the evidence, crack four locks, and decide whether the source can be trusted. (TEKS §126.19)
  • Grade 8 — Lock It Down. Your accounts hold your whole digital life, and someone just tried to get in. Learn how strong passphrases, second locks, and a calm plan keep intruders out. Crack four locks and secure the account for good. (TEKS §126.19)

Pacing

  • One activity ≈ 25–40 minutes, including debrief. Younger classes may need two sittings.
  • Run one per grading period, or cluster them into a two-week digital-citizenship unit.
  • Order matches the grade sequence; each grade deepens footprint, etiquette, IP, and safety themes.

Prerequisites

  • A browser and the activity link. No accounts, installs, or logins.
  • Students should be able to evaluate short arguments and are ready for real IP, security, and media-literacy vocabulary.
  • Teachers: skim the activity’s teacher launch page and the correlation guide first.

Extension & differentiation

  • Home-language pairs. Use the 🌐 picker so newcomers reason in their strongest language, then answer.
  • Author-a-clue. Students write a new clue (or a real-world example) for the skill they found hardest.
  • Reason aloud. Require a spoken/written justification before each lock check; grade the reasoning, not the click.
  • Bridge to a media-literacy or intro-to-AI unit; have students audit a real (teacher-vetted) source using the Grade 8 criteria.