Student learningfor Grades 6–8, Grades 9–12
Primary Source vs. AI Summary
Students read a clearly fictional 1911 letter, then catch an AI summary that changes dates, invents a quote, turns a rumor into a fact, and erases the neighbors who helped.
All activities Student learning
Real, Pretend, or Changed?
Young detectives move, wiggle, or freeze to decide whether a picture or story is real, pretend on purpose, or changed to look real, and learn to ask a grown-up when they can't tell.
Overview
Pretend is wonderful. Stories, cartoons, and drawings are made up on purpose, and everyone knows it. The tricky kind is a picture that has been changed, or made by a computer, so it looks real. In this game, you describe pictures and stories aloud, and children stand tall for Real, wiggle for Pretend, or freeze like a statue for Changed. They practice three detective questions and learn the most important move of all: when you can't tell by looking, ask a grown-up and check.
Objectives
- Students will sort described pictures and stories into real, pretend on purpose, and changed or computer-made, and give a clue for one choice.
- Students will use detective questions (Could this really happen? Who made it? Does something look strange?) to explain their thinking to a partner.
- Students will explain that computers can now make pictures that look like real photos, so looking alone is not always enough.
- Students will name a grown-up they can ask to help check.
Materials
On paper
- Handout A: Real, Pretend, or Changed? sort strips (1 teacher set, cut apart)
- Handout B: Clue Detective Checklist (1 per pair, or 1 enlarged for the board)
- Handout C: My Detective Page (1 per student)
- Three signs on the board or wall: REAL (stand tall), PRETEND (wiggle), CHANGED (freeze); crayons
On screen
- Optional: an AI image generator your district approves, run by the teacher on a projector
- Optional: a real photo you took of your classroom or playground, shown on the projector
Before you start
- Cut apart the 12 strips from Handout A. Put them in the order listed; the first four are the easiest.
- Post the three signs with a stick-figure pose drawn next to each.
- Print or enlarge Handout B so the three detective questions are visible to everyone.
- If you'll do the projected demo, try your district-approved image generator ahead of time with the prompt in the Digital section, and take one real photo of your classroom.
Step by step
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10–4 min
Hook
"I saw a dog as tall as a house!"
Say with great excitement: "On my way to school I saw a dog as tall as a house!" Pause. Ask: "Do you believe me? Thumbs up or thumbs down." Then: "What if I showed you a picture of it? Would you believe it then?" Let children talk. Say: "Today you're detectives. Some things are real, some are pretend, and some are changed to trick our eyes."
Facilitator noteMany children will say a picture would prove it. Hold on to that; the lesson will show that pictures can be changed.
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24–9 min
Model
Three kinds, three poses, three questions
Teach the poses: REAL means it really happened or really exists (stand tall). PRETEND means made up on purpose, like a story or a cartoon, and that's OK (wiggle). CHANGED means someone changed a real picture, or a computer made it, so it looks real but isn't (freeze like a statue). Then read the three detective questions on Handout B aloud: "Could this really happen? Who made it? Does something look strange?" Model one strip, thinking aloud with all three questions.
Facilitator noteThe key difference between pretend and changed: pretend doesn't try to fool you. Changed does, or at least it looks real when it isn't.
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39–19 min
Practice
Detective moves
Read each strip aloud, slowly. Children show the pose. Pick one child: "What clue helped you?" Then tape the strip under the matching sign. Every third strip, have partners turn and tell each other their clue using the frame: "I think it's ___ because ___." For strips like the lion in the kitchen, ask: "If you really weren't sure, who could you ask?"
Facilitator noteExpect disagreement on some strips. That's healthy. Ask both sides for their clue and remind them that detectives explain their thinking.
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419–24 min
Explore
How does a picture get changed?
Hold up a child's drawing (with permission) or a simple drawing you made of a house. Say: "This is a real drawing of my house." Tape a paper cut-out of a giant cat on the roof. "Now it's changed. If I took a photo of it, would it look real?" Then explain simply: "Some computers use AI to make pictures. You type words, and the computer makes a picture that can look just like a real photo. So sometimes our eyes can't tell. That's why we ask a grown-up and check."
Facilitator noteAvoid telling children they can always spot fakes by looking for extra fingers or blurry spots. Those clues sometimes help, but computer-made pictures keep getting better. Checking with a trusted grown-up and a trusted source is the lasting habit.
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524–30 min
Reflect
My Detective Page
Children complete Handout C: draw something real, something pretend, and something that could be changed, then name a grown-up to ask. Pairs share one drawing with each other using the frame "This is ___ because ___." Invite two pairs to share with the class.
Facilitator noteListen for reasons, not just labels. "It's changed because fish can't skateboard and it looks like a photo" is strong evidence.
Paper or screen
Unplugged
The entire lesson works with the printed strips, your voice, and the paper cut-out demonstration. The paper "change a picture" move in the Explore step shows children how editing works without a screen.
Digital
In the Explore step, project a real photo you took of your classroom and let children name what they recognize. Then, as the class watches, type into a district-approved AI image generator: "A realistic photo of a dog as tall as a house, standing next to a car." Show the result beside your real photo and ask: "Which one is real? How can we tell? Could we tell if we didn't know?" Children never use the image tool themselves; you drive it on the projector.
Does it need a screen? The sort and poses work best unplugged. The projected demo earns its few minutes: seeing a computer make a realistic picture from words, right beside a real classroom photo, shows children why "it has a picture" is not proof, which a description alone cannot do.
Evidence of learning
What you should be able to see or collect if it worked.
- Children give a clue for their choice ("lions don't live in kitchens," "it's a storybook"), not just a label.
- Children tell pretend apart from changed by asking whether it is trying to look real.
- During the demo or reflection, children say that a picture can look real and still be made by a computer, and name a grown-up to ask.
Adaptations
- Kindergarten
- Start with only REAL and PRETEND for the first six strips, then add CHANGED with the paper cut-out demo.
- Grade 2
- Pairs write a short "changed" caption for a real classroom photo (for example, "Our class pet is a baby dragon") and explain how a reader could check it.
- Emergent bilinguals
- The poses carry meaning without words. Add simple sketches to the strips and teach "real," "pretend," and "changed" in both languages.
- Children who can't move freely
- Use three colored cards (green for real, yellow for pretend, blue for changed) instead of poses.
Standards connections
Children tell real, pretend-on-purpose, and changed or computer-made pictures apart and give a clue, early media literacy about genre and trustworthiness.
- TEKS
- ethics and laws (c)(9)multiple genres, including multimodal and digital textsTEKS sections: Technology Applications §126.5–§126.7; ELAR §110.2–§110.4
Reflect
- How can you tell if a picture is real? What if you can't tell by looking?
- Do I stay safe and make good choices when I use the internet? (Student ELE guiding question)
- Why is pretend OK in a storybook but tricky in a photo?
What comes next
Invite families to play "Real, Pretend, or Changed?" with pictures they see together in books, on cereal boxes, or on a screen, asking the three detective questions. Next lesson, Ask Two adds the habit of checking what a computer tells us with a second source.
Pairs well with
- Gen AI Literacy Breakouts (K–8)A teacher-led digital follow-up on AI literacy for younger students.
- News Literacy ProjectBackground for teachers on manipulated and synthetic media.
