Problems inserting html

Problems inserting html

I am trying to insert font icons following this example.
https://www.w3schools.com/howto/tryit.asp?filename=tryhow_css_star_rating

I added the necessary lines of code to my html and css but the icons are not showing up when I insert the HTML on my page.

Using the HTML icon to insert html into the text editor, this is what I entered.

<span class="fa fa-star checked"></span>
<span class="fa fa-star checked"></span>
<span class="fa fa-star checked"></span>
<span class="fa fa-star"></span>
<span class="fa fa-star"></span>

But nothing happens after I press OK. When I view the html of the published site, this is the only code that shows up where I entered the above code.

<p><span> </span><br></p>

My site is the old version before the layout was changed.