Critical thinking is a key skill in media and information literacy, and the mission of libraries is to educate and advocate its importance. Discussions about fake news has led to a new focus on media literacy more broadly, and the role of libraries and other education institutions in providing this. When Oxford Dictionaries announced post-truth was Word of the Year 2016, we as librarians realise action is needed to educate and advocate for critical thinking – a crucial skill when navigating the information society. IFLA has made this infographic with eight simple steps (based on FactCheck.org’s 2016 article How to Spot Fake News) to discover the verifiability of a given news-piece in front of you. Download, print, translate, and share – at home, at your library, in your local community, and on social media networks. The more we crowdsource our wisdom, the wiser the world becomes.
Evaluating Sources: The CRAAP Test
The CRAAP Test helps you evaluate sources to determine whether or no they are appropriate for an academic assignment When was the information published or posted? Has the information been revised or updated? Does your topic require current information, or will older sources work as well?
Enter into the Research
A MiddleWeb Blog “Do you always do this research project?” she asked, as class was ending. All around her, classmates were putting away laptop computers. She had spent the past 30 minutes writing with intensity and passion.
How to Spot Fake News - FactCheck.org
Fake news is nothing new. But bogus stories can reach more people more quickly via social media than what good old-fashioned viral emails could accomplish in years past. Concern about the phenomenon led Facebook and Google to announce that they’ll crack down on fake news sites, restricting their ability to garner ad revenue.
Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions
This process explicitly validates all students’ intellectual abilities.– High School History Teacher, New York The reasons behind their questions often bowl me over with their sincerity, the fact that [they] really want to know the answers because it’s important to them, or they feel it would be important for others to know.– 4th Grade Teacher, Chicago The ability to produce questions, improve questions and prioritize questions may be one of the most important—yet too often overlooked—skills that a student can acquire in their formal education. Strong critical thinking is often grounded in the questions we ask. By deliberately teaching questioning skills, we will be facilitating a process that will help students develop a mental muscle necessary for deeper learning, creativity and innovation, analysis, and problem solving.
Great Digital Lessons
Looking for Controversy In building great digital lessons, the sample items suggest the importance of finding issues that are controversial and might inspire a reasonable difference of opinion. The sources in these items usually present a mix of arguments and evidence that could support at least two different positions. In fact, they tend to push students into being for or against something like public art or a law governing the access of service animals to restaurants.
Good Tools for Teaching Students How to Evaluate Web Content Credibility
Source: Butler University Library, adapted from Meriam Library at CSU, Chico One of my favorite lessons to teach is about evaluating the credibility of web sites and other digital content. I often start by showing the classic “Can't Lie On The Internet” video from AllState, which gets a laugh and helps to get students in the right mind set. Next, we check out the classic “DHMO” site and talk about what we see there. Dihydrogen Monoxide sounds pretty scary, but is this site legitimate? That's when I bring up Kathy Schrock's 5 W's PDF and use it as a kick off point to discuss the idea of using criteria for evaluation, not just gut reactions.
Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions
Many, Many Examples Of Essential Questions by Terry Heick Essential questions are, as Grant Wiggins defined, ‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.” These are grapple-worthy, substantive questions that not only require wrestling with, but are worth wrestling with–that could lead students to some critical insight in a 40/40/40-rule sense of the term.
Building Good Search Skills: What Students Need to Know
Getty The Internet has made researching subjects deceptively effortless for students — or so it may seem to them at first. Truth is, students who haven’t been taught the skills to conduct good research will invariably come up short. That’s part of the argument made by Wheaton College Professor Alan Jacobs in The Atlantic, who says the ease of search and user interface of fee-based databases have failed to keep up with those of free search engines.
American Libraries Magazine
Librarians—whether public, school, academic, or special—all seek to ensure that patrons who ask for help get accurate information. Given the care that librarians bring to this task, the recent explosion in unverified, unsourced, and sometimes completely untrue news has been discouraging, to say the least. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of US adults are getting their news in real time from their social media feeds. These are often uncurated spaces in which falsehoods thrive, as revealed during the 2016 election. To take just one example, Pope Francis did not endorse Donald Trump, but thousands of people shared the “news” that he had done so. Completely fake news is at the extreme end of a continuum.
Research Process Models
We know from decades of studies that when people do research, they follow a process with some predictable stages. There are many models of this process. Here are three. As you read, think about what these models have in common. The Search Process Model 1
Information Literacy for Littlies
From the time they are born children are innately curious and as soon as they are able to articulate the words, they ask questions so they can make the connections they need as they try to make sense of their world. As the nearest adult we try to help them with the answers. When the child comes to school they know they are going to learn to read not only so they can enjoy stories for themselves but also so they can answer their own questions. So how can we help them do this right from the get-go?
Choice Literacy - Articles & Videos - Full Article
Research in fifth grade can be mind-numbing. Add note taking into that equation and you are in for an exhausting unit. Note taking in the world of fifth graders is always tricky. What I’ve noticed over the years is that the students will sit with the book, article, or website and read a sentence. They believe that sentence is important, so they decide to copy it into their notes. They know that copying is wrong, so they take one word out of the original sentence and now believe they have created their own sentence.
