Thing 21: News Literacy

Fake news used to be easier to spot. Satire was often over so over the top, it was nearly impossible to miss. Remember SNL: Jane... you ignorant slut....? On television, or in print reliable sources were well known, "branded," if you will. Nowadays, via computer, there are so many sources that it can be overwhelming to try to verify them.

In Thing 21: News Literacy, I watched the opening video, "The Problem with Fake News (and how our students can solve it") and read the article, "Truth, truthiness, triangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a 'post-truth' world." Even this much information was a lot to digest for me-- and I am an adult with a Master's Degree.

I know I could definitely use the video on the 5Cs with my students and apply it to various websites. I also found the rules of thumb and news literacy vocabulary helpful, although I would pick and choose which to introduce because there were so many of them. I also enjoyed the FART, CRAAP and RADAR evaluation processes. I think I would even use FART with my 9th graders because they are unused to evaluating resources at all. Many of them also feel that cutting and pasting is a perfectly acceptable way to write a paper. Mind you, I _know_ most of the elementary librarians in my district have taught all of this information in one way or another. Many students simply have trouble retaining it and need to be reminded at the start of each project.

In RCSD we have gone to a standardized citation format. We are all supposed to be using MLA. However, I think that information, media or news literacy (I do interchange the terms,) is so important that we should also standardize the way this is taught so that at the beginning of each project, we can simply remind studentsT to FART, CRAAP or use their RADAR.

Comments

  1. pollyalidaMarch 8, 2018 at 7:01 PM

    "remind students to FART, CRAAP or use their RADAR." - that phrase could catch on! :) I agree -
    evaluating content, literacy, critical thinking, etc, - all need to be woven into lessons over and over. We all need to be reminded to stop and think and question.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thing 17: Media Skills

Screen shots-- while I had used the snipping tool to take screen shots from my PC, I had no idea I could do this on my phone. (All I had to do was hold down the Power and Volume down buttons at the same time.) I did find out that Snaggy only exists as a website, not an app. The Snaggy app is a dating website to "find your next soulmate." LOL. I'm all good there... The exercise also prompted me to think about how I could use screenshots with students. I definitely would use them to give directions. I played with Pixlr on my phone a bit. I was using my husband's computer and didn't want to install Flashplayer without his permission in order to use it on the computer. I appreciated the tips on how to use Printscreen and how to scan items with my Evernote app. Later, I plan on going back to the lesson later to create my own animated gif. This lesson is fun, but there is so much to it. My husband just informed me that I've been "playing on the computer"
Read more

Thing 35: Supporting English Language Learners

The ELLs at Edison High School are some of my favorite students with whom to work. Many of them view education as the privilege it truly is, reminding us all to be thankful for the opportunities we are given. A large portion of the articles I read seemed to be more focused on elementary suggestions. However, since some of the students have either not had formal education or have had their education interrupted, these strategies can work with the older students as well. I try to buy books that students request and also to have books about students' home countries in the library. They are very excited to show you where they have come from and I enjoy learning about their cultures.  One thing that I have struggled with is deciding how much of my collection to purchase in languages other than English. At present I have very few books in Spanish... which is our largest contingency of ENL students. However, I have just found out (after my budget was largely spent) that we will be gett
Read more

Thing 12: Final Reflection

I am just going to go for it and bullet my final thoughts on CoolTools this year: I really enjoyed the topics I blogged about. I noodled around with other topics, but the ones I chose, I felt I would be most useful to me (both professionally and personally) and/or to share with others. I learned I prefer Blogger over WordPress, both because I found it easier to use and because it works with my existing Google account and I don't have to switch platforms. I used Bitmoji to create signage for my library and also to add a personal touch to emails and feedback to students and teachers. I showed several teachers how to Bitmoji and they loved it. Admittedly I still haven't done much with Instagram and I found out it is blocked at my school so I couldn't do the Instagram based Library Scavenger Hunt with students even if they were allowed to have their cellphones. I have used the Snipping Tool ad infinitum to save and/or print items that would not allow me to print portion
Read more