I’ve been working on designing the “Dear Someone/Persuasive Letter” assignment to use this fall, and stumbled upon this great site from Annenberg called Fact Checked. There are a ton of great lesson plan ideas that incorporate information literacy skills.
Here’s what the site has to say about itself:
“Our aim is to help students learn to be smart consumers of these messages, not to accept them at face value; to dig for facts using the Internet, not to stop looking once they get to Wikipedia; and to weigh evidence logically, not to draw conclusions based on their own biases. The materials on this site, then, are meant to help students acquire the skills to see through the spin. Under the heading Tools of the Trade we’ve outlined a five-step framework for analyzing information and avoiding deception. That process is the essence of what we do at FactCheck.org, where we have been debunking false and misleading claims in politics since 2003.”
I’m so impressed with this site and can’t wait to incorporate some of the lesson plans into my Lib300 class. The site will be extremely useful in teaching students how to evaluate information found on the Internet:
“The Internet is a fantastic source of facts, but also a source of dubious claims and misinformation. Here we offer our observations on which sites are generally reliable and unbiased, and which are not.” Websites are sorted into 3 different baskets:
- The Official Word – Sites where you can find government statistics and official reports and documents.
- Policy Wonks – Sites of non-governmental organizations that study issues, though not always from a neutral point of view.
- For the Cause – Sites that offer information while also advocating a particular stance on a policy matter.
You will definitely want to check out the videocasts which demonstrate “fact checking” in action. I was thinking what a great assignment it would be to have students mimic this “news reporting” and create videos which discuss the facts and the bias seen in the media. -LF
This is great! I am definitely using this in my class.
Here is a small list of RSS feeds for government sites. I like the idea of students using flashdrives as opposed to textbooks, and showing them how to use RSS feeds to collect information pertinent to their research.
I’m thinking of having class debates. 5 to a team and each would have a specific role on the team. I’d like to video tape them and show the best during the research & creativity fair.