C+-+Laurel+-+(off+Lake)+-+News+Literacy+(Grades+4-8)+Boots+on+the+Ground

Session II (open conference)—News Literacy

How to teach news literacy Pat: I feel pretty good at figuring out whether a news item is real or not, but how can I define fake news for an eight-year old (fourth graders)? Maria: The other issue is how to get teachers to understand and teach this (our faculty members are from other countries)? What is fake news? Is it just fake websites or is it something more? First step: show children fake websites Checkology.com — a website managed by journalists which demonstrates how websites can be “doctored” WNYC has a piece on how to teach news literacy (let’s make a list of resources) Photo of Trump and Putin on horseback and shirtless—great example of an image which looks real but is not Megan: Sixth grade humanities classes: teach meme literacy. Define meme. Ask students where they get information. If you have a question, where do you go? Make a sketch note flowchart demonstrating where they get information. Students have to explain why they use a particular source (defend it). Students also had to rate news sources, in terms of how much they trusted each. Students are using memes as jumping-off points. They see what’s trending in memes and then proceed from there. In other words, that’s where they start, as opposed to more established news sources. Project: see how Pepe the Frog was co-opted by the Alt Right to become a swastika. We as adults have a different lens with which we view popular memes, whereas students have a more limited view. Their media literacy is based on memes and images which they absorb without thinking. The process of dismantling must take place in order for them to understand more deeply what they’re accepting. “Dismantling” means first determining who the author of the website/image/meme is. Students also use Reddit as a news source. “Kill all norms” by Angela Nagle—a very important book about people using memes How do we allow students to use Wikipedia? Most teachers/librarians allow them to use it but basically as a jumping-off point. Give students high-level vocabulary to understand the validity of what they’re looking at. Ann: Website evaluation unit with fifth graders. Start with domain types—their purposes. Authority—does the author have authority? Who do we trust? Bias—how do we determine it? Persuasive language. Currency. They look at hoax websites. The American College of Pediatrics is a Christian pro-family site that promotes the concept of the “traditional” family unit. The language is coded, which makes it difficult to determine its legitimacy. This is a great example to show students. The American Pediatric Association is a legitimate site. If you’re a person who’s inclined towards liberal politics, you’ll get the second one (APA) on Google; if your inclinations are towards pop culture, you’ll get the first (ACP) on Google. This is a great way to teach students about Google algorithms and how Google is a company—not a news source, and how Google results depend on the user’s past searches to determine where to “send” them. Searching for “Arab Spring” on Google: users got different news, depending on their histories Alternatives to Google: Sweet Search and Infotopia (for younger students) Encourage parents to use these as well Rebecca: It helps to go through the search process slowly so that students can better understand the process, instead of just racing towards the goal. Reply All is a podcast. There’s one about Pepe the Frog. Fourth graders think that everything on the Internet is true. They need to be switched to a different orientation. At this age, they shouldn’t be told that everything is false. It might be more responsible to provide pre-selected materials, rather than allow them to do their own searches, given the concreteness of their thinking. Librarians and teachers in some schools use pathfinders. Students don’t have the critical thinking skills required for determining the reliability of sources. At what age should students be introduced to questioning this? General consensus: start in third grade. Show them two conflicting online sites and ask them how they would figure out which one is reliable. Unicorns vs. Rhinos: Beginning of year project. Each group gets a different narrative. The issue is rights to a waterhole. They don’t know the other narrative, so they fight for their side. End result: understanding of bias through role-playing. They also develop empathy when they find out what the other side’s narrative is. The parents receive a latter which explains the project. Analysis of book covers: determine the publisher’s bias. This can be done with younger children, as well as older ones. Bank Street page—Ally Bruce’s blog—looks at gender and race in terms of book covers, and how fourth to sixth graders are manipulated by publishers’ choice of book covers Doing research on your research—what’s your research process? Do a diagram. Information Search Process (Guided Inquiry Design) Border Crossers—anti-bias, anti-racism group that does faculty and student workshops Adam Alter, “Drunk tank pink” Donna Hicks, “Dignity” (her book has been used as a basis for Berkeley Carroll’s humanities curriculum). Difference between respect and dignity.

Rebecca Duvall Ann D’Innocenzo Catherine Ellwood Megan Kilgallen Lauren Pruitt Patricia Mahony Christine Nicolaou Jessica Panek Joanna Sondheim Megan Saxelby Maria Falgoust Eve Wolfsohn Amy Sulds Pat Hough