News Literacy: The Keys to Combating Fake News

by Michelle Luhtala, Jacquelyn Whiting

Overview

At a time when misinformation in the media is abundant, this book explains the difficulty in nurturing students to become critical researchers and offers practical lessons that empower students to excavate information that will help them learn.

This guide to teaching news literacy explores a wealth of resources and classroom-tested lessons that educators in grades 7–12 can use in their own libraries and classrooms. To introduce the concept of news literacy, the authors explain the steps of the inquiry and research process in detail and examine the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) 2016 report "Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning" and related research studies.

Lesson plans corresponding to each stage of the process are coordinated to relevant standards from the CCSS and ISTE and are accompanied by rubrics for providing students feedback on their progress as well as samples of student work as it evolved through the stages. Furthermore, the authors' anecdotal insights from their experiences in collaboratively implementing the lessons with colleagues are an invaluable addition for any librarian seeking to work with teachers to help students become critical researchers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440861529
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/09/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	182
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Michelle Luhtala is Library Department Chair at New Canaan High School in New Canaan, Connecticut and facilitates an online learning community for nearly 12,000 library and educational technology professionals.

Jacquelyn Whiting is a veteran educator with 25 years of experience as both a high school social studies teacher and a library media specialist.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction to News Literacy 1

2 A Brief History of Disinformation 5

3 What the Research Says about Students' Media Literacy 9

4 Echo Chambers, Filter Bubbles, and Likes, Oh My! 17

Do Your Students Know There Is a Problem? 17

The Age of the Citizen Journalist 18

5 The Stages of Research: A Model 21

Wonder 22

Investigate 23

Synthesize 24

Express 27

Review 28

6 Lessons for Developing Information Literacy 33

Developing Research Questions 33

Lesson 1 Question Stems 34

Lesson 2 The QFT 38

Lesson 3 What Is My Bias? 41

Lesson 4 Primary Source Close Reading 45

Lesson 5 Text, Context, and Subtext in Primary Sources 48

Lesson 6 Agree and Disagree with Primary Source Authors 57

Lesson 7 What Is This Source? 60

Lesson 8 Source Evaluation 65

Lesson 9 Which Source Does the Job? 71

Lesson 10 How Can Two Writers Reach Such Different Conclusions? 72

Lesson 11 Editorials, Op-Eds, and Blogs, Oh My! 75

Lesson 12 Reading for Editorial Bias 76

Lesson 13 Not All Editorials Are Essays 78

Lesson 14 Opinion in Many Forms 79

Lesson 15 Parody and Satire 80

Lesson 16 Propaganda, Hoaxes, and Other Forms of Manipulation 82

Lesson 17 Analysis of Social Media as a Tool for Persuasion 85

Lesson 18 Fact-Checkers 89

Lesson 19 Anatomy of a Stump Speech 92

Lesson 20 Unpacking a Visual Text-Paintings 93

Lesson 21 Unpacking a Visual Text-Photographs 95

Lesson 22 Building Capacities for Critical Thinking by Fostering Empathy 98

Lesson 23 Branding and Advertising 101

Lesson 24 Expose the Trail 104

Lesson 25 Protection by the First Amendment 107

Lesson 26 Media Watch 110

Overcoming Student Resistance to Close Reading 112

7 Citations Are a Tool for Source Evaluation 115

Appendix 7A Bibliography Feedback Comment Bank 121

Appendix 7B MLA 8 Self-Guided Instruction-Checks 127

Appendix 7C Bibliography Quiz 133

Appendix 7D Bibliography Checkbric 134

8 Big Takeaways 137

9 A Longer Unit of Study 143

Unit 1 Should I Share This? 143

Unit 2 How Can Something Be Both Biased and Meaningful? 144

Unit 3 Why Can't I Separate the Medium from the Message? 145

Unit 4 Problem-Based Learning: How Can I Use Digital Media for Good? 147

10 Rubrics 149

Works Cited 163

Index 167

Editorial Reviews

This detailed work by librarians Luhtala and Whiting is aimed at school librarians and teachers, but its contents will also help those working with community-college and undergraduate students; even librarians who don't specifically offer information-literacy instruction will find their thinking about media literacy expanded by the material offered. . . . [A] valuable work.” —Booklist, Starred Review

“While the lessons work for middle and high school students, elementary librarians can adapt them to their classes. VERDICT: A superb road map for those teaching media literacy.” —School Library Jourbanal, Starred Review

“This book is an essential resource for the entire learning community. The authors are brilliant school librarians.” —Knowledge Quest Blog

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2018
Fake news and "alternative facts," the authors say, "distract us from a very real educational challenge: teaching students the skills and dispositions that make them careful and thorough researchers." These useful, succinct, and scaffolded lessons help students become savvy consumers of digital and print media. The chapter "Big Takeaways" gets to the heart of the matter: fake news isn't new, but social media's influence is. Teaching students to judge the veracity of what they read on Twitter, Facebook, and other sites is vital. The authors include many excellent websites, rubrics, organizers, self-guided checks, and quizzes, as well as additional lessons in the bibliography. While the lessons work for middle and high school students, elementary librarians can adapt them to their classes. VERDICT A superb road map for those teaching media literacy.—Laura Fields Eason, Parker Bennett Curry Elementary School, Bowling Green, KY

School Library Journal