Information Literacy Work

The last several weeks of Literacy Studies classes have been filled with lessons and activities related to information literacy and evaluating sources. Much of the work was based on the book Fact vs. Fiction: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Age of Fake News by Jennifer LaGarde and Darren Hudgins.

To begin our work, students picked apart the pieces of the story of Frida, a young girl apparently trapped in a collapsed elementary school in Mexico City after an earthquake. The story, as retold in Fact vs. Fiction, recounted the hours after the earthquake when rescuers claimed to have seen and heard from the trapped girl. World-wide coverage of the story ensued, and #Frida trended on Twitter. In the end, there was no trapped girl. The story illustrates how a story can gain traction--even a story that isn't true.

Student participated in a sorting activity that included elements from the story. Using categories from Fact vs. Fiction, students chose where to place story elements, and then defended their choices during discussion. Categories included: famous names and places, a few facts, legitimate news information, eye witnesses, and emotional investment or connection.

Next, students examined examples of "fake news," which we learn is likely one of four kinds of stories:

    1) propaganda

    2) disinformation

    3) conspiracy theory

    4) click bait

After discussing what we already knew, we looked at specific examples of each, then participated in a Four Corners activity when looking at different examples. Once students made their choices, they explained why they made the choices they did.

Once students had specific vocabulary for "fake news," it was time to evaluate online sources, as that's where students--and indeed, many of us--primarily get our information. Together we looked at a checklist of things to do and look for when examining websites.

We applied the checklist to a site together--The Jackalope Conspiracy--and gathered "the evidence" to make a decision about the site: Is it propaganda, disinformation, conspiracy theory, or click bait?

Students also worked independently (or with a partner) to evaluate an assigned website from the list above. Not every site on the list was disinformation; some were accurate websites. Students worked through their checklists and read laterally to try to confirm the information on the sites they were evaluating.

Students' final activity was to visit snopes.com to see how it can be used as another tool in website and information evaluation and fact checking.

Using tools at snopes.com, students search for information provided to them, and they also had time to search for an item of their own interest to determine the accuracy of the story and information. 

Finally, students completed a quick survey to provide some feedback regarding their understanding of information literacy and source evaluation before we began our work compared to their knowledge of these things after our activities and reading. The good news? After participating in lessons and activities, students reported a nearly 20% increase in their confidence related to evaluation skills when looking at information online.

Book Share/Talk HyperDoc

 Literacy Studies students recently completed their work in a HyperDoc taken from cubeforteachers.com.

This book share/talk document encourages students to think beyond plot and summary and instead consider their own thinking as they read and connect their reading to broader topics. (You can grab the template HERE.) Students also create a hyperlink for the image associated with their book of choice. While they used the Unsplash add-on to insert copyright-free images in a recent Slides project, students this time used Pixabay Free Images add-on in the HyperDoc.

To encourage collaboration in the HyperDoc, all grade-level students on a given class day shared their work in a single document. Before we even began inserting book cover and Pixabay images, classes engaged in discussions about good digital citizenship when multiple users share a document. We even had the chance to see how seemingly innocent clicking around in a Google Doc can have an impact; once, all of the directions were inadvertently deleted, and in another class, a student accidentally deleted an entire column in the table. :) Everything a teachable moment and retrievable and fixable! :)

Students' work occurred over 3 days' time: one day to introduce the HyperDoc, install the Pixabay add-on, and begin filling in individual rows of boxes; one day to complete your individual row, including inserting the hyperlink and commenting on others' work; and, a final day to wrap-up anything not yet completed.

The students' choices of websites to hyperlink to their images was pleasantly surprising! While some chose to include links to official authors' websites and book trailers, other students searched for topics and themes related to their books. On students' final work day, many took advantage of the time to scroll the document and browse the related content. Below are screenshots taken from some of the HyperDocs:

Genre Work

 Recently sixth graders have been talking about genre in their reading classes, so we picked up the mantle in Literacy Studies for a little "show what you know" activity in Google Slides.

After a class discussion about genre and books in those genres--along with examples of elements from the stories to support the genre--students began their work:

Because this was our first project of the year, we took class time to talk about copyrighted images and places where we can go to get copyright-free images, like Unsplash.com. We're able to use the Unsplash add-on in Slides, so this becomes an even easier way for us to include images in our work.

Students had class time to work on their Slides before sharing their work.

With Covid-19 protocols in place, sharing our work with one another took on a slightly different look. Students revised their sharing settings, then provided the URL for their work in a Google Form. The spreadsheet of Form responses was something they could access from a link emailed to them, and from there, students could see one another's work. After some time, students participated in a 3-2-1 response activity based on what they'd seen from their classmates:

You can also see some examples of students' work below:

Using MackinVIA

 One of the many online reading resources available to us from the Heartland AEA is the online library MackinVIA.

Literacy Studies students spent a couple of days exploring the audiobooks and ebooks available to them from MackinVIA and completed a scavenger hunt to direct some of their exploration. 

Many students found the MackinVIA had some of their old favorites--Alan Gratz & Gordon Korman titles, the Amulet series, A Dog's Purpose, and more!--and also found some new titles that interested them. Some of the books getting a lot of attention right now in the library include:

Students had class time to complete the scavenger hunt and check out any items of interest. Many found that while a title may be unavailable in our own MS library, they were able to check it out from MackinVIA and try the book in audio or ebook form.

You can take a look at the scavenger hunt below:

2020-2021 Iowa State Award Nominees

 In Literacy Studies classes we have been talking about this year's lists of Iowa Children's Choice Award and Iowa Teen Award nominees. In a post from the summer, students could see what titles were nominated for this year's awards, and recently in class, students have had the opportunity to watch book trailers for the titles and respond with their initial impressions of the books.

Curious about this year's nominees? You can watch trailers for the Iowa Children's Choice Award nominees below when you click on the caption.

CLICK HERE FOR TRAILERS

 You can also watch the Iowa Teen Award trailers--just click on the link in the cap:

CLICK HERE

Feel free to stop by and browse the cases for the state award books! :) Remember, you'll need to have read 2 of the titles from a list to be eligible to vote in the spring. Happy reading!

Showing Some Love to Nonfiction Reading

Recently both sixth grade and seventh grade Literacy Studies students completed work that relied on them using our online databases to do a little nonfiction reading to gather information related to topics of their choice. Sixth graders completed the AEA online databases tic tac toe project (you can read about it HERE in an earlier post), and seventh graders created an "app" using Google Slides. (More to come in a future post!)

Both projects included accessing our AEA databases and doing some nonfiction reading. To reinforce this, a recent library display showed students that the realities of nonfiction topics often are reflected in the fiction books they more often gravitate toward. Take a look at some of the more popular nonfiction topics and their fiction counterparts.

Topics for the display included:

• bullying 
• natural disasters
• disease
• war spies
• paranormal activity
• immigration
• Holocaust
• Vietnam War
• extreme sports
• autism
• mental health
• animals

 Throughout the year, students watch book trailers in Literacy Studies class as part of our routine, and often nonfiction titles are included. Recently students watched these trailers:





Stay tuned! More books--including nonfiction reading--will be featured in an upcoming post. Happy reading!

Podcasting, Part II

Once Literacy Studies students had a basic understanding of podcasting elements--specifically related to fictional, storytelling podcasts like The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel--we provided students with options, opportunity, and time to explore a wide variety of both fiction and nonfiction podcasts.

Students had class time to listen to all/most/part of a podcast, and in preparation for a sharing out activity, they completed a Google Slide that included podcast information, a recommendation, and a visual retelling using emojis. 

With their recommendation and visual retell Slides, students shared their podcast reactions with one another in a variety of ways, including rotating partner groups, small groups, and with the full class. 

Examples of students' work appears below:

Finally, students also completed a Google Form that generated a full-class list of recommended podcasts to be shared on our library main page later. With one click from our library page, students will have access to student-recommended podcasts arranged by genre, all for their browsing and listening pleasure.