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In today's society, information is constantly being thrown at us. News shows, magazines, podcasts, emails, radio segments, newspapers, social media- all sending various bits of information throughout our daily lives. Because of this constant barrage of information, it is important for people to know how to properly take in and "digest" everything. We should be able to sift through all that is offered and determine what and how we utilize the variety of info.
As a classroom teacher, I was used to helping my third graders gather research from resources I vetted and pre-selected for them. I was controlling their "information diet" to ensure that they were getting real, genuine facts. As an elementary librarian, however, I now realize that it is my job to help students find and identify these resources for themselves. I am tasked with teaching them how to sort, verify and vet outlets of information to determine the difference between what is real and what is fake. In Joyce Valenza's article for School Library Journal (2016), she mentions the need "to teach the important lessons of everyday civics for new consumption and production landscapes." This can be a daunting task, as many students think that if they hear or see it on the internet or TV, surely it must be real.
One of the resources I have used to help teach students these important skills is Common Sense Education. They offer great videos and lesson plans to use with a variety of grade levels. Last year, I used the lesson below to help teach my 5th graders how to determine if a news article was from a reliable source. In having genuine conversation with them, they had never thought to check for these things. They had always just assumed that the information they read was correct. With this mindset, they had no set information diet. They were consuming everything as truth and therefore had no idea of how or when to apply it to their lives.
Even with the youngest students, I have started discussing how to properly research. I worked with several 3rd grade classes this week on identifying reliable research sources and how to identify keywords that will return better search results. Kreuger Library's video (2016) on selecting and using keywords is very similar to how I teach my students- except in a bit simpler form, of course. This process really helps students understand the importance of using proper and specific search terms. I then go on to explain that once the results are returned, it is their job to figure out which pieces of information are going to be the most helpful for their specific needs. While this can be a daunting task for 3rd graders, it is a skill they must be able to utilize. Otherwise, they will continue to be overloaded with information and never know how to create their own "information diet".
Because of the overload of technology and information present in our day to day lives, these skills are important for students to learn. As an elementary librarian, it is my job to help students learn and implement the skills to help them develop a healthy "information diet".
References:
Krueger Library - Winona State University. (2016, August 19). Selecting & using keywords [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6kjt2Mt_4w
Valenza, J. (2016, November 26). Truth, truthiness, triangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a “post-truth” world. School Library Journal. Retrieved from https://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/
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