Support educators and students to critically examine the sources of online media and identify underlying assumptions.
In a peer coaching project completed in Fall of 2021, I partnered with a 6th grade English/Language Arts teacher to help her improve a 6th grade nonfiction reading and writing unit. My coaching partner and I chose to focus efforts on the current absence of support for building digital literacy skills for informational texts within the unit, and provide new opportunities for students to think critically about their interactions with informational texts in the research process. A new supplemental lesson was created to be used in the first week of the unit. In this lesson, students are invited to interact with authentic examples of both credible and inaccurate information sources found on the internet in order to improve their own digital literacy. They are also supported in conducting quality internet research for a nonfiction writing assignment.
As an additional support for this standard, in the post Digital Wisdom & Circumnavigating the Algorithm, I encourage all internet users to think critically about their own internet use and the ways in which their online interactions influence thoughts and behaviors, especially as it may relate to the creation of echo chambers and confirmation bias. The digitally-wise will make consistent efforts to challenge their own thinking and intentionally seek out alternative voices.
