Book Choice for June - Identifying 'Fake News' Critical Literacy and the School Library by Cathal Coyle

I've always thought LIS courses should address this. Another possibility is that Education Departments in universities could provide courses for librarians. It's a crucial skill that most of us don't get any formal training in.

This is so true Wendy @bathgatew I often think about how school librarians keep up to date with the latest research techniques. Especially as many of them have learnt on the job with no formal training. It is hard enough when you do have some sort of training but if you have none where would you get it?

Something for me to think about a bit more I feel :)

Yes, although we feel we already know a bit about 'fake news', this was an accessible read with real examples. I agree with @bathgatew that teachers might too find it useful - one for the staff Professional Development Library, for sure.

I would, I think it is a very accessible read, clearly making the argument for critical literacy. The pressure SLT are under with lockdown, I daren't start suggesting too much at the moment but I will certainly have this in mind as things (hopefully!) start to settle down again.

It is very important to pick your moment @Kimberley Lawson. Having this resource in your arsenal for when the time is right is important too :)

Update...I've created a Padlet of resources for Y9 history topics that we already support. I've included Schrock's 5W's right at the top, with a short explanation for context.

That's brilliant to hear @Kimberley Lawson :) It is so good that this publication and discussion has had some direct impact. You have made me smile...

This guide will provide a useful framework for teaching critical literacy in library lessons. I can see myself bringing it in when teaching students about evaluating resources for bias.

This guide will also help me know what to look out for when reviewing if/how critical literacy is currently being taught in different subjects.

No, but I'm most certainly going to be finding out! They must do something for EPQ but otherwise, I'm not sure.

Not specifically - it's something I'd like to look into now though. The publication cites the KS2 English curriculum in England but there must be other subjects teaching these skills too.

It'd also be good to do more research into how far the curriculum already teaches news literacy, e.g. in English or PSHE.

I would agree that there must be some of this within History for example. If you find out more please share with us @I Ramsden

Right at the beginning of this group we looked at this https://padlet.com/Elizabethutch/2ysse5le7hsj which was developing critical literacies and it was all about reading horizontally. It is certainly something that we should be teaching our students to do. It takes time and many students still want a quick answer but It makes interesting reading.

Teaching students to question the power relationships that texts/authors construct was an interesting idea. The case studies gave some useful examples of how this could be achieved. I imagine this is also taught in Critical Thinking and literary theory parts of English courses.

Maybe this is an opportunity to talk to your English teachers @I Ramsden 😀

@Kimberley Lawson I agree that things do seem to be changing. It will be interesting to see what happens in NI but also in Scotland now that they have a recognised document for school libraries - Vibrant Libraries, Thriving Schools https://scottishlibraries.org/media/2108/vibrant-libraries-thriving-schools.pdf

There definitely feels as if there is a wind of change.

This publication also gave me a better understanding of what critical literacy means. It effectively showed how critical literacy goes beyond teaching students to evaluate resources using criteria that we're all familiar with from TRAAP/CRAAP and Schrock's model. I thought Arlene Holmes-Henderson's emphasis on linking critical thinking to civic action was interesting.

This is such an important point Isabel @I Ramsden It is important that we don't allow ourselves to believe that we already know enough about online searching. I am sure we all know someone who would say that they don't need to know about this as they have been teaching it for year. However things change and as school librarians we need to make sure we take the opportunity to continue learning when we can.

This was a new session but I hope to do it again (I was asked to produce IL sessions for a Year 11 enrichment programme to support students during the period when they should have been preparing to take their GCSEs). I structured the session around the three core questions that the Civic Online Reasoning project suggests for evaluating online information (Who's behind the information? What's the evidence? What do other sources say?) In the section on 'What do other sources say?' I talked about filter bubbles and what perspectives/sources you might not be viewing in your Google search results or social media feeds and have to actively seek out. This is something I hadn't previously included in similar sessions. I'd wanted to give a brief tutorial on media bias, for which the Media Bias Chart on p.14 of the publication would have been useful. However, there wasn't time to include this unfortunately.

Sounds like a great session! Have you looked at FOSIL yet? It certainly is something that might help with this type of session too. There are some great ready made resources that you can adapt and use too. https://fosil.org.uk/resources/

I've looked at FOSIL before and signed up to the website. I also found the case study by Darryl and Jenny in 'Identifying Fake News' helpful. Thanks for the link to the resources - I'll certainly check this out again in future.