Supporting Research Skills

Fact checking to avoid being taken in by “fake news”

1. Give your students the two links below with the following instructions: 

“Below are links to 2 websites.  Which would be the most reliable for research?  You have 5 minutes to decide and to give reasons for your decision.  This is an individual assignment. Do not work with someone else. You should take notes so that you have evidence to back up you conclusions.

The American Academy of Pediatrics

The American College of Pediatricians

2. Once the 5 minutes is up, find out which site each student picked and have them give some of their reasons.  Keep a tally.
3. Now play the first video:  https://youtu.be/yBU2sDlUbp8
4. Discuss.
5. Show second video:  https://youtu.be/hB6qjIxKltA .  In this one Mike Caulfield will   explain the use of Wikipedia as a fact checker.
6. At the end of this video discuss the uses for Wikipedia.  Talk about the school’s policy and why we have it (see below) but also about how wikipedia can be useful.  
7. School Policy on Wikipedia:  Read for background but do not cite!  

Rule No. 1:  Use Wikipedia as a starting point for your research, but don't cite it unless you can exhaustively demonstrate that is is the only authoritative source on a particular issue.

Rule No. 2:  Re: Rule No. 1:  That doesn't mean that you should use the information from Wikipedia anyway and just not cite it.  It means that you should find other research sources. Encyclopedias are only meant as starting points!  For example, you could find the bibliography in the Wikipedia article and look at the sources that the author of the article used.  You could also look to see if there is a list of links. Check those out as well.

          Rule No. 3:  If you are unsure, ask your teacher or librarian!

8. Show the 3rd clip:  https://youtu.be/tRZ-N3OvvUs on finding the original source
9. Discuss
10. If you have the time, show the 4th clip:  https://youtu.be/wJG7kFmS0FE .  Fact checking sites.
11. Recap the various fact checking techniques at the end of the class.  

School Policy on Wikipedia:  Read for background but do not cite!

Rule No. 1:  Use Wikipedia as a starting point for your research, but don't cite it unless you can exhaustively demonstrate that it is the only authoritative source on a particular issue.

Rule No. 2:  Re: Rule No. 1:  That doesn't mean that you should use the information from Wikipedia anyway and just not cite it.  It means that you should find other research sources.  Encyclopedias are only meant as starting points!  For example, you could find the bibliography in the Wikipedia article and look at the sources that the author of the article used.  You could also look to see if there is a list of links.  Check those out as well.

Rule No. 3:  If you are unsure, ask your teacher or librarian!