Lesson Overview
Critical Information Literacy Project
Global Warming
Lesson Overview
Our project for critical information literacy involves global warming. Unfortunately, our curricula rarely allow room for information literacy divorced from content, so we picked global warming as a topic because it fits in well with a cross-curricular approach. Social Studies teachers can focus on the political side of national and international legislation, Math teachers can focus on data analysis, English teachers can focus on the research and documentation process, and Science teachers can lead the project with a focus on the phenomenon itself. Also, global warming is a controversial issue that requires students to find and analyze in-depth scientific research, and separate relevant, valid information from a cloud of partisan, hyper-political obfuscation.
Our lesson starts with a drill where students search for the answer to a seemingly straightforward question such as, “will the Paris agreement reduce global warming?” Afterwards, the class will discuss how they went about finding their answers: What type of search engines did they use? How did they determine if a site was legitimate? How did they deal with differing opinions? This discussion lets students better contemplate their current habits before examining other, and it gets them thinking about some of the issues involved in searching for information on the web.
The motivation is a way to show how sites can use emotional appeals divorced from facts and play with ideas of credibility. As a class, the students will watch a well-produced, short video about animal abuse. Afterwards, when students are thinking about the plight of these unfortunate animals, the class will explore a site purportedly dedicated to saving stray dogs, thedogisland.com. Students will write in their journals if they think the site is a good start to finding a solution to the problem of abused and stray pets, and why or why not. The class will then expand the discussion started earlier about searching for valid, relevant information and how to evaluate individual sites.
The main lesson starts with overarching questions about critical information literacy rather than questions about global warming: “What makes information credible?”, “What is bias and how does it affect your search for information?”, and “How do you optimize your search for information?” These questions are debatable and involve the societal debate over the trustworthiness and abundance of information we are exposed to every day. The teacher can start a discussion on these questions, but students will return to these questions as they perform their research.
We use the open lesson format of Explore, Explain, Extend/Elaborate, and Evaluate so that it can be a shared lesson across curricula, and so that teachers can easily insert their own alternative activities for any of the given sections. The lesson is in the form of a project/discussion where students are given a hypothetical task: “The U.N. is looking for student feedback on a critical issue. They need your help in finding websites to inform average people in advance of an international conference on global warming.” This scenario requires students to judge informational sources through a number of lenses. They must consider if the information is accurate, but they must also consider how it is presented, and if it is in the best format to inform the public at large.
We wanted students to take ownership of their research, so we have them formulate their own questions about global warming. Teachers can direct this activity in groups, pairs, or as individuals, but there should be a peer collaboration process at the end that allows the class to consolidate and refine questions. The teacher will introduce the students to a source validation strategy such as CRAP (Currency, Reliability/Relevance, Authority, Purpose/Point-of-View) and a research strategy such as S.E.A.R.C.H. (Select, Extract, Apply, Run, Chart). However, these types of Acronym entitled strategies are just starting points to ignite a debate about navigating sources. Students will collaborate in groups to create a more expansive method for finding and validating sources, and they will present their criteria to the class.
Students, in groups or as individuals, will have to find an abundance of sites (perhaps up to 20) that might answer their questions. Using the criteria they formulated earlier in the lesson, students will analyze their lists of sources and pick the most useful. This process will introduce students to the necessary diligence that valid research requires. How can students feel any certainty that they have found the most relevant site if they do not get a sense of the other sites available?
Finally, all groups, partners, or individuals will have to defend their chosen resource in a Socratic Seminar. In this process, other class members will ask questions and make observations that require deep analysis of student criteria.
Throughout this lesson, students are required to analyze and reflect on, not only the validity of sources, but also the nature of research in the overwhelming information marketplace of the 21st century. While we do use some pre-made strategies as a starting point, we ask students to break out of predefined criteria and create their own. Further, we ask them to judge sites on more than just accuracy and truth; we ask students to judge websites on their utility for a self-formulated purpose. Students can transfer the skills developed in this lesson across curricula and grade levels, preparing them to be citizens and workers in the 21st century.