Why Learn History // Week Three Questions  

In Chapter 7 "Why Google Can't Save Us" Wineburg dives deep into the internet's ability to deeply confuse expert and novice historians (and everyone else!). He describes several case studies that highlight how difficult it can be to assess information that we come across online.   

• As more students are conducting research online, how are you managing the information they are exposed to?   
• Do you teach digital literacy?   
• How do you practice online reasoning or claim testing? How do you practice it with your students?   
• What routines or activities have made the biggest impact to negotiating the power of the internet in your classroom?  

Post your response to the questions in the comments below as we complete our final week of the Book Club. Be sure to join us for Sam Wineburg’s Keynote Address on August 4 at 1:00 PM PDT!  

Why Learn History // Week Three Questions  

In Chapter 7 "Why Google Can't Save Us" Wineburg dives deep into the internet's ability to deeply confuse expert and novice historians (and everyone else!). He describes several case studies that highlight how difficult it can be to assess information that we come across online.   

• As more students are conducting research online, how are you managing the information they are exposed to?   
• Do you teach digital literacy?   
• How do you practice online reasoning or claim testing? How do you practice it with your students?   
• What routines or activities have made the biggest impact to negotiating the power of the internet in your classroom?  

Post your response to the questions in the comments below as we complete our final week of the Book Club. Be sure to join us for Sam Wineburg’s Keynote Address on August 4 at 1:00 PM PDT!  

1. and 2. I teach them to identify addresses and sites that may be good sources and may have a filter. I also teach them to compare multiple sources then choose wisely. I don't use textbooks anymore because of the availibilty of raw information! I do provide links for sources, but they are not required to use them- some do, some don't.

3. and 4. They share their information and get feedback from me and the class. For example, one of our activities is to work on open-ended questions as a class. They each choose and answer a specific question or two using their sources, and I indicate if their answers and evidence (if required) are sufficient. If not, they revise and we go through a feedback cycle wherein I might give more specific feedback. They also tend to ask each other for feedback or help before getting iy from me. In the end, they start to build their own algorithm for vetting sites, sources, etc!

It was both fascinating and a little terrifying to read about how experienced historians struggled to navigate online sources to determine their reliability. Wineburg also brought up the point that this is not an issue unique to students; it's equally true of adults. Just yesterday, someone sent me a video of a politician speaking, and it didn't sit right with me. A few minutes of online sleuthing later and I realized that the video had definitely been altered. Using all of the claim tester activities is one way that I try to make students more aware of misinformation, clickbait, and unreliable sources. We consider who wrote the article and who published the website, does it seem like there is opinion or bias inserted...? Making connections to social media using specific examples of things that have gone viral has also been powerful for students because I think it helps them realize that they may be adding to the problem. I connect to gossip and have done a 'glitter and gossip' activity to demonstrate that gossip is easy to spread, but extremely challenging to clean up. The same can be said for false headlines and misinformation. I tell students that unless they are sure something is true, they shouldn't post it. However, this doesn't solve the issue of determining whether something is true or false when researching. A couple of things I do: in any research scenario, they have to include links to the sites they used and find a minimum number of sites. The goal here is to corroborate information across sources and hold them accountable for the information they find. I think this year, I may incorporate an extra component by asking them to provide at least one piece of evidence for why the site/source seems reliable. Depending on the research task, starting with a provided article and then having them brainstorm questions based on holes in their research is also helpful. In other words, before you just start searching for things on the internet, have a purpose or goal in mind for the information you are trying to find (instead of an ambiguous question typed into a search bar). I'd like to try to empower my students by teaching them to think more "laterally" like a fact-checker when researching as opposed to reading "vertically" like we might do when reading from a scholarly text. Not only is this more efficient and accurate from a research standpoint, but it also has ramifications beyond the classroom. If empowering students to more effectively navigate information online leads to more responsible citizenship, it seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

I give mad props to Wineburg and the Stanford Education Group for developing materials that put their money where their mouths are.  Next to the OER and Crash Course, I think the three resources below are some of the best for teaching social studies in the Wineburgian paradigm.  All of the below come from the SHEG, all were informed by Why Learn History, and you will notice that the third resource is specifically designed to target digital literacy. I highly recommend them if your are looking for activities related to sourcing, "reading + thinking like a historian", or promoting digital literacy.  They have worked well for me.  Beyond the Bubble is particularly useful for finding a quick assessment or two over "Reading Like a Historian" skills, and it provides rubrics + samples for each "level" of performance. I share these as a way to respond to Erik Christensen's fourth question above.

1. Reading Like a Historian
2. Beyond the Bubble History Assessments
3. Civic Online Reasoning

Hi Vesta Mizell ! I love that you incorporate digital literacy into your instruction, helping students to learn how to identify reliable resources, and that you make this both an individual and whole class experience for students. It's such a challenge to keep up with all the new information coming out daily! Your practices are not only good for students, but hopefully they can share these with the adults in their world.

Meaghan Mihalic , your efforts to empower students is something that resonates with me personally. I always considered it a success if I could help my students learn how to learn on their own. This has become increasingly difficult as more information is available. As I read the questions for this week, I kept going back to the amazing Track Talk by Crissy Calera and how she helps students with the question  “How do we know what we know? as the starting point for distinguishing fact and fiction.

Holding students accountable for the information they share is such an important component to determining reliability. I love that you have them do the pre-work of creating questions prior to beginning the search. That saves so much time and leads to greater success.

As technology has improved and information is at our fingertips, our desire to go beyond page one of the search results or actually look at the source seems to decline. That desire for instant gratification is so strong. Helping students to see the value in taking time to get the correct information will leade to responsible citizens down the road. 

 Thanks fo the additional resources, Casey Profitt ! I used Reading Like a Historian materials years ago and found them to be extremely useful. I'm curious, what's your approach to teaching digital literacy? Is this a start of year focus, or is it something that you continuously have to work on with students over the course of the year? 

I think any skill building with students is an ongoing process so I try to spiral activities. My start of the year focus in any of my courses is just trying to get them to read more analytically + "like a historian".  So, it's about making them aware of sourcing questions and reliability questions and the danger of a single narrative, etc.  I try to get them to think about "how we know" and "why we know" not just "what we know".  This is not digital literacy per se, but it transfers into digital literacy.  That being said, I used the Reading Like a Historian and Bubble stuff more in my World and AP World to reinforce claim testing, sourcing (i.e. HAPPY skills), etc.

The Civic Online Reasoning materials I used in a Freshman level course called Rhetoric and Civics and in a Contemporary Issues Elective course.  Not so much my World or AP course.  In the Freshman course, I literally ran the COR Intro activity on the Saturday School.  Then would cherry pick when to practice lateral reading skills with various sources. 

I do try to do the "Evaluating Evidence" lesson or something similar right before any major research project/activity in my World course, as well as a refresher on lateral reading. Alas, there is not much time for such projects in my AP course.

Does that help?  I realize that I might not be answering your question. :-)

This is exactly what I was asking! Thank you for such a thorough response. It's always nice to learn from others. Love that you ran the COR Intro during Saturday School. That is such a valuable use of time.

Your spiraling approach is spot on! I see so many teachers who do a lesson on digital literacy at the start of the year, but don't continue as the year progresses, which is such a disservice to students. 

Thank you so much for the incredible compliment! I am glad my talk has resonated with you!