It’s not uncommon for North East ISD librarians to collaborate on projects that span campuses and grade levels. A new media literacy module from Teresa Diaz at Tex Hill Middle School, Michelle Lewis at Krueger Middle School and Rachel McDevitt at LEE High School is impacting students on a global scale.
“While we missed working directly with students, the shut-down provided a unique opportunity to collaboratively create a module that provides students with a meaningful experience to investigate and consider their choices as they navigate news media,” said McDevitt.
Over the spring semester, Diaz, Lewis and McDevitt worked together on a new ‘Think Like a Fact Checker’ initiative for elementary, middle and high school students. The modules taught research-based, fact-checking skills regarding the spread of misinformation online. Throughout the activity, students learned to explore, cite, investigate and ultimately consider their own personal use of digital information.
“Knowing how to identify inaccurate, misleading or even intentional disinformation is an essential, real-world skill for the new normal we find ourselves in right now,” said Diaz.
The ‘Think Like a Fact Checker’ module was shared with every NEISD librarian to use at their respective campuses. Diaz designed a public version of the module and shared it regularly on Twitter. In October, she was contacted by a school in Canada thanking her for sharing the program. It’s now being used as part of their course curriculum.
Diaz, Lewis and McDevitt are already planning to create additional media/news literacy resources so students within NEISD and beyond can benefit.
“Libraries are now more important than ever in providing our students access to reliable and credible resources,” said Lewis. “Librarians are uniquely positioned to model and teach media literacy skills to our students, which is what we have striven for with these modules.”
Click here to view the Think Like a Fact Checker module.
