✏️ TEACH: Engaging Our Communities AND Ourselves

Dr. Ken Bort Phd has TWO resources to help you engage learners this month, because he’s just generous that way!

Let’s start by addressing one of the questions we get asked most when we work with educators around the country: “how do we engage parents in the work of helping their kids become Digital Detectives while not opening up a politicized and polarized ‘hornet’s nest?’”

While most people agree that mis-, dis- and mal- information are huge problems and that today’s youth need to know how to evaluate the content they consume for credibility, our own beliefs and biases can get in the way of that work.  We are living during a complicated and polarized period that can make developing digital detectives feel especially daunting if not impossible. We need partners and collaborators. As the saying goes, it truly does take a village. With that in mind, we created a list of tips to help our #digitaldetectivesquad with this work. We don’t have all the answers, but we hope this helps.

To access a high-resolution, downloadable version of this resource, follow the clues to the Evidence Locker >>> Chapter 7

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Next up, here’s an activity inspired by the tried and true strategy, often used by math teachers, of having kids create the problem or equation instead of trying to solve an assessment item made by the teacher. For our version, we’ve created two Google Jamboards that challenge kids to collaborate with a partner on scenarios in which information is most likely to trigger or exacerbate a given emotion. 

One Jamboard asks them to collaboratively design headlines (or video captions, etc.) that might cause them to trust or share content without thoroughly investigating it. And the other Jamboard prompts them to consider what elements of the community reading experience might also result in a similar feeling of urgency to trust or share content before vetting it. 

We’ve created these resources with middle/high school learners in mind, but think they could be adapted for younger learners, too. Be sure to read the “notes for the teacher” section carefully when preparing to use these activities with your Digital Detectives!

Check out the directions for locating them in the Evidence Locker below!

For the Headline Jamboard follow the clues to the Evidence Locker >>> Chapter 1 >>> Mini-Lessons for Grades 6-8 >>> Mini-Lesson #7 - OR - Mini-Lessons for Grades 9-12 >>> Mini-Lesson #6

For the Community Reading Experience  Jamboard follow the clues to the Evidence Locker >>> Chapter 2 >>> Mini-Lessons for Grades 6-8 >>> Mini-Lesson #5 - OR - Mini-Lessons for Grades 9-12 >>> Mini-Lesson #6