Document Type
Book Chapter
Version Deposited
Published Version
Publication Date
Winter 2023
Abstract
As online environments have in many ways changed how information (including misinformation) is created and distributed, many educators have recognized a need for teaching new strategies for evaluating online sources for credibility and potential bias. Educators like Mike Caulfield and research groups like the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) have stressed the need for “lateral reading,” a habit of fact-checking when initially evaluating a source. When reading laterally, a person doesn’t spend extensive time initially examining what a source says about itself; instead they quickly move off of the site in question to look at what others have said about the source and to determine if that source is worth a closer read. Lateral reading is a vital first step to checking a source’s credibility, particularly when the credibility or motivations of a source’s creators are unclear. It’s also an important part of critical reading in everyday life.
Recommended Citation
Baer, Andrea and Kipnis, Daniel G., "Diving Below the Surface: A Layered Approach to Teaching Online Source Evaluation through Lateral and Critical Reading" (2023). Libraries Scholarship. 39.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/lib_scholarship/39
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Comments
Chapter 25 was published in:
Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians, Volume 1
Item Number: 978-0-8389-3928-4eb
Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians collects the experiences and approaches of librarians who teach reading. In two volumes, librarians share their role in teaching reading—using pedagogical theories and techniques in new and interesting ways, making implicit reading knowledge, skills, and techniques explicit to students, presenting reading as a communal activity, partnering with other campus stakeholders, and leading campus conversations about critical reading. These volumes provide ready-made activities you can add or adapt to your teaching practice. The five sections are arranged by theme:
Volume 1
Part I: Reading in the Disciplines
Part II: Reading for Specific Populations