Media/Information/Digital Literacy | Hybrid | Course | Consulting | Facilitator

Fact vs. Fiction Book Course for the Hawaii DOE

Starting in 2020, the Hawaii Department of Education hired Jennifer LaGarde and me to develop and facilitate an 18-week course based on our first book, Fact vs. Fiction. The purpose of this course was to support media specialist librarians and K-12 educators in building their skills to help their students evaluate the information they come in contact with for credibility, bias, propaganda, and other forms of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Additionally, this course was designed to help participants reflect on their current practices through a learning portfolio to determine what instructional, curriculum, and program changes they should make to align with content standards.

The Learning Results Portfolio contained:

1. A Pre/Post Self-Assessment.

2. Three (3) analyses of existing information evaluation protocols.

3. Two (2) standards-based lesson plans that include at least one analysis of information evaluation protocols.

4. A plan for community outreach to engage the larger school community with the work of being savvy information consumers in the 21st century.

5. A minimum of three (3) student work samples that include an analysis of the student work describing student performance based on learning targets/success criteria for each student and the next steps the teacher will take to impact learning for each student.

6. Three (3) written reflections on weekly discussions, optional office hours, and/or guest speakers that show evidence of change and growth in their practices.

7. A culminating reflection by the participants at the end of the course describing what was learned and how the new learning:

1. changed the teacher's practice

2. impacted student learning

3. application of their new learning in the future.