Empowered Thinkers

BIG topic this week - INFORMATION LITERACY! 

We have been learning a lot about what it means to be literate in today's world, living in the age of information abundance. It's not just about whether or not we can read or write, but how we find, evaluate and use information and acquire knowledge. Information literacy essentially allows us to be in control of our learning and to become informed lifelong learners. Often, how a story is told can shape our feelings of an event, a person, or people. An author's view or personal opinions can sometimes influence their interpretation of events or human behavior resulting in information bias. To put our learning into action, we initially spent some time reading, analyzing, and evaluating two different books about Christopher Columbus. Learners were surprised to notice how different Columbus was portrayed in each of the books and wondered how that could be. Shouldn't books about real people in history be based on facts?  Through their own analysis and evaluations, they realized that each story's "truth" was likely shaped by the author's own ideas about Columbus and that having read both stories, they learned that maybe each contained some truth, but that they also reflected some of the author's own opinions. This exercise offered learners an opportunity to further develop their critical thinking skills so that they were able to make their own informed judgments about information - one of the most important literacy skills we can develop in twenty-first-century learners. This week's guest bloggers reflect on this practice.

The book Encounter is different from other books about Christopher Columbus because in Encounter, it portrays Christopher Columbus as bad and an evil human. In A Picture book of Christopher Columbus, he is portrayed more as a hero. It's important to be able to identify bias when reading or listening to information because you have to be able to tell if the author has a strong opinion about the topic that might make you feel a certain way.  - "Ritzi"

The book Encounter portrays Christopher Columbus very differently than A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus. In the picture book, Columbus is portrayed as very brave for sailing new seas and finding new land. In the book Encounter, Columbus was a very bad man for trying to take over the Native Americans' land. It's important to be able to identify bias because authors might put a lot of their own opinions into something and make it seem like it's all true. If you can sense how an author feels about a topic, then it is probably written with bias.  - "N.A.S.A."

The book Encounter portrays Christopher Columbus differently than A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus. The way that the two books are different is that in the picture book, he is portrayed as a hero to the Native people, but in the book Encounter, he steals their land and their resources and is seen more as a bad person. It's important to know when there is bias in a piece of writing because if you are not paying attention, you might believe that the information is actually true when there might be more than one perspective.  - "Mango"

The book Encounter portrays Christopher Columbus as mean, while in the picture book, he was portrayed as a hero. It's important to be able to identify bias so then you know what the author's viewpoint might be and so you don't get confused and mistake someone's opinion as fact. - "Cheese"

The book Encounter is very different than A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus because in the picture book, Christopher Columbus seemed nice, but in Encounter, he was portrayed as a thief. It's important to be able to identify bias when you are reading because you don't want to get the wrong information and then teach others the wrong information.  - "Mala"

In A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus, Columbus was portrayed as a hero, but in the book Encounter, he was portrayed as very unkind and selfish. It's important to be able to identify bias because not all information is true. Some information is based on opinions and we need to be able to see that and look for other viewpoints.  - "Deer"

The book Encounter and A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus portray Christopher Columbus differently because in Encounter, the author describes him as a cruel explorer and in the picture book, the author describes him as a hero and an amazing sailor. I find it hard to figure out which interpretation is correct because there are many different portrayals of him in different books. It's important to identify bias when reading and/or listening to information because sometimes authors can talk about the same person/people in very different ways, which might be based more on the author's opinion rather than facts. - "Glisten"

The book Encounter portrays Christopher Columbus differently from A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus because the picture book portrays him as a hero. Evidence of this is when the author wrote: "he was brave and forced his men on when they were wanting to turn back". The book Encounter portrays him as an evil man. Evidence of this is when the text states "he has a serpent smile". It's important to identify bias so that you can separate facts from opinions. - "Tazer"

It's important to identify bias because everything you read and hear is not always true.
- "Lize"