Earthmerlin Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 I’ve got a nearly 10 year old who’s quite interested in logic, fake news, & advertising (tricks). We talk about such things as they come up but I’d perhaps like more resources to address these topics. I have ‘Bad Arguments’. Other than reading it bit by bit, how do you use it &/or extend its contents? ‘Fallacy Detectives’ is on order at my library so I will use that in the future as well. We have a book on fake news but I’m stumped as to how to approach it in real life—where to get examples to dissect? I think this is an important topic but I listened to NPR & read the Washington Post so don’t believe I come across many examples of fake news (I also don’t ‘do’ social media). We have another book, ‘Made You Look’, which deals with advertising & its tricks. We have also watched food stylist videos. I try to point out commercial & magazine ads’ take on things (but we don’t watch too much TV). What else do you use? The above are great topics to explore & my child seems to crave tons of examples of each so please share your resources & teaching ideas! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 I don't do a lot for my 9yo. I try to pair up these lessons with language arts and history as we get deeper into those subjects. Right now, we start looking for bias: highlighting words that show the author's slant or perspective and then rewriting the story in an outline with just the facts. There was an article from NPR last year that was a brilliant example of this. It was not one I'd use for a 9yo, but it covered the sexual harassment by an NPR executive. In its restrained way, it was scathing and definitely showed what the author thought of the executive with its subtle word choice. I want to cover bias first, because if we understand where a journalist is coming from, it's easier to discern the spin. By middle school, we start including looking for sources. What is being used for the backbone of the article? Is it actual primary sources that speak for themselves, panels of experts, or a peer-reviewed study? And I encourage questioning and digging deeper. Yesterday there was a story about the Tennessee governor proclaiming it to be Nathan Bedford Forrest day. How dare he?? Why would he do such a thing? There were primary sources within the article (a picture of the proclamation) and direct quotes, but the article itself had a heavy spin. My oldest asked for more, and we found out. Turns out it's Tennessee law since 1921 to do this annually, and no one has changed the law yet. Not quite as sensational as the governor choosing to do this on his own (but one would hope that in future years the state government would choose to drop this requirement). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Crash Course's media literacy and navigating digital information series are both great. There are also some great videos that you can find on YouTube about things like food advertising and how they make everything look as good as they do. There's a massive, massive difference between a situation like the NYT or WaPo or the WSJ or whatever having to retract a story and issue clarifications, apologies, etc. and actual "fake news." In this climate, I would not focus on legitimate news outlets - liberal or conservative leaning - that issue retractions and do good journalism overall. Not to say that we shouldn't be aware that they mess up, have misleading headlines (especially for science news, I find - just apart from politics entirely), and especially to discern the difference between op-ed and journalistic content on these outlets, which is often dramatically different and has very different standards. But considering how much actual incorrect, unsourced, just made up content that's out there, I would focus on that more. The Newseum has some lessons on this as well using various articles. When we did some mini-lessons on this, one thing I did was pull articles on sites and have the kids rate them. I purposefully pulled things that were nonsense, things that were opinion and super biased but not factually incorrect where facts were cited, and things that were factually correct. It's HARD to see the difference. One of the only ways to improve your understanding is to consistently watch the news so you slowly buildup the background information to trigger your bs detector in the first place. CNN's student news (I forget the new name... 10? CNN 10?) is pretty decent for this. I also really like print version of The Week, which summarizes things from across the media in a very clear way. The website has gotten more op-eds and now leans more liberal, but the magazine is still just content from other publications. I can't remember where you are on religion, etc. but just FYI that Fallacy Detective is written from a Christian perspective. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 We're right now using Made You Look, and DS is enjoying it. It's about advertising. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Oh, one more... Chip Kidd's book about graphic design is great and covers some advertising concepts, though in a much more design positive way than stuff that's critical of advertising. I'll also third Made You Look - and Groovy Kids has a class that uses it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthmerlin Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 Thanks for all the tips, folks! In mentally prepping for Saturday’s Apollo anniversary I wonder if I could tie in the conspiracy theories? (I’m just spitballing right now (& haven’t had my 1st cuppa so cannot think cohesively) I know conspiracy theories & fake news are different but wonder if I could somehow use it w/ this upcoming event. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bocky Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 Another resource: Prufrock Press has Fighting Fake News: Teaching Critical thinking and Media Literacy in a Digital Age, a curriculum aimed at 4th to 6th grades. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 On 7/17/2019 at 6:40 AM, Earthmerlin said: Thanks for all the tips, folks! In mentally prepping for Saturday’s Apollo anniversary I wonder if I could tie in the conspiracy theories? (I’m just spitballing right now (& haven’t had my 1st cuppa so cannot think cohesively) I know conspiracy theories & fake news are different but wonder if I could somehow use it w/ this upcoming event. Any ideas? There's a Mythbusters episode about that. Did you go see the thing at the Washington Monument yet? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthmerlin Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 On 7/19/2019 at 2:54 PM, Farrar said: There's a Mythbusters episode about that. Did you go see the thing at the Washington Monument yet? No, I didnt’t know about either. Neat! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 Be cautious about content and screen first, but I found some examples from TV and advertising on this site: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/main/logicalfallacies?from=main.youfaillogicforever For example, scroll to the bottom of this and expand the listing under Circumstantial Ad Hominem: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AdHominem 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 When I was putting together examples for my son for Informal Logic this year, I used some examples from these sites. FYI. https://www.txstate.edu/philosophy/resources/fallacy-definitions.html https://www.logicalfallacies.info/ https://www.classicalstuff.net/episodes-1/2017/11/28/episode-13-logical-fallacies-part-1 http://www.fallacyfiles.org/introtof.html https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 On 7/14/2019 at 12:23 PM, Plum said: amazon Prime has Honest Ads - again check content Oh my gosh, I started watching this on your recommendation, and it's too funny! For readers of the other thread on college costs, there's a biting episode about just that in the last season. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthmerlin Posted July 23, 2019 Author Share Posted July 23, 2019 I’m glad I asked for ideas b/c there are some really good ones here! I’m learning a lot too! Honest Ads is hilarious! Thanks for all the suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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