Regardless of grade level, mastering the literacy objectives outlined in the Common Core State Standards depends to a large extent on a student's ability to identify the differences between facts, opinions and reasoned judgments in a text and to identify places where authors support their core positions with convincing evidence. Developing these skills in students requires a TON of practice. Students need to read nonfiction text with a critical eye time-and-again before these dispositions become second nature.
Scoop.it -- a service that allows users to curate public collections of weblinks around individual topics -- is a digital tool that session presenter Bill Ferriter is using to give students multiple opportunities to evaluate the reasoning that authors use to take stands on controversial topics. What makes Scoop.it unique is that it automatically searches for new content that users might want to add to their public collections and then makes adding that content -- along with a short written description of why it is worth believing -- easy.
In this session, participants will evaluate the Scoop.it pages created by Bill's students and identify ways that Scoop.it can be integrated into their own curricula.
