The Collins Dictionary named fake news the 2017 word of the year, describing the real problem of misinformation spread widely “under the guise of news reporting.” The phrase fake news has also been used as a rhetorical tool in public discourse to undermine opposing views. In a climate of abundant information and misinformation, concern has grown on campuses about college students’ abilities to contextualize and think critically about information sources. To provide meaningful practice in recognizing markers of context and credibility, we collaborated to develop a series of sessions for students in a first-year composition class. Held over two weeks, the sessions were designed to engage, and sometimes provoke, students in critical analysis and reflection about source types, bias and credibility. Through discussion, readings, group work, and free writing, we considered some challenges for thinking critically about information, addressing both conditions of our current information climate as well as common cognitive fallacies. The last sessions in the series focused on the development of strategies and discerning habits of mind. By the end of these sessions, students demonstrated thoughtful awareness in the creation of their own lists of source evaluation criteria and in an essay describing the learning process.
