Lehman High School Spanish teacher Claudia Vasquez enjoys a smiling moment with her teachers at last month’s Summer Institute for Teachers of News Literacy at New York’s Stony Brook University. The group includes (left to right) Stephen Shultz, Vasquez, James Klurfeld and Dean Miller. (Courtesy photo)
by LIZ FARLEY
Special to the Hays Free Press
Handle the truth? Do Americans even know how to find the truth in the tsunami of spin, propaganda, half-truth, and error that washes in on the digital tsunami? Several national commissions have called on Congress, state governments, and communities to teach Americans the fundamental critical thinking skills of digital and information literacy.
Answering that call, Lehman High School Spanish teacher Claudia Vasquez has just returned from two weeks at Stony Brook University’s (in New York state) Summer Institute for Teachers of News Literacy. Providing a select group of journalists and faculty at the university’s School of Journalism, the institute teaches participants to use critical thinking skills to find the reliable information that is the oxygen of democracy.
“It was the best professional development I have ever been to,” Vasquez said on her return. “What I learned were critical thinking skills and the ability to use journalism skills with my students. I’m definitely going to use these skills and have my students apply them to all of their classes,” she adds.
Funded by the Ford Foundation, the two-week immersion institute, is in its fourth year. This summer’s class included 19 teachers from ten states, the participants being teachers of a range of age groups, from 7th-grade through college. This year’s participants join teachers who have adopted and adapted the Stony Brook Model at public schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges across the country and Europe.
Summer Institute speakers included members of the New York Times editorial staff, Pulitzer Prize-winner Howard Schneider, and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Walt Handelsman.
Citizens need look no further than today’s news to see that “the public needs better fib-spotting skills,” Center for New Literacy Director Dean Miller said. “Americans who don’t know how to spot unverified information, biased presentation, or weak evidence are at risk of being misled,” Miller added, noting that “it’s up to news consumers to discipline the media by demanding quality work.”
Early research out of the institute’s first years shows that students who have taken the course are more engaged in politics and their community, better able to spot weak reporting, and pay more attention to current events.
Editor’s note: The article’s author is a staff member at Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, New York) in charge of media inquiries regarding the Summer Institute for Teachers of News Literacy.
