Facts, but no checking

While watching "Shattered Glass",  I realized one more thing that I need to do in my classroom: develop a system for fact checking.  I never have, and I have no excuse for it - besides the whole lack of time thing.  I have attended national conferences for the past 15 years or so, and I have never once had a conversation with someone about how fact checking works on their scholastic staffs.   I know that professional staffs do it, and it's time that I start doing it too.

I loved the idea that was shared about having students go through one of the articles and highlight everything that should be fact checked.  I could follow that up by having students exchange drafts of articles that they write early in the year, highlight what they could fact check and then fact check our articles.  My staff would benefit from this all around.  It would be clearer exactly what the "facts" are in the article, and it would help flush out when the journalist slides into subjective language.  It would also hold the students accountable for the facts, and there would be more incentive to make sure that they get it right the first time.  Fact-checking will also let our subjects know that we care about getting our facts right, and we will work to make sure that we do.

Although I have seen "Shattered Glass" many times before, I never realized that I was failing  
to provide structure for my students to fact check the articles that we print.  It was definitely worth watching the film again; it blatantly illuminated the absence of fact checking in my own classroom - and that must change. 


- Tracy Anderson
Community High School
Ann Arbor, MI