Source Evaluation Toolkit

 In this activity I will be showing my classroom how to identify real sources from the fake. Below I have attached the step by step guideline on HOW to identify fake sources in a site!

Once you have gone through the steps I would then like you to please read this short blog post to get a secondary step in learning how to identify those fake sources.

Five Ways to Spot a Fake | Turnitin

After reading through this short post and checklist, turn to your neighbor to your right and talk with them if you have ever spotted an obvious or not obvious source that you knew or found out was not real. How did this make you feel about the rest of the article?

NEXT:

I would like for you and that same partner to take a moment to look through this post on this site to deem whether there are any fake sources hidden throughout. Then answer these questions on a scrap paper:

CNN called out for using out-of-date story to hide ratings collapse: 'Can't get more fake news than that' | Fox News

1.Did you find a fake source?
2. How do you know it's a fake source and what did you to back that up?

3. Is there anything in that article that should be deemed fake? Highlight where in the article or quote what you thought was fake. (this can even be from FoxNews themselves, not just the source).

NOW:

Take a look at this next short article and browse through to see if you can spot any fake sources. If you think these are real sources being used, what will you do to show me that it is a real source and information?

Don't Eat Anything Made by This Company Right Now, FDA Says | Best Life (bestlifeonline.com)

Turn with your neighbor to your left now and talk with them about this article!

REAL OR FAKE? LETS FIND OUT

Now that you all have gone through these two posts I want to show you how each site was either fake or not fake with highlighted evidence. 

Starting with the first site, of Fox News talking about how CNN's rating and viewings went down, I took a snapshot of the first and leading paragraph they wrote. Lets start with the purple arrows. 

The purple arrows is an another link from this site that wants you to read another article on how CNN has had its viewers down more than 50% because of President Biden being in office. Take a moment to tell me what is wrong with that? Many things! For one, there is no factual evidence or data proving that statement in this article! How can you make a statistical statement without giving the actual viewers data. Not a single sentence has anyone from CNN commenting on this decline nor do they speak on it, so where is the facts?

Switching to the Black Line. What do you think is wrong with that sentence? Is is biased? Is it directed as a demoting factor to those who work for CNN? Talk within your neighborhood about this behavior this author is possibly speaking in. Is this opinion based or not? It is opinion based! This article is trying to make CNN and all who works there as one side of the spectrum in politics all because of the "lower ratings/viewings" that they are claiming.

Lastly on to the Yellow Line. How can this site prove and make this a factual statement? They can make it factual by showing the actual data of viewers on CNN's site and website from January when Biden was sworn into office. 

Lastly we are going to take a look at this article to show and prove whether this is fake or not! Hopefully all of you were able to take the time and moment to know that this was a credible source. Here's how we know:

The Red Line: The red line that I made under a statement is the type of statement you should always look for at the very beginning. This site credited FDA with a sentence saying that the FDA themselves said this statement, not Best Life the site we are looking at. It goes on to give the statement that was provided from the source themselves rather than Best Life "saying" this happened in the FDA.

The Purple Lines: With the two purple lines I made I thought these were important to show the small pieces that make up a creditable source. The linked the FDA spices that were being in question for an outbreak, as well as stating another fact and statement from the FDA themselves.

The biggest take away from this is that if you wanted to know for sure if this was true what would you do? Go to the source themselves!!! Go to the FDA site yourself and do some digging into if that is true or not!