WikiInfoLit Unit 4 Page 4
Engaging Students In Challenging Topics
Your students may have passionate opinions regarding Wikipedia's neutrality on certain subjects. Even aggressively indifferent students tend to become engaged once they realize that they are not "sticking their necks out only to get them chopped." It's a great way to engage students in this crucial Information Literacy topic. But as educators learn from experience, passionate belief untempered by reason and civility do not make for the best learning experience - either for the individual or for the class as a whole.
This is an opportunity to draw up some ground rules for civil discussion. In the spirit of the topic, you can crowdsource the rules from your students. Help your students to mutually enforce your class's rules civil discussion. Equally important is your role in modeling and providing scaffolding for sound argumentation.
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