Verified: How to think straight, get duped less, and make better decisions about what to believe online Mike Caufield & Sam Wineburg (266 pp). The University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 978-0226822068
We live in a digital age, one with an overabundance of information. Along with the overabundance of information comes misinformation, especially online. How do middle grades teachers and students work through misinformation? What skills can teachers use to help students become savvy information consumers, able participants in public dialogues, and informed researchers? It is a dilemma. To the rescue come Mike Caufield (the creator of the SIFT technique) and Sam Wineburg (the author of Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, 2001) with a new book, Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions About What to Believe Online (2023). You could easily mistake this for a book only on media literacy, but it casts a wider net. This new book offers guidance on leveraging Google’s knowledge panel, the SIFT method, and using scholarly sources to discern credible online content. Verified fuses information literacy and critical thinking.
In the introduction, the authors promise to equip readers with practical skills that can be immediately applied in classrooms. They teach readers how to verify online news to determine if the author of an online article is genuinely an academic and evaluate and determine the ownership of websites that appear legitimate and professional. They also guide readers on how to determine if a video is edited or taken out of context, recognize and decode ads that seem to be news stories, and use Wikipedia as a reliable tool. These skills are not just theoretical; they are practical tools that can empower middle grades teachers and students in the digital world.
The authors use three techniques throughout the book to sharpen students’ skills in verifying web sources. First is the SIFT technique, developed in the mid-2010s by Caufield. SIFT stands for “Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context” (Caufield & Wineburg, 2023, p. 13). What is novel about the SIFT technique is that it is a set of skills that can be practiced and honed. The second technique is lateral reading, a fact-checking technique that asks a reader of an unfamiliar website first to leave the site and find information about the site from other reputable websites. By looking at multiple sources (across tabs), middle grades teachers and students can better gauge the credibility of the new website. Lateral reading consists of reading across websites rather than down the page of one site. The third technique is using Wikipedia. The authors effectively argue that Wikipedia can be used to validate sources, check unfamiliar websites, and investigate a claim. In addition, readers learn the importance of reading footnotes.
Verified’s greatest strength lies in the repetition of techniques and themes in the book. For example, SIFT is mentioned 33 times in the text and is discussed in eight of the 11 chapters. Lateral reading is mentioned 50 times in the text and discussed in four chapters. Wikipedia is mentioned 160 times and discussed in eight chapters. The message is emphasized by continually returning to the same three ideas, each time presenting a new context for using the technique.
The text is easy to read, with bulleted take-aways at the end of each chapter. Each chapter identifies recent examples (from 2010 forward) from the web. Included are images or screenshots to illustrate the authors’ points and clarify any misconceptions. A final strength is the backmatter of the book. It consists of 178 notes, 170 bibliographic entries, and a complete index.
While reading Verified, the principles described in the book align closely with the Association of Middle Level Education’s (AMLE) The Successful Middle School: This We Believe framework. Much like This We Believe, Verified’s mission is to equip and empower readers with the critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate digital information. Verified also echoes the essential attributes of This We Believe of empowering, challenging, and engaging students. Perhaps most importantly, both engage with real-world issues, preparing students to participate meaningfully in democratic processes.
I highly recommend this book to middle grade teachers (and all educators). The book is engaging and relevant for teachers and students. The techniques described promote active engagement with content that middle-grade students are interested in reading, hearing, and watching. In addition, the use of these techniques empowers students to question, analyze, evaluate, make informed decisions, and distinguish between information and disinformation. You could not ask for a book that speaks more directly to the themes of digital literacy.
