Throughout this course you'll be asked both to do basic fact-checking activities and to think more deeply about the material presented. Here we introduce three things to help you with that.
We ask that you keep a notebook of your fact-checking exercises in a text editor or a word processor like Notepad, Google Docs, or Microsoft Word. If you are taking this as part of a class, you will periodically be asked to submit the contents of your fact-checking notebook for feedback from either a teacher or peers. If taking it on your own, the notebook will still help you build skills more quickly.
The format of the notebook is simple. For each fact-checking assignment you will be given a heading. Write the heading in your document in all capital letters. Then hit enter and answer the questions you are asked to answer. Avoid any fancy formatting as you may have to post this in a format where the formatting will not carry over.
Here's an example of what your notebook might look like:
A text version of this example can be found here. (need to make text version)
Reflection prompts are used to suggest questions for deeper exploration. Some teachers use them as prompts for classroom discussion or online forums. They look like this, and can be accessed by clicking on the arrow:
Unless specified otherwise by your teacher, you do not need to put your answers to these in the notebook. But take a moment to think about your answers to them before continuing.
Vocabulary is shown in a similar way:
You are encouraged but not required to look at the vocabulary.