Conspiracies, Curation, and Critical Reading:
Sorting the Good from the Biased, Online and Elsewhere
In today's world of information overload and clickbait polarization, knowing how to read critically and curate your sources—whether for a research paper or your own personal enlightenment—is an increasingly important, and nebulous, task. In this talk, we'll go straight to the belly of the beast: conspiracy theories! We will walk through a sample student research project on the wildly entertaining and fascinating world of conspiracy theories, including skills development in source evaluation, rhetorical analysis, and cultural criticism. We will discuss how to form our own personal "ethical reading roadmaps" as we navigate the modern communication landscape and its overwhelming abundance of news.
This presentation is geared to students in grades 6-12, parents, and teachers.
About the Moderator: Laura Citino is an English Instructor for Western Michigan University's Academically Talented Youth Program (ATYP). She received her bachelor's in English and German from WMU in 2010 and her MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University in 2013. She also writes, edits, and makes books, and her work has appeared in numerous journals in print and online. She currently lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
This VIRTUAL presentation is FREE and open to the public,
but you must pre-register at www.plusofswmi.org.
Monday, February 28, 2022
7 p.m.
This free program is presented by Partners in Learning for Unlimited Success of Southwest Michigan, a support and advocacy group for the families of advanced and accelerated students. PLUS is a local chapter of the Michigan Association for Gifted Children.
Our Mission
Partners in Learning for Unlimited Success
PLUS of Southwest Michigan is dedicated to providing leadership, support and advocacy of education and services to meet the needs of gifted, talented and creative students in our region.
