Can I Trust the Information?
Objectives - ISTE NETS for Students #3: Research and Information Fluency
"locate and evaluate information from a variety of sources and media"
Materials
Directions
The nearly universal children's party game, Telephone (Chinese Whsipers, Gossip, etc.), serves to demonstrate how information originates with an author and may change as others pass it along. This also demonstrates that not information may be trusted--there is a need to find the author to make sure the information is accurate.
Arrange students in a circle. Choose someone to start who makes up a sentence or whispers one of the following examples into the next student's ear (or make up your own). The receiving student then whispers what he or she heard into the ear of the next student, and so on around the circle. The last student to receive the message states outloud what he or she heard.
Some of the results may be humorous or plain nonsense. The important thing is to compare what was spoken at the end with the author's original statement. If we want to know what the author really said, we need to find and ask the author.
Why does the information change? Listen to what the students conclude. Usually, a word is misunderstood and a different word is substituted, or a word is dropped or a new word is added. This points out the need to read carefully when doing any kind of research and to go to the source (which could be an author or publisher) to know what was really said.
Examples for the game:
"How you played in yesterday's game is all that counts." (Jackie Robinson)
"When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not." (Mark Twain)
"Skiing combines outdoor fun with knocking down trees with your face." (Dave Barry)
"Television is where you watch people in your living room that you would not want near your house." (Groucho Marx)
"Half a truth is often a great lie." (Ben Franklin)
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