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SIFT: Evaluating Sources Online: Resources for Practice

SIFT is a quick and simple approach that can be applied to all sorts of sources, from scholarly articles to social media posts to memes, that will help you judge the quality of the information you're looking at.

How to use this page

Use this page to get some additional practice using SIFT with the SIFT tutorial and the additional exercises. The links on fact checking and political bias include websites that are helpful tools for source evaluation.

SIFT Tutorial

These tutorials were developed from Mike Caulfield's "Check, Please!" SIFT course, and have been adapted for SMSU students. All students enrolled in LEP 101 since Fall 2020 have been asked to take these tutorials.

Fact-Checking

Additional Exercises to Practice SIFT

Below you'll find a number of exercises you can use in your classroom to reinforce the habits of SIFT. 

Each of these rely on the use of a "notebook" model, in which students keep a record of their responses and activities in a standardized way. You can find a suggestion for how to assign and describe notebook activities on this page in the "Setting up a 'Notebook'" box. 

You can also adapt these exercises to guide in-class discussions or other activities that make sense in your instructional spaces.

Feel free to contact any of the librarians (askref@smsu.edu) with any questions! 

Political Bias

Further Reading

Attribution

Note: This SIFT method guide was adapted from Michael Caulfield's "Check, Please!" course. The canonical version of this course exists at http://lessons.checkplease.cc. The text and media of this site, where possible, is released into the CC-BY, and free for reuse and revision.