Authoring Future Identities: Latina Girls Reading and Writing the University

In this article, we describe the campus visit we organized for Latina girls (grades 6–12) that participated in Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers. Somos Escritoras is a creative space that invites Latina girls to explore their lives and examine their worlds through art, writing, and theater. We focus on the writing marathon we designed for our visit and share the ways this activity invited girls to read and write the campus, while re-imagining their stories and authoring their futures. Drawing on figured words, we discuss how a campus visit can support Latina girls in constructing identities as future college students and graduates.     

Are frequent users of social network sites good information evaluators? An investigation of adolescents’ sourcing abilities (¿Son los usuarios frecuentes de las redes sociales evaluadores competentes? Un estudio de las habilidades de los adolescentes para identificar,evaluar y hacer uso de las fuentes)

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the relationship between teenagers’ use of social networking sites (SNS) and their sourcing abilities. Sourcing is defined as students’ ability (1) to discriminate reliable and unreliable links based on source characteristics, (2) to value source criteria as means to select information resources and (3) to select reliable texts based on source characteristics. One hundred and forty-six students (M age = 14.7 years old) completed three sourcing tasks, a questionnaire on SNS use, as well as language and memory skills tests. We found that SNS frequency of use negatively predicted both participants’ ability to select the most reliable source among two conflicting sources on the same topic and their ability to cite source features when justifying their choice. SNS frequency of use was unrelated to students’ assessment of source criteria, but vocabulary level was positively related to performance in this task. We discuss various explanations for the observed relationship between teenagers’ SNS communication and their critical appraisal of information sources, and we propose avenues for instructional interventions aimed at fostering information skills.