Teacher Commentary

This question, “why is it important to notice details are/are not corroborated across sources” does not necessarily lead to a lengthy discussion. I usually just pepper the question in to discussion constantly to get students to start thinking about the importance of corroborating. At first students aren’t really able to answer the question, but in asking over and over in the context of comparing/contrasting details students eventually begin to get a sense of why corroborating is important. When students start to see the same thing over and over again in various texts, they start to get a sense of trustworthiness. When they notice differences/things that do not corroborate it naturally raises a red flag for students.