Teach lateral reading with this week's news
Semblen reads a news article alongside your students. It marks the words that do the persuading, checks the article's factual claims against sources, and shows how other outlets covered the same story. It doesn't tell anyone what to think. It shows where to look, and students check its work.
What it does
- Marks the wording. Paste a link or the text into the analyzer. Semblen marks the exact words where a rhetorical technique is at work, such as loaded language, name calling or appeal to fear, and says why in one line.
- Checks the claims. Each factual claim gets a reading (supported, missing context, unverifiable or contradicted) with the sources behind it, as links to open.
- Compares the coverage. How other outlets covered the same story, and on story pages, each way the story is being told, in its sources' own words.
The model is wrong sometimes. Saying where, and why, is the exercise.
Where it fits in the ACRL Framework
- Authority Is Constructed and Contextual. Students see who an article quotes and who it leaves out, and how the same event reads in outlets they trust and outlets they don't. The question moves from "is this a good source?" to "what is this source doing here, and who else says so?"
- Information Has Value. The same facts are packaged differently for different readers. Seeing the techniques an outlet chose, and how differently outlets tell the same story, opens the discussion of who produces news, for whom, and why.
- Lateral reading. Professional fact-checkers leave a page to check it before they read it closely (Wineburg and McGrew's research at Stanford). Each claim check is a set of sources to open, not a verdict to accept, and the other outlets' coverage is one tap away.
A one-shot session (50 minutes)
- Pick one story from this week's story pages. Give pairs two articles from different tellings of it.
- Before opening Semblen: who is each article's first named source, and why should we believe them?
- Run both articles through the analyzer. Press "Check the claims" and open at least one source for each claim.
- Read the marked phrases. Agree or disagree with each mark, and say why.
- Debrief: which article would you cite in a paper, and what would you check first?
Students don't need accounts
Anyone can analyze 2 articles a day without an account. For a class, an instructor with Teacher Pro gets a class link: students open it, with no accounts and no sign-in, and analyze on the class's 200 analyses a month, up to 10 a day for each student's browser. Semblen never asks a student who they are.
For your administrator: privacy and student data, what we store and for how long, and a short data agreement.
For your LibGuides
A one-page quick start to print or link from a guide: pasting an article, what the marks mean, and how to check a claim.
A description to paste:
Semblen (semblen.com) is a second read on the news. Paste an article's link or text and it marks the wording that does the persuading, checks the factual claims against sources, and shows how other outlets covered the same story. Free for 2 analyses a day, with no account.
Group seats
Semblen Pro or Teacher Pro for your instructors or your library, a year at a time. The more seats, the less each one costs.
| 1 seat | $60 |
|---|---|
| 2 to 9 seats | $36 (40% off) |
| 10 or more | $30 (50% off) |
| 1 seat | $79 |
|---|---|
| 2 to 9 seats | $47.40 (40% off) |
| 10 or more | $39.50 (50% off) |
- Sign in with your college's email. Claim your college's email domain, and anyone who signs in with an address there takes a free seat, until the seats run out. You can also add and remove people by email.
- Pay by card. Seats are billed yearly through Stripe, and you can add seats at any time.
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Semblen LLC is a small company in Austin, Texas. It is not a nonprofit and is not affiliated with any campaign or party.