Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Concept Explore an Issue or Problem Lesson: 6 Unit Title “Determining Relevancy, Authority, and Accuracy” Theme Statement/ Researchers will conduct preliminary research in order to develop a content Enduring specific context within which to begin designing an original research topic while Understandings affording an opportunity to build significant background knowledge.
Essential How can students conduct meaningful and efficient preliminary research connected Question(s) to their chosen topic of study? Suggested 60 minutes Timeframe Staff Teaching Teacher &/or Media Specialist Responsibility General Notes: The purpose of the lesson is to help students understand the practice and value of evaluating information for relevancy, authority, and accuracy as they search for and gather sources.
Teacher Note: The relevancy portion of the lesson may be completed individually, in a small group, or as a jigsaw. The authority and accuracy portion may be done as a class or individually as you see fit. This is the second lesson of four lessons associated with evaluating an internet source. o Do your students think that they know everything about evaluating sources??? Tell them to search for the tree octopus online (a make believe animal). Ask the students to evaluate the results from their search and use this as a way to show that anyone can post anything on the internet and make it look accurate.
Learning preferences addressed: Active, Visual
The teacher should keep in mind that this lesson includes suggestions for meeting the stated objectives. The teacher should adjust the lesson based on the needs of his or her students; however, all objectives should be covered. Objective: Students will be able to evaluate a source for relevancy, authority, and accuracy in order to determine its role in the research process.
Standards Alignment 1.1.4 Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. 1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context. 1.1.7 Make sense of information gathered from diverse sources by identifying misconceptions, main and supporting ideas, conflicting information, and point of view or bias. Formative Paragraph summaries of sources for relevancy, Submitted paper on authority and accuracy Assessment of a webpage of their choosing Digital Content, Tools, and Books, Magazines, and Computers (or print out of webpages) Resources Choose 1-2 books, 1-2 magazines/journals, and 1-2 webpages about a subject of your choosing http://www.kn.att.com/wired/21stcent/lauth.html http://21cif.com/tools/ http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/techcomm/content/cat_030/evaluatingsources/index.html Before Direct Be sure that students are comfortable with logging on to a computer and accessing the internet. Instruction
Unit 2, Lesson 6 1 Summer 2010 Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Curriculum and Instruction Suggested Activity Pick a topic of your choosing to center your lesson around and inform students of the Sequence: topic. Pass out book, magazine/journal, and webpage resources to students. Ask the students to summarize the information presented in the source and decide whether it is relevant or not. Recommend or require that the students write a paragraph about each source as they review it. After they have reviewed all of the books and the list of magazine articles, they must write down the elements or criteria they used to evaluate the item's relevancy. Tell students that they must ultimately answer this question: "Do the sources and information I have gathered help me to answer my question?" o For Books: Some of the main criteria should include looking for keywords or synonyms in the title, table of contents, preface, index, etc. of the book. o For Articles: Some of the main criteria should include looking for keywords or synonyms in the article title, title of magazine, abstract or summary (if provided), author (if they know something about the author of the article). o For Books and Articles: Publication date and any pictures, illustrations or charts should be considered. At the end of the group exercise, ask the Recorder in each group to report on the books and magazine articles they thought most relevant and why. o For Webpages: The main criteria should include the title, subtitle, description and URL for the website. Also, if students are able to actually view the websites, they should note the keywords and synonyms as well as any images or graphics. See http://www.kn.att.com/wired/21stcent/lauth.html for the second portion of the lesson on authority and accuracy. Ask the students to answer the questions on the board on their own sheet of paper as they view the webpages in the lesson (instead of using the checklist). Questions for the board are listed below. 1. Is there an author? Is the page signed? 2. Who is the author? Is he or she an expert? What are his or her qualifications? 3. Is there any evidence of training or professional skill? 4. Who is the sponsor? Is the sponsor reputable? What is the sponsor's area of expertise? 5. Is there a link to information about the author or sponsor? 6. Should I trust this information? 7. How would you verify the information? Ask the students to visit one webpage pertaining to their research and answer the above questions on a separate sheet of paper. Students should submit this sheet.
Differentiation Components Curriculum Resources Brief Description Suggestions Content Process Product
Unit 2, Lesson 6 2 Summer 2010 Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Curriculum and Instruction
http://www.kn.att.com/wired/21stcent/lauth.html
Copy of site below in case of broken link.
Lesson: Determining Authority and Accuracy
Description
The purpose of this lesson is to engage students in determining the authority and accuracy of a source of information. The dictionary definition of authority includes 1) A source of correct information and 2) an expert on a subject whose advice or opinion is accepted. Students learn to ask specific questions that can help determine the authority of a particular source of information. By determining the authority of the source, students can make judgments about how trustworthy the source is as well. A trustworthy source is generally an accurate source, one free from errors and mistakes. Students will be guided through the activity, evaluating the authority and accuracy of one web site. They should understand that they need to determine the authority of any source of information including books, web sites, individual "experts".
Learning Outcomes I Suggested Procedure I Assessment for this Lesson
Materials for this Online lesson: Time allotment: 30 minutes
Computer with Internet access Grade Level: Grade 3 - 12 Web site Source evaluation checklist: Checking for Information Literacy Standard: Authority and Accuracy 2. The student who is information Video projection device/Screen literate evaluates information Whiteboard/markers critically and competently.
Learning Outcomes
Students will know that they must identify the author (person or organization). Students will evaluate the expertise of the author. Students will determine if they feel the source is trustworthy and therefore most likely accurate.
Set-up
Have projection screen set up Have computer set up and Internet connectivity established (Note: If computer, video projector, and screen are unavailable, transparencies and/or handouts may be substituted.)
On the board write the following questions:
1. Is there an author? Is the page signed? 2. Who is the author? Is he or she an expert? What are his or her qualifications? Unit 2, Lesson 6 3 Summer 2010 Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Curriculum and Instruction 3. Is there any evidence of training or professional skill? 4. Who is the sponsor? Is the sponsor reputable? What is the sponsor's area of expertise? 5. Is there a link to information about the author or sponsor? 6. Should I trust this information? 7. How would you verify the information?
Suggested Procedure
Ask students once they have determined if a source of information is relevant to their topic what do they need to consider next. As a class, review the questions the teacher has written on the board.
Review the definition of authority.
Have the whole class look at the NASA home page( http://www.nasa.gov). Ask students why they think NASA would be an expert source of information on space exploration. What kinds of sources do students believe would provide accurate and complete information on an identified topic.
Now, as a class, explore the web page for Encyclopedia Mythica ( http://www.pantheon.org/mythica.html ) (Note: Teachers should realize, but let students discover, that determining authority can be difficult because information is taken from a variety of sources and entries are not signed. Anyone interested in contributing is encouraged to do so.) Ask students to share their impressions from looking at the home page.
1. Have them consider if they can determine how trustworthy this source is by how it looks. 2. Ask students in which section they would look to determine the authority. Click on the "About" link. As a whole group, read this page. What pieces of information do students think might help them determine the authority of this page. Ask students: Who is the author? Can they tell from this page? 3. Ask students where else they could look to determine the authority. Students might suggest clicking on "Awards". Ask students what they can tell from the awards listed. Can they answer: Who is the author of this page? 4. Ask students where else they could look for this information. Click on the "Information" link. Under this link, click in turn on "Contributors", "Sponsor" and "Staff". Discuss what can be determined from each of these sections of the website. 5. Scroll down and click on submitting articles. Read the section about acceptance of articles for the encyclopedia. Since not all articles need to cite the source of the information, how does this affect the trustworthiness of this site? 6. Ask students if they would use this site. Make sure they understand that if they choose to use this information, they should try to verify it in another source. 7. Together, fill in the source evaluation checklist: Checking for Authority and Accuracy.
Assessment
Have students independently evaluate another web page to determine the authority of that page. Have students complete the Source evaluation checklist: Checking for Authority and Accuracy.
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Unit 2, Lesson 6 4 Summer 2010 Baltimore County Public Schools Department of Curriculum and Instruction
This page was last updated February 19, 2002 This lesson was created to support the AT&T/UCLA Initiatives for 21st Century Literacies. Determining Authority and Accuracy was created by Judith Kantor
Unit 2, Lesson 6 5 Summer 2010