Lesson Plan:

The Good, the Bad, and the Useless
Evaluating Web Information
A Middle School Lesson

Class Time Required: 45 minute instructional period with additional time for practice and review.

Overview and Purpose:

Creating proper citations for classroom research projects that include creating tri-fold brochures, digital quilts of images expressing who you are in images alone, researching and reporting, illustrating, and presenting a multimedia HyperStudio project. This lesson provides information and skills that cross curriculum areas. The information and skills presented in this lesson help my students prepare, research, document, and cite sources for their work in science as they do their annual science projects. It assists them in their work in the language arts framework.

General Goals:

California Standards for middle school students require research and reporting components in reading/language arts framework, and gathering evaluating, and reporting, and presenting infomation and projects are often compoonents in social studies and science curriculum. This lesson can be used in any classroom that is teaching the use of technology tools, in particular the web, to integrate with other curriculum content and projects. Most students do not yet have the skills necessary to evaluate the legitimacy of web sites or the content contained within them.

Specific Objectives:

Students will learn the value of evaluating the accuracy, legtitmacy, and appropriateness of information from the many available web sites. Once they understand the value of critically evaluating web information, they can then proceed to learn about some tools and methods for testing the content of the site. Students will be given a short list of issues to address.

Materials Needed:

Computer with word processing and web viewing applications
Pencil and Paper

Activities (step by step procedure):

1. Introduce the concept of Evaluating all resources, including websites
2. Distribute Critical Evaluation Survey: Middle School Level
(http://discoveryschool.com/schockguide/evalmidd.htm)
3. Practice as a class or in small groups. Circulate and work with the groups as needed.
4. Assign a different web address for each group to review
5. Have each group report out their findings or conclusions of their web pages
6. Have students complete Quality Information Checklist online at
(http://www/quick/org/uk/menu.htm)

Teaching Strategies

1. Use of network browser program digitally projected for class to see browser features
needed to review student decisions on their first exercise.
2.. If students do not have time to complete the QUICK quiz, assign the remainder as homework.

Assessment/Evaluation:

1. Students will take the online quiz provided as one component of the lesson. This quiz follows the Web Evaluation tutoria located at <http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm>.
Adaptations/Extensions
1. Crosscurricular: The skills and tools that students learn in this lesson will easily cross curriculm areas of student work and projects. Once students learn the importance of evaluating the sources of their research, the overall project products they produce will improve.
2. Learning Disabilities: Students can be given instructions to complete a bibliography but use a more basic method of recording.

Thought provoking questions:

Discuss the possible consequences of taking all web content at face value without critically evaluating its content. Give an example.
Resources and References (Web sites, books, etc.)
Please see the web site listing for resources relating to the evaluation of websites.