Lesson Plan Evaluating Online Sources for Credibility

The exercise will show students how to evaluate websites to determine credibility!

SUBJECT: English Language Arts

or Library

TIMEFRAME:!45 minutes

1.  Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze websites for credibility. 2.  Students will create proper citations for a website. 3.  Students will work collaboratively with a classmate.!

•  Computers with Internet access •  EasyBib’s Website Evaluation Guide

Materials

1.  Begin class by having students brainstorm three research questions related to their interests. Questions can relate to pop-culture, sports, school curriculum topics, hobbies, etc. Examples: How many times have the Yankees won the World Series? “What is the highest grossing movie of all time?”

2.  Organize students into paired research teams. 3.  Ask students to share their list with their research teammate. 4.  Have student teams choose two research questions to focus on. 5.  Provide research teams a copy of the EasyBib Website Evaluation Guide

(http://media.easybib.com/ebook/mla_websiteeval.pdf) 6.  Scavenger Hunt time! Students will look for answers using the Internet. 7.  After students believe that they’ve found an appropriate website to answer their

research question, students must use the Website Evaluation Guide to determine its credibility.

8.  Student research teams will compose three paragraphs for each research question. •  First paragraph: Present your research question •  Second paragraph: Present the website that you believe is credible and how you found

it. •  Third paragraph: Taking cues from the EasyBib Website Evaluation Guide, describe how

you know that the website is a credible source. 9.  Using EasyBib.com, also have students create a citation for the website and include it at

the bottom.

Procedure

Assessment

•  Students will be assessed on their ability to locate and analyze websites to determine credibility.

•  In their explanation or presentation, students should state the answer to their research question along with an explanation as to why the specific website was a credible source.

•  Students will also be assessed on their ability to create citations for the websites using EasyBib.

Objective

Introduction