Lesson 4 ELA

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What does the context and source tell me about this evidence?

OVERVIEW

In this lesson, the teacher will go through the concepts of evaluating context, source credibility, bias, and the author’s authority, including two class activities. Lastly, students will have the opportunity to practice by reading and assessing some articles’ credibility and sharing their findings.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Use context as a way to evaluate online information.
• Use source as a way to evaluate online information.
• Judge the extent to which a source is credible.

KEY TERMS

Credibility, source, author, publisher, credentials, expertise, primary purpose, bias

BROAD AREAS OF LEARNING

Health and Well-Being

• Knowledge of the impact of his/her choices on health and well-being

Media Literacy

• Understanding of media representations of reality

Citizenship and Community Life

CROSS-CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

Intellectual Competencies

• Uses information
• Solves problems
• Exercises critical judgment
• Uses creativity

Methodological Competencies

• Adopts effective work methods
• Uses information & communications technologies

Communication-related Competencies

• Communicates appropriately

ELA COMPETENCIES

• C1: Uses language\talk to communicate and learn
• C2: Reads and listens to written, spoken and media texts

WARM-UP (5 MINUTES)

This section is intended to introduce students to the Critical Online Resource Evaluation (CORE) Framework in greater detail.

PART 1 EVALUATING THE CREDIBILITY OF SOURCES: THE CONTEXT WHEEL (12 MINUTES)

In this section, teachers will introduce the topic of evaluating the credibility of sources within the context of the CORE framework. They will discuss the second tier of the pyramid, the concept of evaluating sources. This will include a section on the Context Wheel, where the different elements of context are discussed, including currency, genre credibility, genre usefulness, URL, endorsement, presentation, and structure. This will include two class activities.

PART 2 EVALUATING THE CREDIBILITY OF SOURCES: A CONTINUUM (12 MINUTES) 

The purpose of this activity is to show students how to evaluate a source based on certain factors. These include the author’s primary purpose (six types) and the author’s expertise (using lateral reading strategies). 

PART 3 FOUR CORNERS: HOW DOES THE AUTHOR’S PURPOSE AFFECT CREDIBILITY? (10 MINUTES) 

In this activity, students will be instructed to “choose” between different positions (to persuade, to sell, to document, to inform). Using Worksheet 4.1, students will have a few minutes to look at each of the four sources. They will then “show” their positions by physically standing in different spots in the room. A second goal will be to inform students of the different types of organizations that produce content.

PART 4 HOW CREDIBLE ARE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS? (16 MINUTES) 

Here, the objective is to walk the students through pieces of information to show how the credibility of an organization type may change. In this case, it’s a news organization. Students will be asked to vote several times on where the organization should fall on the credibility continuum while being presented with new pieces of information.

During Part 1, as the video is viewed, some students may need extra help with therms discussed. Here are some definitions.

Vocabulary

• Satire: Use of humor and imitation to provide commentary or critique. 
• Conspiracy theory: An unfounded explanation of an event or situation that blames the secretive work or sinister, powerful people (such as a government, company, group or even one person).
• Misinformation: False information that spreads, regardless of its intent.
• Disinformation: Information spread to intentionally deceive, misguide or influence public opinion. 
• Post-truth: When objective facts are less influential than personal beliefs and emotion; relating to a situation where people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs, rather than one based on facts. 
• Filter bubble: A situation in which an internet user encounters only information and opinions that conform to and reinforce their own beliefs, caused by algorithms that personalize an individual’s online experience.
• Echo chamber: An environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced, and alternative ideas are not considered. 
• Agents of socialization: The significant individuals, groups, or institutions that influence our sense of self and the behaviors, norms, and values that help us function in society.

Extensions to come.