Finding and Using Reliable Internet Sources

MaryKatherine HinmanGrade 9

Academic/Honors English

Technology Integration RationaleRationaleMy lesson requires students to find and use

sources from the internet while determining whether or not those sources are reputable. Since anyone can publish anything on the internet, it is important for my students to be able to sift through internet material to find reliable sources. My students will need to be able to use reputable internet sources in projects or papers that I assign.

My Source Reliability

Each of my sources has been identified as reliable and useful for my students.

I am only including websites sponsored by a government agency, university, etc. or that I have determined to be educational and accurate.

I have included citations for my sources under each slide in the “Notes” sections.

YouTube Video

The West Kentucky Community and Technical College Library posted this instructional video on YouTube about evaluating internet sources for reliability and accuracy.

Determining Reliable SourcesAlthough the video is

geared towards students at the college level, the material presented is incredibly useful.

Challenging Sources Blog

Howard Kurtz CNN BlogHoward Kurtz’s blog would push

students to deeply consider the ways in which things are portrayed or reported through different media. Who controls what gets published? How can we be sure that we are getting the whole story?

Plagiarism Podcast

Since my students will be integrating the information that they find in reliable internet sources into assignments, I will need to make sure that they understand the nature of plagiarism and ways to avoid it through citations

Ressler English 10 Podcast

Internet Resources

Internet DetectiveThis website, run by the Intute Virtual Training

Suite and the LearnHigher project, offers students an in-depth look at plagiarism laws and ways to evaluate internet content. Once the student has read through each of the subtitled pages, he or she can complete a brief assessment to check for understanding.

Internet Resources

Purdue OWL MLA Style GuideThe Purdue University Online Writing Lab’s guide

to MLA formating is a great resource for my students to use as they create their bibliographies or cite sources in their papers. This resource will allow them to avoid plagiarism

Internet Resources

George Mason Evaluation CriteriaThe GMU ITU Support Center has a link on its

page to this listing of criteria to meet and questions for researchers to answer when evaluating the credibility of an internet resource. The site also shows students how to use domain names in credibility evaluation which I found very helpful.

Graphic Organizer/Diagram

Site MjAuthor(s) Mj

Website MjAddress Mj

Website MjCredibility Mj

Credentials- What Mjis this author Mjbelievable? Mj

Publication Date- MjWhen was the Mjarticle/website Mj

published or last Mjupdated? Mj

Goal- What info Mjcould you use Mj

from this source? Mj

Credibility- Is this Mjsource credible? Mj

Why/Why not? Mj

Angle/Bias- Is Mjthere a bias? MjIdentify that Mj

bias. Mj

Is your source... Mj

Accurate? MjAuthoritative? Mj

Current? MjObjective? MjPopular or MjSch Mj Mj�olarly Mj? Mj

Credibility Jumble

Unscramble each of the clue words.Take the letters that appear in circled boxes and unscramble them for the final message

Is there an App for that?

EasyBib is a great resource for students who are looking to put together a Works Cited page in MLA format. Clicking on the picture above links to the EasyBib app on the iTunes website. EasyBib is available for iPhone, iPad and online.

Source Credibility WorksheetThis worksheet allows students to further consider their source’s credibility and use in a research paper. I also like that the worksheet prompts students to consider the ways in which they would use their chosen source.

Site Credibility Checklist

This worksheet would be a great step-by-step way for students to evaluate the credibility of a website. The use of numbers make the decision more concrete.

Subject-Specific Website

Read, Write, ThinkThis website is a great resource for Language

Arts teachers. There are links to lesson plans (which include plagiarism, paraphrasing and proper citation!) and different ways to develop and grow as a teacher.

Supporting Websites

Online Encyclopedia• Encyclopedia.com would be

a great way for my students to begin exploring online to find resources to use in their research. The online encyclopedia is an awesome way for students to begin analyzing websites or articles for credibility

Research Strategies• This site is a great way for

students to seriously think about exactly what they are searching for on the internet. This page has different strategies for searching in directories, databases or search engines.

Online Collaboration

• EdmodoI would use Edmodo in my classroom as a forum

for collaboration between my students. They can work together on research assignment and work to gauge credibility in websites that their peers use as sources. I can use Edmodo as a way to collect assignments from my students and organize class assignments and expectations.