Curated OER
Determining Relevancy
Learners learn skills for evaluating information they retrieve from searching book catalogs, article indexes and Web search tools. They evaluate print and Web materials that they have collected for a specific topic. Use before a research...
Curated OER
Text hunt
Students explore, research and develop new methods for evaluating information received from an original piece of text. They distinguish between easy and difficult forms of text and each group presents their findings and new methods to...
Curated OER
Evaluating Information Quality: Identifying Useful Information
Third graders examine different types of information and evaluate its accuracy. In groups, they research tribal heroes from the present and past. As a class, they identify what they need to look for to determine if the information is...
PBS
Broadcast News
Just because a story is on the news doesn't mean it's being presented fairly. Analyze news broadcasts with a lesson focused on evaluating television journalism. At home, kids watch a news show and note the stories presented, including...
Curated OER
Beauty or the Beast
Does the FDA really intend to protect public health? Spark a debate in your chemistry or health class by using this article, titled "Beauty or the Beast." It questions the safety of cosmetics and toiletry products, govenment regulations,...
School Improvement in Maryland
Executive Order
After reading information about Executive Order #9066, class members assume the voice of an 18 year-old Japanese-American born in California and placed in an internment camp. Individuals then craft a letter to President Roosevelt...
NASA
Data Literacy Cube: Global Atmospheric Temperature Anomaly Data
Evaluate global temperature anomalies using real-world data from NASA! Climatologists analyze a data set using a literacy cube and differentiated question sheets. Team members evaluate global temperature anomaly data with basic...
The New York Times
Great Debate: Developing Argumentation Skills
"Advertising has no impact on whether people buy something." "Looting is morally permissible during national disasters and emergencies." "Gay teenagers should be allowed to take dates to the prom." Considering a class debate? Check out...
Cornell University
Constructing and Visualizing Topographic Profiles
Militaries throughout history have used topography information to plan strategies, yet many pupils today don't understand it. Scholars use Legos and a contour gauge to understand how to construct and visualize topographic profiles. This...
Polk Bros Foundation
Common Core Constructed Response Organizer
Get your writers ready to compose a constructed response essay in response to either an informational or fictional text. Pupils note down the big idea they wish to address as well as up to nine examples from the text that they wish to...
School Improvement in Maryland
Monetary Policy
As an introduction to monetary policy, groups investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of current monetary and fiscal policies on promoting full employment, price stability, and economic performance. They then apply monetary tools...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Life Vest Challenge
After reading about the history and science of personal floatation devices, patents, and intellectual property, engineering teams design a life vest for a can of soup. To evaluate which groups considered the need for waterproofing, hold...
School Improvement in Maryland
Socio-Economic Goals of the Government
Equity. Increased productivity. Price stability. Environmental protection. Decreased poverty. Governments establish socio-economic goals and then must design and fund programs to address these goals. Groups investigate various...
News Literacy Project
News Judges
Order in the court! Scholars act as news judges, learning how to analyze the newsworthiness of several pieces of information. Working in small groups, they determine which events are most newsworthy and then complete graphic organizers...
Teaching Tolerance
Advertisements and You
Watch out for clever advertisements! Using the lesson, scholars learn how to identify online ads and respond to them critically. They then use what they've learned to develop a list of strategies to evaluate web pages.
Health Smart Virginia
Cyber Tattoo
Designed to inform high school freshmen about the ramifications of sharing personal information through social media, this lesson focuses on sexting. Investigators first check the validity of websites using a Website Evaluation Tool....
K20 LEARN
The K20 Chronicle, Lesson 1: What Makes a Good Article?
Good news articles are engaging, informative, and often compelling. In the first lesson of the four-part series, young journalists analyze and evaluate news stories about former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom. They learn about the...
University of North Carolina
Annotated Bibliographies
When researchers write a paper, they become curators of information. It's their job to determine the best sources of information on a topic and use those sources to inform their writing. As part of a larger series, a handout on annotated...
9/11 Memorial & Museum
The Destruction and Rebuilding of the World Trade Center
How did an investigation into the causes of the collapse of the Twin Towers, as a result of the 9/11 attacks, inform the construction of the new 1 World Trade Center? That is the central question of a resource that asks class members...
Nemours KidsHealth
Media Literacy and Health: What’s the Truth?
In this personal health media literacy worksheet, students use the eight questions on this sheet to evaluate a health news report on television. Students write paragraphs the determine whether the reports are valid sources of information.
Curated OER
Rights and the Wyandotte Constitution
Every state uses a set of rights to establish laws and regulations. Explore the Wyandotte Constitution as it was written in 1859 and compare it with how rights in Kansas have changed, especially those that pertain to gender and race. A...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 4: The Psychological Approach
Readers apply Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious mind and the psychological approach to literary criticism to analyze and evaluate the relationship between two characters in A Separate Peace.
Curated OER
Unit 3: Scientific Writing
Write-on! Demonstrate a writing model and support learners as they write an informational essay on a water resource issue of your (or their) choosing. The lesson plan provides a well-scaffolded summative writing...
Classroom Law Project
What should I watch for in the debates?
Prepare your classes for election year debates with a series of activities that model how to watch televised debates and how to evaluate the moderators as well as the debaters.