Digital Literacy Lesson

Here is an idea for a lesson plan where students must determine the validity and accuracy of several provided sources.  I tried to stay away from some of the more common hoax websites for this lesson so that students would be challenged similarly to if they were really conducting research.  This lesson begins with two completely fake sites for lip balm addicts and an invented town.  The third website is a hoax/ mock cite named after a defunct but otherwise completely real organization, the Flat Earth Society.  This website is a little more ambiguous because there is an actual history for this organization and world theory.  Students will need separate the current hoax iteration from the history of its namesake.  The fourth website isn't a hoax site but rather a very real, if unpopular and widely refuted, AIDS virus theory.  The final source represents a one sided depiction of a contentious topic, the safety of e-cigarettes.  This source only presents positive information and represents a biased source.  As students progress through these sources they encounter circumstances that they are more likely to face when evaluating real websites.

Student Teacher ____M.P._____ Grade Level_10__   Subject___Language Arts______

Date of lesson_______________               Length of lesson_______________

Lesson Topic: Uncovering Bias in internet sources.

Overall Goal:  (Broad statement using non action verbs)  “Students will understand that….

Students will understand that bias is present in virtually all informative texts.

Learner Background:  (This addresses why the lesson is being taught.)  Describe the students’ prior knowledge or skill related to the learning objective(s) and the content of this lesson, using data from pre-assessment as appropriate.  How did the students’ previous performance in this content area or skill impact your planning for this lesson?  

Students are completing a unit on digital literacy and research for an upcoming project. They have previously done work supporting arguments with evidence and making citations  In this lesson they will practice determining if an internet source is reliable and credible.  They will examine 5 websites and take notes on what aspects make each site seem legitimate or not.  These notes will be used to complete a class wide discussion board after the lesson.

Curricular Standards:  Identify the primary standard(s) this lesson is designed to help students attain:

• National
• State CCSS RI.9-10.1 Determine an author’s point of view of purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
• Local (optional)

Student Learning Objective(s):  Identify specific and measurable learning objectives for this lesson.  Use action verbs.  “Students will be able to….”

SWBAT determine if the 5 provided sources are credible and reliable.
SWBAT share and discuss the impact of their findings.

Assessment:

Part I:  How will you check for student understanding during the lesson?  (Formative)

Have students repeat back to me what they should be doing.

I will circulate around the room, asking questions and listening to student conversations.

Part II:  How will you ask students to demonstrate mastery of the student learning objective(s)?  Attach a copy of any assessment materials you will use, along with assessment criteria/rubric. (Formative or summative)  

Students will share out their findings during a closing discussion.

They will also be asked to upload their findings to a class wide padlet page.

Materials/Resources:  List the materials you will use in each learning activity including any technological resources.  

Smart Board

Chromebooks

Internet Access

The Lesson:

Initiation:Part I - Briefly describe how you will introduce the lesson, engage students in the lesson and connect it to previous learning. (This is intended to motivate students.)  

Show state farm “Can’t Lie on the Internet” video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufTna0WArc

Have students respond to journal prompt
“Do you ever consider that what you read on the internet might not be true?”

Initiation Part II – (This is intended to bridge to the lesson:  set expectations for learning, articulate to learners what they will be  learning in this lesson and why this is important).  

Have students share their responses to the question and discuss internet credibility.

• Have you ever believed something you read online only to find out it wasn’t true?
• Do you ever check to make sure what you’re reading is accurate? How so?
• How do you know when something isn’t credible?

Lesson Development: Describe how you will develop the lesson:  what you will do to model or guide practice and the learning activities students will be engaged in to gain the key knowledge and skills identified in the student learning objective(s). Include the questions you will ask, identify and explain the instructional grouping (whole class, small groups, pairs, individuals) for each lesson segment, and include the approximate times for each.    Include reference to Bloom’s taxonomy to identify higher levels of thinking.

Review some ways that students can check internet sources for reliability.

1. Ask Questions

• Who is the author?
• What is their purpose?
• Who is the audience?
• Have I heard of this person or source before?

     2. Look at where the source is from.

.edu and .gov TLD’s are usually more credible than .com and .net but care must always be taken.

     3. Look for included sources and evidence.
If a website is making claims but never mentions any sources then those claims are likely not

credible.

     4. Look for other websites with similar information or on similar topics.  Do they agree with each

other?
Sometimes you will find sources that are biased towards one side of an argument.  Look for

discussions and evidence of a debate.  If a website omits some information or only tells one

side of a story it is likely biased.

Introduce the assignment to the class.

They will be asked to look through a selection of 5 websites with a partner in order to determine if each one is credible and reliable.  If it is not credible or reliable they are to take notes of all the reasons why not. Remind students to use other websites to cross reference the information provided on these websites.

http://www.lipbalmanonymous.com/

A humorous site about lip blam addiction.  This website is not as obvious as other hoaxes because of its dry, toned down, language.

http://descy.50megs.com/mankato/mankato.html

This website for the fictional town of Mankato MN demonstrates how false information and hideous visual design can be clues that a source is not legitimate.  The URL is also quite different from most official websites that are meant to be easily typed.

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

This website is very elaborate and convincing as a result of good design and a very real history.  The Flat Earth Society was at one point a real organization that pushed the flat earth theory.  This theory has since been widely disproven but the current iteration of the society exists as a hoax.  

http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/index.htm

Similar to the Flat Earth Society, Virusmyth is a website dedicated to an outdated and extremely minority viewpoint that HIV does not cause AIDS.  This claim has had some backing by scientists but is rejected by the vast majority of the medical field.   As a result any claims made on the website need to be taken with a large grain of salt.

http://www.truthaboutecigs.com/scares.php

This website about the health benefits/risks of e-cigarettes is run by the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association which presents a clear and obvious bias.  This website represents one side of the e-cigarette discussion by focusing on potential health benefits.   While the information is debatable but not necessarily wrong the site omits information about the risks and uncertainties associated with the products.

Closure: Briefly describe how you will close the lesson, help students understand the purpose of the lesson, and show how it will connect to future learning. (Rather than an administrative closure, interact with learners to elicit evidence of student understanding of purpose(s) for learning and mastery of objectives)

At the end of class project each website on the board and discuss the students’ findings such as the issues they found with each website.  Take special care to note that the AIDS and Ecig website are not hoaxes and ask if students recognized this?  Have students record their findings on a class wide padlet.
Padlet.com