Greene

At Scales Elementary, my focus group was of 6th graders and what they currently knew about evaluating sources. One of the questions on my survey was, "All websites are valid and relevant since they have to be published." 7 out of 11 were undecided are agreed that this was true. Therefore, these students need to be taught that there is information on the web that is inaccurate as well as skills needed to correctly find authoritative information.

__Plan of Action__ In order to fill this particular gap and address the 21st century needs of these sixth graders, a specific Evaluating Sources Unit as well as a Pathfinder of reliable sources available in the library should allow students to gain knowledge and have practice researching to know how to evaluate sources. Students are not expected to master the skill of evaluating sources, however, the unit will assist in filling the gap that exists from the survey. Ideally, this unit would be taught in a smaller amount of time (flexible) instead of once every eight days (fixed). Here is the unit overview: Unit Goal: To give students a way to practice evaluating print and online sources Previous knowledge: Basic Internet skills, encyclopedia/dictionary skills Day one Days two and three Day four (student laptops) Days five and six (student laptops) Days seven and eight (student laptops) Day nine Along with instructional unit, a pathfinder will be made available on the library website with general print and online sources. Students will be advised to begin with the Pathfinder whenever they need to find valid information during research. With the unit and pathfinder, the sixth grade students should be more aware to evaluate sources during the information seeking process in the future. After surveying a second time, if the gap is still not filled, the media specialist will meet with the sixth grade teachers to have them continue weaving in this instruction in their curriculum.
 * Introductory Powerpoint to evaluating sources with CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) and wiki caution
 * Visit invalid websites with incorrect information and run the CRAAP test
 * Discuss the impact of using information from sources like these
 * Browse reference print sources in the library (encyclopedias, thesauri, dictionaries, atlases)
 * Students will write facts based on a topic/word of their choice within their book
 * Sources will be rotated in order for the students to see them all
 * Introduce authoritative online sources available for students to use in research on projected screen (World Book, Grolier, Kids InfoBits) Google/wiki caution
 * Students will have time to simply “play” with the sites and run sample searches
 * Continue to use online sources from previous days to write facts based on a topic given to each student
 * Collaborate with sixth grade teachers to find out what is being studied at the time
 * Students will search using online and print sources for information about their grade level curriculum topic
 * Students will write facts and give credit to the source
 * Take the survey again and discuss how each statement related to the searching over the past eight days
 * General reference print sources at Scales Elementary
 * o Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Atlases, Thesauri, etc.
 * General Reference online sources with hyperlinks
 * o World Book for Kids, Kids InfoBits, Grolier, etc.