Using the same source used in Activities 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D, students work in groups to evaluate how much a source’s currency affects its credibility and then discuss how they made their decisions. The instructor leads the discussion.
Other activities in this series: Activity 6A, Evaluating a Source’s Neighborhood on the Web; Activity 6B, Evaluating a Source’s Author and Publisher; Activity 6C, Evaluating a Source’s Degree of Bias; and Activity 6D Evaluating a Source’s Recognition.
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- Make inferences about a source’s credibility.
- Evaluate a source’s credibility based on the source’s degree of bias.
- Use Choosing & Using Sources.
Relevant Threshold Concepts
- Authority is constructed and contextual.
Suggestions for Use
- Whatever source a student evaluated in the first activity you’ve used in this series should be the one he/she evaluates for this activity.
- This activity should be helpful in classes where students will be planning which kinds of sources they should consider for their research projects.
- Consider preceding this activity with Activity 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D.
Pre-Class Preparation
- Review the handout for this activity.
- Review In-Class Procedure below.
- Read Choosing and Using Sources, Chapter 6, Evaluating Sources, “Currency of the Content,” which students will be referring to on their devices to make their evaluations.
- Consider assigning students to read before class Choosing and Using Sources, Chapter 6, Evaluating Sources, “Currency of the Content,” which students will be referring to on their devices to make their evaluations.
- Prepare to introduce the session, using your own remarks or In-Class Procedure below, if it is helpful.
- Evaluate the source’s currency yourself.
- Using In-Class Procedure, plan your discussion of the groups’ evaluations.
- Print 1 copy per student and 1 for yourself of Handout 6E-1.
- Make sure you have the “grades” students gave the source for Web neighborhood, author and publisher, and degree of bias so you can re-display them today.
- Download and perhaps print In-Class Procedure so you can take it with you to class.
In-Class Procedure
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- While students work, draw this matrix with as many group columns as you need. (Group columns need to be wide enough for only 1 capital letter.) Fill in the “grades” for Web neighborhood, author and publisher, degree of bias, and recognition that were posted earlier.
- On the board, write the URL for the source you selected.
- Point to the source’s URL you put on the board and remind students that they have already evaluated this source’s other factors for credibility. Today they will be evaluating the same source’s currency.
- Ask students to get into the same group they were in for Activities 6A, 6B, 6C, and 6D. (If some students are absent, it will not matter.)
- Pass out Handout 6E-1 to every student.
- Suggest that if one or more group members did not bring an electronic device, those within the group who did should share their device(s).
- Tell students that they will have only about 5 minutes to do their evaluations after reading the handout, so they should get started quickly.
Factor Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Web Neighborhood Author and Publisher Degree of Bias Recognition from Others Currency of Content - After about 5 minutes, ask any reporter who hasn’t reported his/her group’s grade to put it on the board.
- Once all groups’ currency “grades” are on the board, instead of asking the questions you’ve asked about the “grades” for the other factors, ask the reporters to average all the grades their group has given the source for credibility factors and come up and post them on the board. Remind students of what the “grades” stand for (A=Very Acceptable, B= Good, but could be better, C= OK in a pinch, D= Marginal, and F= Unacceptable). Point out which groups would be using this source for a research assignment and any groups that wouldn’t be.
- Remind students that the assumption in all these activities was that they were considering using this source for a research assignment. If they were considering it for some other reason—perhaps one in which the bar did not have to be so high–the average “grades” may have come out differently.
- Let students know that evaluating a source will get faster and easier for them the more they do it.
Relevant Choosing & Using Sources Chapters:
Chapter 6, Evaluating Sources.
