Good afternoon!
I've compiled the information I've recieved below, along with my original query.
Thanks to everyone who shared their lessons and websites!
You are all amazing!
Rebecca Miller
Library Media Specialist
Charlottesville, VA
rebecca.miller@ccs.k12.va.us
Original query:
My supervisor came to me this morning and wants me to do a "really cool" library
lesson for my formal observation between now and Christmas break. If you have any
ideas or tips for an awesome website evaluation lesson, I would greatly appreciate
any knowledge you share. My students are 7th and 8th graders. I have a few websites
from teaching 4th graders how to choose a good website about 3 years ago when I was
student teaching, but that was not a stand-alone lesson.
Responses:
I was sent this link. I think this lesson would be appropriate for young
students. http://www.marilynarnone.com/Website%20Investigator%20Tool.pdf
Also look at Kathy Shrock's Five W's of Website Evaluation
and the Website Evaluation Form from Read Write and Think.
You might use allaboutexplorers.com Good teacher developed fake site with lessons
if you register. Should do the trick.
All About Explorers is a great website evaluation site. It takes several
lessons to get through the unit but you could certainly teach the first
lesson as a stand alone. Good Luck! http://allaboutexplorers.com/home
I don't have a lesson, but here's a good website to use.
Bring Fido http://www.bringfido.com/ (It's a legit site for people who travel with
pets -- where are dog parks, pet friendly hotels and restaurants, etc. but kids
think it's a joke.)
This was a lesson that I did with 7th graders earlier this year:
http://lopezlibrarylearning.wikispaces.com/WEB+EVALUATION
I showed some examples of good and bad sites using the criteria on the wiki, as
well as bogus sites, the students then received a blank copy of the table of the
criteria and the chart as a double sided activity sheet.
You are welcome to use the bogus website that I created for your lesson. I usually
use it with sixth graders but I am sure it would work with 7th and 8th graders. I
built it after hearing the story on the news about a county office worker who read
about Dihydrogen monoxide on the internet and convinced the county board to ban it.
A Biology teacher attended the meeting and advised them that they were trying to
ban water. I tell the students this story and that I found a web site that tells
more about Dihydrogen monoxide and we should look into what it is and think about
moving forward with our own ban.
I have students check out my website, we go through it as a group - page by page
allowing students time to check out the many links. I then have them vote by
physically standing up and moving to one of three areas in the classroom - for,
against and not sure. I have students give a reason for their stand. We then move
forward with the website and get to the last page and they find out what Dihydrogen
Monoxide is. We discuss the fact that not all materials on the web is good and that
we need to back up what we find with what we know and what we can find in books.
www.angelfire.com/wa3/h200/index.html
Fake sites:
http://allaboutexplorers.com/home
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/
Online eval forms:
http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/librarybush/ResearchHelp/websiteevalM.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvalForm_General_Barker.pdf
http://www.ncsu.edu/midlink/www.eval.html
Appropriate cartoon:
http://blaugh.com/2006/10/13/the-whole-internet-truth/
Do you have a webpage? If so, and you can do one, make up your own "bogus" website.
You could use examples from your own area. My students were astounded to learn that
anyone could put up a webpage with any information. If you have a Smartboard you
could even have students help you improve it with bogus information.
Try CyberSmart
http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/lessonsbygrade/6-8/
I am using the resources of Dennis O'Connor and Carl Heine at 21st century
Information Fluency http://21cif.com . The games are fun and directly linked to
research. For background, check out their ning.
It is appropriate for your age, can be differentiated any way you want.
Good luck!
I just use allaboutexplorers.com with our 6th graders. I used one of their provided
worksheets and compared this website, a reliable one and ProQuest. It was a big hit.
I just used this website with our middle school students: Website Evaluation Lesson
.
One link had moved ( http://www.noaa.gov/turtles.html ) and was really part of an
earlier link so I just skipped that one. I started with an explanation of how to
read a URL (deconstructing web addresses doc). Then I went through the first four
sites using a laptop with LCD projector and talking about things to watch out for.
Print out the linked lesson plan because it has additional information for you.
Finally, I gave the students copies of the web evaluation forms and a note page
(web eval notes doc) and sent them to the computers (in small groups since I only
have 9 computers in the library) to evaluate the websites. About the last 10
minutes of class I gathered them together, brought the websites up on the screen
and talked about their findings, pointing out the best ways to use each website and
which ones were best for research. There is also a lesson A, but I haven't looked
at that one.
This is from a different thread, but was relevant to this hit. :-)
My hands-down favorite is RADCAB www.radcab.com because it really asks the
six essential questions you need to know when evaluating a website. Kids can
remember it, and they even sell RADCAB posters, bookmarks, etc. in some of
the catalogs we receive!
There is even a power point at
http://www.greenwood52.org/1675206311336103/FileLib/browse.asp?A=374&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55259---
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