I-Know Faculty Guide:Activity Ideas for SLO 2: Evaluate

Practicing SLO 2: Adaptable Lesson Plans, Project Zero

The process of evaluating a source's credibility and suitability is typically an invisible process. In order to make this process visible, I-Know has adapted a series of Thinking Routines into editable lessons and activities. These Thinking Routines were developed by Project Zero, a research center at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and have been adapted to meet the needs of SLO 2: Evaluate. These routines help build students’ skills and confidence related to evaluating credibility and suitability of resources for their information need, and can be used across disciplines. They are designed to be scaffolded practice activities, and not a summative assessment of this learning objective.

Red Light, Yellow Light

The Red Light, Yellow Light Thinking Routine was developed by Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This activity provides students with practice finding generalizations, bold claims, and gaps in evidence within a resource or argument, and practice pausing to ask questions when those moments arise. 

Applications: Students can use this activity to evaluate many different kinds of resources in various disciplines. Project Zero suggests using this routine to evaluate news resources, political speeches, math proofs that might have weaknesses, and popular science resources.

Claim, Support, Question

The Claim, Support, Question Thinking Routine was developed by Project Zero, a research center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This activity provides students with practice identifying claims, examining claims with evidence, and asking questions to find gaps in evidence.

Applications: Students can use this activity to evaluate many different kinds of resources in various disciplines. Some examples of resources include a piece of text, poem, artwork, speech, advertisement, and social media post. 

I-Know Consultation

If you want help creating or adapting activities that reflect the I-Know Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) into your own course, you can contact Emily Sartorius at emily.sartorius@tamucc.edu.

The SIFT Method and Lesson Idea

The SIFT Method was created by Mike Caulfield as a way for students to look beyond the webpage to determine whether or not the resource in front of them is or is not credible. SIFT stands for: 

  • S: Stop
  • I: Investigate the Source
  • F: Find Better Coverage
  • T: Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to the Original Context

Professor Chimene Burnett from TAMU-CC has created a lesson for students to apply the SIFT method in class.

Civic Online Reasoning

The Civic Online Reasoning, or COR Curriculum was developed by the Digital Inquiry Group as a free resource for K-12 teachers to teach the skill of evaluation to their students. While the curriculum is targeted for younger students, the activity ideas and concepts could give you some inspiration. In order to access lessons from this curriculum, you need to create a free account.