6th Grade Library Lesson: Website Citation and Validity

Objectives:

Students will be introduced to the concept that websites need to be evaluated for reliability.

Students will locate and identify parts of an online newspaper to be used for a bibliography

citation.

Students will create a bibliography entry for an online newspaper website.

Students will compare two online articles and discuss which one would be most reliable to take

information from.

Time Allotment: 25 minutes

Common Core Standards:

Reading: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

(7) Integrate and evaluate content presented

(8) Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the

reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency

Writing: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

(8) Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and

accuracy of each source and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism

Information Literacy Standards (AASL Standards):

1.1.5 Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity,

appropriateness for needs, importance and social cultural context.

1.2.4 Maintain a critical stance by questioning the validity and accuracy of all information.

1.3.1 Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers.

1.3.3 Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information.

Required Resources:

*Online newspaper articles

*Citation Sheet

*Power Point

Lesson Breakdown:

5 minutes

List 3-5 fascinating and hard to believe facts. After each one have the students show thumbs up or

thumbs down if they believe what is being stated.

Ask them if it would help them to believe these facts if I told them where I got the information. Reveal

the source….Why might knowing where the information come from help those who were unsure if the

facts were true or not?

Knowing if the source the information comes from is reliable and known as a trustworthy site helps

provide confidence that the information you are getting is actually true.

5 minutes

When we are writing a researching paper and gathering information from websites we need to make

sure they are a reliable source and then we need to let our readers know what our source is by citing

that information at the end of the paper. By citing the source we are allowing our readers to go and

check out the information we put in our paper for themselves.

Today we are going to focus on online newspapers. When citing online newspapers you need the

following information: (shown on ppt). Basically, it answers the 5 W’s: who, what, when, where, why

If most of the information can be found, because sometimes you will not be able to locate all the parts,

then this is one helpful way for you to know that the website may be reliable because the creators of the

site are being transparent – they are giving you information about themselves.

15 minutes

Here’s an online newspaper. Let’s quickly look for all the parts we need. (shown on ppt)

Then give the students 2 sheets with websites; with partially done citations. They need to fill in all the

missing information. Then they will skim excerpts of the articles and quickly write out which of the two

websites they think is more reliable to pull information from and why.

After they are done, they discuss their thinking with their small group and then do a quick whole group

discussion.

Assessment:

Individually the students will fill out the 2 partially done website citations from the handout. Although

we will look at the correct answers as a whole group, they will not be able to change their answers, so

that I may assess their level of understanding. Since this is an introductory lesson I will be looking at the

class as a whole and finding those areas that were misunderstood by large number of the students.

Then findings will be reported back and the instructor can spend more time going over the location and

writing of these components for deeper understanding. Also, the students will be writing about which

news article they would pick as most reliable and why. Their answers should reflect key points such as

The New York Times is a recognizable news source, NYT information is based off of current issues where

as The Onion article talks about future events as if it were fact. If students choose The New York Times

article as well as wrote a clear and understandable explanation of their thinking then their answer is on

par. For those students who did not choose the correct article more practice needs to occur on the topic

of website reliability.

Assessment Results:

After examining the papers the only reoccurring problem was with the order of the day, month, and year.

Students would put the month first instead of the day. This is natural to them since it is how we most

often write this information. 7 out of 28 students made this mistake. This problem will be fixed with

monitored practice and more experience in citation of sources. As for choosing the correct article for

reliability 27 out 28 students chose The New York Times. Their reasons were all along the lines of The

Times article citing data and being a well-known sources whereas The Onion made references to things

that will occur in the future as fact and is not a familiar source to them. They did a great job and seemed

to have a strong understanding of what to look for when gauging the reliability of a source.

Collaboration with Teacher:

The sixth grader teacher was approached by myself and the librarian to be a part of a collaborative

lesson. The librarian knew this instructor’s class would be starting a research project soon and needed

some background knowledge on website citations and reliability. The teacher and I quickly brainstormed

some ideas and then I created a lesson and we dialogued via e-mail. The lesson was presented and

managed by myself while the supervising librarian took pictures and the classroom teacher observed the

lesson.

Reflection:

The lesson went well. Based off the student’s participation and attention they were engaged. From

their worksheet answers they came away with a nice understanding of the concepts I set out to teach.

The students were fun to interact with and had great thoughts and comments to add to the lesson. It is

a challenge to create a meaningful lesson in a short library class time. But it is also so very important

that they have ample time to check out books. I am used to being a classroom teacher and creating a

full lesson that I see from start to finish is what I normally do. But as a librarian, I am just a piece of the

overall puzzle. This teacher will take my short lesson and build on it with the students. I have to begin to

transition my thinking from classroom teacher to librarian. While the roles do overlap, I also have

another role to play in the student’s education, which is to provide resources and materials for them. So

providing them ample to time to use those and help them find those books is important.

Creating practice with a partially filled out citation was very beneficial in providing them meaningful

practice with limited time. Locating the information from the website was new to them and took them

time to find. If I was to extend the lesson I would want to have them find their own online news article

and create a citation from beginning to end. Overall, I feel like this lesson was a success and am happy

with the results.

Citation Sheet

Format:

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper. Day Abbreviated Month. Year of Publication. Day Abbreviated Month. Year you viewed it <URL>.

Fill in the missing pieces of the citation using the articles given to you:

_________, ___________. “Not Even Close: 2012 Was Hottest Ever in U.S.” New York Times. _______________________. 19 Jan. 2013 < www.nytimes.com>.

“2012 Was Once Considered Hottest Year on Record, Man In 2024 Remembers Wistfully.” ___________. 9 Jan. 2013. __________________ <www.theonion.com>.

THE ONION ARTICLE

2012 Was Once Considered Hottest Year On Record, Man In 2024 Remembers Wistfully News in Brief • Science & Technology • ISSUE 49•02 • Jan 9, 2013

NEW WASHINGTON—Marveling at how dire things seemed in the relatively stable days of 12 years ago,

Alan Gibson, 41, a local man of the year 2024, wistfully recounted on Wednesday the then-record

temperatures recorded in the United States in 2012. "To think that we were concerned about a 55.3-

degree average is almost comical, but then, I guess at that point we must have still had some kind of

perceivable ozone layer," Gibson said fondly while reapplying the full-body coat of UV-resistant resin he

and his fellow citizens of the 43 contiguous United States wear at all times. "Today, you wouldn't think

twice about a 96-degree day in the middle of February, but a mere decade ago you would look up at the

skies waiting for snow. Christ, those were the days, man." Gibson then recounted at length to reporters

the story of how he and his family narrowly escaped the Eastern Seaboard during the abrupt and tragic

events of March 2019.

THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE (excerpt)

Not Even Close: 2012 Was Hottest Ever in U.S.

By JUSTIN GILLIS

Published: January 8, 2013 838 Comments

The numbers are in: 2012, the year of a surreal March heat wave, a severe drought in the

Corn Belt and a huge storm that caused broad devastation in the Middle Atlantic States,

turns out to have been the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States.

How hot was it? The temperature differences between years are usually measured in

fractions of a degree, but last year’s 55.3 degree average demolished the previous record, set

in 1998, by a full degree Fahrenheit.

If that does not sound sufficiently impressive, consider that 34,008 daily high records were

set at weather stations across the country, compared with only 6,664 record lows, according

to a count maintained by the Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton, using federal

temperature records.