6-8 Grade - Critically Evaluating Web Sites

This site is intended to give teachers and students the tools necessary to critically evaluate web sites. Read the directions and follow the tasks or use the menu to skip to a specific section.

Task #1 Task #2 Task #3 Task #4

Shrock's Printable Middle School Survey Student Safe Search Engines Web Sites that focus on Critical Evaluation

Other related sites Project Venture Home Page Creighton Home Page Carlos' Bilingual Resources

Task #1 Split up the class so that there are a few different groups with at least 4 students in each group. Assign one of the following web sites to each group. Have them visit the site for at least 10 minutes, evaluate it and be prepared to give feedback to the class.(There is no guide at this point. This is all the students are told.) Martin Luther King Jr.-An Historical Examination Dinosaurs! Aids   next task back to top                           Task #2 Have the students give a quick report their findings. During the presentations, the instructor is listing the ways that different teams evaluated the web sites.   next task back to top previous task                                     Task #3 Use the following links to show a basic search result for Martin Luther King Jr. Alta Vista Martin Luther King Search: #2 in search list Google Marting Luther King Search: #11 in search list   At this point the instructor may show some of the mirror sites. The King Center: http://www.thekingcenter.org/ Discovering Dinosaurs: http://dinosaurs.eb.com/dinosaurs/index2.html   Now the instructor should highlight some of the ways that the teams evaluated the web sites.   next task back to top previous task                                   Task #4 Take a tour of a web site which outlines effective strategies for evaluating web sites. Web Evaluation Guide - This is in the form of a tour which is appealing to students.   back to top previous task

Student safe search engines • Never guess a domain name. Teach students how to do effective searches instead. • As educators, it is our responsibility to control what students view on the Internet. For this reason, we must become familiar with safe surfing/searching techniques and our own Acceptable Use Policies(AUP). Ask Jeeves for Kids™ Yahooligans KidsClick! Web Search Education World Kid's Search Tools AOL Netfind StudyWeb This.com Berit's Best Sites for Children One Key

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Web sites that focus on Critical Evaluation Quality Information Checklist (Quick) - Exactly that. A quick way to evaluate a web site. Kathy Schrock's Critical Evaluation Surveys - Here are usable surveys to help students evaluate web sites. Available for Elementary, Middle School and Secondary. Link to Schrock middle school survey. The Ten C's for evaluating web sites - contains excellent questions for each section of evaluation. Web Evaluation Guide - This is in the form of a tour which is appealing to students. More resources for online evaluation - this site includes checklists for various types of web pages. Article by Alan November- Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning.

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