Evaluating Websites

A lesson plan on website evaluation complete with content, activities, a rubric, and a formative assessment ("Guess the URL"). Students learn to think critically about about the validity and credibility of Internet resources as they conduct research. This lesson would be the "hands-on" part of a research unit. Before distributing the rubric and taking students to the library or computer lab, the teacher would need to assess students' prior knowledge and provide direct instruction. The lesson takes you step-by-step through the process leading up to students' evaluation of web resources. The first section of the lesson, "Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites," could be transferred (copy>paste) to a Powerpoint or other multimedia format for students to take notes. If access to a computer lab is not available, the first activity, "Evaluate a Web Site," could be completed in the classroom, with the teacher projecting each website while students complete the evaluation rubric handout individually or in pairs. The formative assessment could be presented as a quiz, a wrap-up whole-class activity, or a "Ticket Out the Door."