Erin Jolly

LITR 630

Summer 2017

Online Literacy Assignment

Part 1: Activity
Students will work in pairs to brainstorm indicators and strategies for critically evaluating
a website. Students will take a break to share their list of indicators aloud, giving other groups a
chance to grow their list. Once students have created a comprehensive list to analyze and
evaluate the website, they will be given a list of 8 websites to evaluate:

o All About Explorers

o Californias Velcro Crop Under Challenge
o Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
o Buy Dehydrated Water
o Republic of Molossia
o Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center
o The History of the Electric Car
o Normandy Invasion

Using the list created by the group, students will work to determine if the given website is
a credible source. Students will have access to laptops (one for each student) to explore and
critically evaluate the website. Once students have had time to explore the websites, the class
will sort their website into two groups- credible or not credible. Once websites are classified on
the whole class chart, each group will pick one website and briefly discuss how they came to
their conclusion.

Part 2: Teacher Developed Lesson

Standards:
o ISTE.3.b Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of
information, media, data, or other resources.
o ISTE 3.d Students build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and
problems, developing ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions.
o RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how
to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. (CCSS)
o SL.2.1.a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in
respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the
topics and texts under discussion). (CCSS)
 o ILA 5.1 Candidates design the physical environment to optimize students' use of
traditional print, digital, and online resources in reading and writing instruction.
o KTS 6.2 Uses available technology to implement instruction that facilitates
student learning.
o KTS 6.3 Integrates student use of available technology into instruction.
Grade Level: Second Grade
Time Needed to Complete Assignment: 10 minute introduction, 5 minute brainstorm, 30-
40 minutes for website exploration and sorting, 10 minutes for partners to share (55-65
minutes total)
Materials: Paper, pencil, laptop cart with class set of laptops with Read and Write,
SmartBoard with connection so websites can be displayed for discussions
Learning Targets of the Lessons:
o Students will develop a list of strategies and/or indicators to determine a websites
credibility.
o Students will successfully evaluate websites to determine their credibility.
Procedures
o Introduction
Teacher will introduce lesson by telling an fake anecdote of a being
tricked by information online that looked real.
Teacher will show hoax Chick-fil-a add that promised every
teacher a free meal on Teacher Appreciation Day. Acting outraged,
the teacher will describe ordering a meal only to be told the coupon
was a hoax, not put out by Chick-fil-a, and spread by social media.
Teacher will act confused as she explains that the coupon looked
real and the website it came from did too. (Display coupon and one
Chick-fil-as official statement).
Teacher will pose the problem by desperately asking the students what she
could have done to avoid the embarrassing situation.
Students will discuss and be guided to the conclusion that most websites
need to be checked for credibility.
Teacher will pose the question, How can we know that what we are
consuming on the internet is valid and reliable? Teacher will write
essential question on the board.
Teacher will introduce student activity.
o Activity
Students will work in pairs to brainstorm indicators and strategies for
critically evaluating a website. (Pairs will be selected based on literacy
level since I feel that will be a barrier to some.)
Students will take a break to share their list of indicators aloud, giving
other groups a chance to grow their list and for the teacher to make
comments, clear up misconceptions, or pose critical questions. Students
will either conclude independently or be guided to focus on accuracy,
perspective, credibility, and relevance when analyzing a website. Teacher,
through questioning, will guide students to the determination that readers
 must use multiple strategies because sometimes hoax websites are very
good at disguising themselves.
Once the class has created a comprehensive list to analyze and evaluate
the website, they will be given a list of 8 websites to evaluate. Students
will have a personal laptop ready to use and a clickable list of hyperlinks.
Students will keep notes on their conclusion about the website and the
indicators they used to determine the credibility or lack thereof.

1. All About Explorers

2. Californias Velcro Crop Under Challenge
3. Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus
4. Buy Dehydrated Water
5. Republic of Molossia
6. Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center
7. The History of the Electric Car
8. Normandy Invasion
Once students have had time to explore the websites, the class will sort
their website into two groups- credible or not credible.
As a class we will look at the sorted sites and determine together if any
websites are in the wrong classification, discussing why we believe it
needs to be moved. This will be a whole class discussion, guided by my
questioning and support.
o Closing
Teacher will reiterate the readers responsibility to look at websites with
a critical eye. Teacher will remind students that sometimes websites can
appear authentic if we only use one strategy, so we must use several from
our toolboxes.
Teacher will revisit the class created list of strategies for evaluating a
website. This anchor chart will be hung in the computer area and
referenced to or added to when needed.

Assessment
o Teacher will project 2 websites, one credible and one not, to the students via
SmartBoard. Teacher will allow 1-2 minutes for students to read and explore the
sites before asking students to email her the name of the site which contains
misinformation and the reasoning for selecting said site. Teacher will respond
with appropriate feedback.
o http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/evalelem.pdf
Students will complete this survey prior to the beginning of this unit and at
the close. This will help me guide discussion for this lesson.
Accommodations and Modifications
o Time: Some students will spend a great deal of time simply opening up the
internet and typing in the URL to access the sites. While these are important skills
and efficiency with technology is important, it is not the focus of this lesson.
Therefore, laptops will already have the internet opened and a clickable list of
hyperlinks.
 o Reading Ability: While many of my students can read, these websites often
contain words that are difficult to decode or new to their vocabulary. I have
purposefully tried to select websites that use grade level text and ensured Read
and Write is installed on all their computers. (They are familiar with how to use
this tool.) I have also paired students based on reading ability, a strong reader with
a struggling reader.
o Scaffolding: I anticipate this lesson will be completely new for my students. Im
not sure if my students even know that everything you read on the internet isnt
true. I have tried to make this lesson engaging and simplistic (relating the lesson
to a real life event, creating a supporting document together so they have a
jumping off point) but I know I will need to be circulating to check on groups,
asking guiding questions, and adding enrichment for students that seem to be
getting it.
Enrichment: Students will be asked to find one credible and one non-
credible website.

Part 3: Written Component

This lesson heavily focuses on online literacy, specifically the skills of evaluating
accuracy and reliability/credibility. Each day the lines become more and more blurry between
credible sites and fake news. Our students must be able to determine if they can trust a website
to convey accurate information in order to be literate in the changing online world.

By asking students to analyze fake online websites and articles, I am introducing them to
the one of the obstacles to the evolution of sharing knowledge and changing their perception of
reading (ILA 1.2). I use varying instructional approaches through the class created anchor chart,
time to explore independently (on a class set of laptops (ILA 5.1)), and the discussion afterwards.
(ILA 2.2) I also attempted to select different types of websites-history, science, news- so that
students could work on analyzing a wide range of texts (ILA 2.3). I specifically avoided websites
about political views, religion, etc. because I wanted to be cognizant of the diversity in our
classroom. While there will be a time to work with these types of text, I want to develop their
understanding more before we tackle those areas (ILA 4..2).

Through this lesson, my students are being knowledge constructors. They are evaluating
the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance or information, media, data, or other
resources (ISTE 3.b). Through introducing this activity in the frame of a problem and question,
students are activity exploring real-world issues and problems (fake news), developing ideas and
theories (anchor chart of strategies) and pursuing answers and solutions (determining the
provided websites accuracy) (ISTE 3.d)

I used technology to design and plan instruction as I selected appropriate websites for this
lesson (KTS.6.1) and technology was used during the course of this lesson to facilitate student
learning (KTS 6.2) both by the teacher and by the students (KTS.6.3). Students are responsible
for completing an assessment at the close of the lesson. They will email me the name of the
website they determine contains fraudulent information and a reason why. Teacher will email
back with feedback. (KTS.6.4)
 I expect that my students will really struggle with this lesson. Some of the websites could
fool an adult and many of my students believe everything they read on the internet, or any print,
is true. Jill Castek (2011) states that, Even though many students are able to state otherwise,
when it comes to online reading in daily practice, most believe that nearly all the information on
the Internet is reliable. It is my responsibility to educate my students on the importance of
locating credible resources because without this understanding, they cannot be digitally literate.

When I planned this lesson, I made sure to incorporate technology (TK) and pedagogical
knowledge (PK) to make decisions about what technology resources to utilize and developmental
appropriateness of the task. Students will be asking and answering who, what, where, when,
why, and how questions as they analyze the websites, using the create anchor chart. Since this is
a Common Core State Standard (CCSS.RL.2.1) students will also be interacting with content
knowledge (CK). All of these components being present makes this lesson a TPACK lesson.