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Lesson 3

We will work in our research teams to continue reading, analyzing, and evaluating a text from the pathway text set. We will assess the text’s credibility, bias, and accuracy.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I evaluate the relevance and credibility of information, ideas, evidence, and reasoning presented in a text?

  • Can I work productively in various roles with other participants?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • “Three Educational Pathways to Good Jobs,” Anthony P. Carnevale, Jeff Strohl, Neil Ridley, and Artem Gulish, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2018

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will discuss our examination of the Foundation Unit research and Presentation Guide from the previous lesson’s homework.

Step 1

With your pathway team, discuss your review of the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide, sections 1 and 2, from the previous lesson’s homework.

  1. What information does the guide provide that can help you conduct research?

  2. What processes and questions can you use to commence your research?

Step 2

As you continue creating and drafting artifacts for your portfolio, you will begin to independently research more information about your life goals, including your career aspirations. Before you commence this independent research in the following lesson, you will practice evaluating a source for it’s credibility, bias, and accuracy so that you can be assured that the resources you find are suitable for exploration. Additionally, as you continue to research, you will take notes on the sources you find to provide evidence for your reflection writing in Section Diagnostic 3 and the Culminating Task.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will expand our understanding of source usefulness by examining section 2 of the Foundation Unit research and Presentation Guide. We will practice assessing sources for credibility, bias, and accuracy.

Step 1

Assessing sources is an important early step in a research process to help you determine the sources you will use to glean information and opinions about a topic.

Read over section 2, specifically, the Explore Source Usefulness part, of the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide, and in one or two sentences, paraphrase what the text is suggesting about how to analyze a source for credibility, bias, and accuracy. Write your succinct summary in your Learning Log.

Step 2

Discuss your summaries with your research team and then discuss the following questions:

  1. How does this information about source usefulness align or differ from previous instruction you have received on evaluating sources?

  2. What questions do you have about source credibility, bias, and accuracy?

Activity 3: Read – Discuss – Write

We will expand our understanding of source usefulness by using the credibility, bias, and accuracy guiding questions on page 4 in the Foundation Unit research and Presentation Guide as we reread “Three Educational Pathways To Good Jobs” from Georgetown University.

Step 1

You will reread “Three Educational Pathways to Good Jobs” from Georgetown University from Section 1 so you can begin to analyze its credibility as a source.

Before reading the text, reread the credibility, bias, and accuracy guiding questions on page 4 in the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide. Use the guiding questions to guide your rereading and note-taking as you examine the source’s usefulness.

Step 2

With your research team, discuss your notes about the source’s credibility, bias, and accuracy. Make sure to discuss each guiding question on page 4 of the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide with your team.

Come to a consensus about the source’s overall usefulness and credibility, and be prepared to share out with the rest of the class by using evidence from the text to support your claims.

Step 3

Engage in a whole-class discussion about the source’s credibility, bias, and accuracy. Be sure to use evidence from the text itself to support your claims about the source’s usefulness.

Step 4

Even though a source can pass the credibility, bias, and accuracy test, the source might not be relevant to your research. You will need to ask yourself the following question: Is this source relevant to my specific pathway research? For example, the article “Three Educational Pathways to Good Jobs” does not discuss the military pathway, so it would not be a relevant source for those who are seeking the military as their postsecondary pathway. As you continue your research in the following lessons, be sure to check the text’s relevancy once you assess a source’s credibility, bias, and accuracy.

Activity 4: Read – Discuss – Write

We will continue to examine potential bias in “Three Educational Pathways To Good Jobs.”

Step 1

Access the Assessing Sources Reference Guide. This resource expands upon what is found in the Foundation Unit Research and Presentation Guide. Read the Analyzing a Text for Bias section of the Assessing Sources Reference Guide.

Checking for credibility and accuracy of information is a good start to assessing bias. You want to ensure that the information is reliable, in that it comes from a trustworthy source that provides accurate information in an unbiased manner.

Step 2

Using the following guiding questions, discuss what you learned about bias with your research team:

  1. How is bias defined? How does it compare to your understanding of bias?

  2. What is the relationship between bias and a text’s credibility?

  3. How are bias and perspective related?

Step 3

Now, use the following guiding questions to evaluate overall potential bias in “Three Educational Pathways to Good Jobs”:

  1. Which organizations funded or published this text? What are their financial, political, or religious agendas?

  2. How is the information in the text presented? Does this reflect any agendas on the part of the author?

  3. What information is left out of this source? How do these omissions reflect the author or publisher’s agenda?

  4. What is the tone of the text or source? Is the language consistently negative, positive, or neutral?

  5. Does the author present false information? The only way to know this is to claim-check against other sources on the same topic to see how the same information is presented.

  6. Are there potential accuracy or credibility issues with the text?