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Lesson 2

Explore Source Usefulness

We will expand our understanding of source usefulness by examining the Assessing Sources Reference Guide and Potential Sources Tool. We will practice assessing common sources for accessibility and interest, relevance and richness, and credibility.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I accurately assess the credibility of the sources I use?

  • Can I effectively search for and explore a variety of credible sources to answer a question or solve a problem, using an organized and dynamic process of inquiry?

  • Can I revisit, refine, and revise my understanding, knowledge, and work based on discussions with others and feedback and review by myself and others?

Texts

Core

  • Unit Reader
    • “10 Things You Need to Know about the Global Food System,” Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser, Guardian News & Media Ltd., 2019
    • “Eat Less Meat: UN Climate-Change Report Calls for Change to Human Diet,” Quirin Schiermeier, Springer Nature Limited, 2019
    • “History and Overview of the Green Revolution: How Agricultural Practices Changed in the 20th Century,” Amanda Briney, ThoughtCo., 2020
    • “Impossible Foods, Impossible Claims,” Anna Lappé, Medium, 2019
    • “Indoor Urban Farms Called Wasteful, ‘Pie in the Sky’,” Stacey Shackford, Cornell Chronicle, 2014
    • “Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment,” Jayson Lusk, The New York Times Company, 2016

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will share and discuss the notes we took for homework on the assessing sources reference guide.

Discuss with a partner the notes you took on the Assessing Sources Reference Guide. Help each other work through questions or points of confusion or note questions that need to be posed to the whole group.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will analyze the Potential Sources Tool and assessing sources reference guide to understand how they work together to help us assess a source’s usefulness.

Step 1

The Potential Sources Tool accompanies the Assessing Sources Reference Guide and supports a process for determining if a potential source will be useful. Both are organized by a three-step review process, in which you examine whether a source is the following:

  • interesting and accessible to you as a reader

  • relevant to your inquiry or research and rich in information

  • credible, accurate, and unbiased

The tool includes a set of guiding questions for each step of the process, which you can use to help you think about the source when you are assessing it and before you spend a great deal of time reading, annotating, and note-taking.

Step 2

Move into groups, as assigned by your teacher, and read your assigned portion of the Guiding Questions for Assessing Sources section of the Assessing Sources Reference Guide:

  • accessibility and interest level

  • relevance and richness

  • credibility, accuracy, and bias

Step 3

Work with your group to complete the following task to help unpack and better understand the aspects of source usefulness:

  • Reread your group’s assigned section of the Potential Sources Tool, the Assessing Sources Reference Guide, and any relevant notes you took for homework.

  • Create a chart that contains the essential information about the importance of and process for assessing these aspects. The chart should distill the information into a quick and easy reference that can be used once you start your own search for and assessment of sources.

  • Choose someone in your group to explain your chart to the class.

Step 4

Explain your chart and listen as the other groups explain their charts. Ask and answer questions as needed.

Activity 3: Read – Discuss

We will further explore the concept of credibility and how to assess for it using a common text.

Step 1

Locate the article "Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment” by Jayson Lusk in the Unit Reader. Your teacher will display the article.

Ensure you also have a blank copy of the Potential Sources Tool.

Add the title of the text to the Source row at the top of the Potential Sources Tool. Add the date, publisher, and author information in the appropriate cells in the row of the next table on the Potential Sources Tool.

Step 2

Work together as a whole class, directed by your teacher, to discuss the following questions and add notes to the Potential Sources Tool:

Date:

  • How does the publishing date relate to the history of the topic?

  • How current is the information on the topic?

Publisher:

  • What is the publisher’s relationship to or perspective on the topic?

  • What economic and political stakes might the publisher have in the topic?

Author:

  • What are the author’s qualifications relative to the topic?

  • What is the author’s personal relationship to the topic, including any economic and political stakes?

Type:

  • What type of text is it: expository piece, informational article, feature, research study, op-ed, essay, argument, or something different?

  • What is the purpose of the text with respect to the topic area?

Step 3

Find the Assessing Online Sources: Additional Considerations section of the Assessing Sources Reference Guide. Work with a partner to assess this text for those considerations.

Share your responses with the class.

Step 4

Work with a partner to review the text to assess the following aspects using the charts from the previous activity, the Assessing Sources Reference Guide, and the Potential Sources Tool:

  • accessibility and interest level

  • relevance and richness

  • credibility, accuracy, and bias

Add your notes to the Potential Sources Tool and be ready to share your thoughts with the class.

Participate in a discussion of this text to expand your understanding of these concepts. Use this time to ask questions about these aspects. Know that in the next lesson, bias and balance will be explored in even more depth.

Activity 4: Read – Write

For homework, we will practice assessing sources by analyzing a common text using a Potential Sources Tool and the assessing sources reference guide.

Choose one of the following texts from the Global Food Production Unit Reader:

  • "10 Things You Need to Know About the Global Food System," Evan Fraser and Elizabeth Fraser

  • "History and Overview of the Green Revolution: How Agricultural Practices Changed in the 20th Century," Amanda Briney

  • "Indoor Urban Farms Called Wasteful, ‘Pie in the Sky,’" Stacey Shackford

  • "Eat Less Meat: UN Climate-Change Report Calls for Change to Human Diet," Quirin Schiermeier

  • "Impossible Foods, Impossible Claims," Anna Lappe

Reread your chosen text and assess it on your own using the Potential Sources Tool. Refer to the Assessing Sources Reference Guide, as needed, and be sure to search for and open the text online so that you can gather some additional information about the author and where this was published.

Be ready to share your assessment in the next lesson.