Blended Learning Lesson Plan

Lesson Title: Reliable or Not?

Objectives:
Students will be able to differentiate between factually supported statements and claims.
Students will be able to fact check statements by speakers.

State Standards:

4.1 Determine the effectiveness of a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that
are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.

4.3 Determine how the speaker: articulates a clear message; monitors audience awareness; addresses
possible misconceptions or objections; chooses appropriate media; and uses an appropriate style for
the audience.

Context: This lesson is intended to create readers who question and research the argument at
hand. This is a lesson in fact checking and determining credibility. In the unit being taught the
student has previously participated in a lesson which revolved around false information in
articles and published essays. Students have been writing persuasive essays using sources which
I have provided and have not yet been taught what is considered reliable. The next aspect of this
unit is to use class time for each student to pick a topic for the next essay and allow them to find
a source which I would then approve or deny. This lesson is teaching students what to look for
in a URL to show credibility and checking the author’s background in that area.

Data: This lesson will require students to be grouped based on their prior exit slip responses by
comprehension level. There will be three groups which are understanding, needs assistance, and
needs extra help; but these groups would only be for me to know the students wouldn’t know
how they were grouped. Data will be collected from this lesson through their class performance
and that night’s exit slip submissions of comprehensive questions.

Materials:
Teacher Directed (dissecting the paragraph):
Projector, white boards, dry erase markers, erasers
Collaborative (finding their main idea and purpose)
Provided sources, worksheets, pencils
Independent Digital (website types quiz)
Chromebooks and Google Classroom

Procedures:
Introduction (10 minutes): Talk about how important using correct information is to an
essay. Teachers have been providing their sources for years and now they’re reaching the point
where they will have to begin their own research. Show this video as an introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1k8rcYUmbQ . Next the teacher is to break their students
into previously decided groups and explain each center in detail. Once that Is complete ask for
any questions, if there are no questions start the10 minute timer for the first round of centers.

Teacher Directed (10 minutes): Go over how evaluating sources makes writing stronger
and impacts the effectiveness of writing. Next you will need to go over vocabulary that
everyone may not comprehend like, reliable, evaluate, reasoning, and online (found in this lesson
plan https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/tolerance-lessons/evaluating-reliable-
sources). Show this video on the projector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=bZ122WakNDY. While they watch this video, they will write down any additional questions
they have that aren’t covered in the video on their white boards. Once that video is complete
discuss any confusion your students have.

Collaborative (10 minutes): In this section the students will sit at their seats where each
student has a ven diagram worksheet (https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/Digital
%20Literacy%20Reliable%20Sources%203-5.pdf ). Next to them there will be two laminated
one-page articles and they will be on opposite sides of the same argument. After the students
complete reading their articles out loud to their group, they will be using the two-circle diagram
to find the differences and what the two articles have in common. In the margin they will
explain why these two articles are credible, or they will provide quotes of their conflicting
information. Students will then place their worksheets in the drop bin on the teacher’s desk.

Independent Digital (10 minutes): Students will work by themselves in a cluster of desks.
Each student is given a Chromebook, which with that. They will log onto their Google
Classroom account and go to that day’s class activity. Upon opening that they will see a
PowerPoint posted on what makes a website credible (there was a video online but it was too
monotone and vocabulary dense so I would turn the material into a PowerPoint for them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFEwwG7rq0E). After reading through that the students
would then scroll to the next portion and full out a Google Forms quiz on what types of websites
serve what purpose. This would mean .com, .org, .edu, .gov, ~ followed by a name or %
followed by a name. Once completed this will be submitted to the classroom and the teacher will
receive the results.

Closure (10 minutes): To wrap up the entire lesson, ask students if they have questions
and ask comprehensive questions; is a .com credible? Is an .edu credible? What makes a writer
credible? After we answer these ask them how they liked the lesson and what they needed more
clarification on via an exit slip. Students must then move the desk back into rows and help put
away materials like Chromebooks and white boards. Students sit in assigned seats until the bell
rings.

Rationale:
Multimedia 1: Google Classroom/Google Forms
Google Classroom and Google Forms are great in aiding in creating an organized
and concise learning experience beneficial for student and teacher. By using Google
Classroom, it organizes the daily activities while already allowing the students to get
comfortable with the Chromebook before they start their activity. For centers like this
where they are multiple resources and those can all be listed and organized in order to
make it easier for the student. This gives the student multiple examples of the types of
websites that are credible and not. Classroom is very well reviewed and used nationally
and therefore is high quality and reliable. This gives immediate feedback for the quiz on
Google Forms and shows whether students have reached the learning goals thus
motivating further learning. This is compliant with standards because it allows the
teacher to design their own quizzes and activity to go along with standards. This also
allows teacher to upload multiple resources for lesson comprehension to fit all learning
styles.

Multimedia 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ122WakNDY (YouTube video)

This video is aimed for younger grades and is about evaluating sources for
research assignments. This aligned with the objectives and standards by clarifying the
ways that sources are evaluated and explaining the impact credibility has on an essay.
This video was created by the Stanford University Library, which is a lightly esteemed
institution, along with how in depth it is, it must be high quality. The design of this video
is very entertaining and engaging. This video also applies goals that students would be
able to reach and use as motivation.