A good checklist is one that someone else can pick up and use without asking you what you meant.
Today your group will make a checklist card: five checks, each one a question about a source. Then another group will use it on a source, with no help from you. Any check they cannot use on their own gets struck out. The checks that survive go into the class checklist, which you will still be using ten lessons from now.
Each line on a checklist is a check: a question anyone can answer by looking at the source. The five areas are:
- Author: who made it, and what we know about them
- Purpose: why it was published (to inform, persuade, sell or entertain)
- Evidence: what it claims, and what backs that up
- Currency: how up to date it is, and whether that matters
- Cross-checking: whether other separate sources say the same thing
"Does it feel true?" gets struck out, because nothing on the page answers it. "Is the author's name and job on the page?" survives, because anyone can look and answer it.
This one is for a different job, checking a bike before a cycle, so it shows the shape without giving you words to copy. Every check is a question you can answer by looking.
- Do both brakes stop the wheel when you squeeze them?
- Do both tyres feel firm when you press them?
- Is the chain on, and does it turn when you pedal?
- Is the saddle tight, so it does not twist?
- Do the lights come on?
Your card will have five checks too, one under each of the five areas above.
Your group will make one source-evaluation card in the activity below, and its instructions explain the task.
- Agree on the wording out loud before anyone types it. If your group has to explain what a check means, it is not clear enough yet.
- Put your group's name on the card, so you will know it is yours when it comes back with checks struck out.
Your work saves as you go. You have twelve minutes, so make sure the card is finished, because at the end it goes to another group and they will not be able to ask you anything.
Your group's source-evaluation card
Now the cards move. Swap devices with the group your teacher names, and use their card to judge Source A below. You are not allowed to ask the group who wrote the card anything, because the test is whether the card works on its own.
Two words you may need: blue-light glasses claim to block the light from screens. Sponsored content means a company may have paid to have things put in the post.
- Go down the card one check at a time. For each check, mark yes, no or not sure, and write one line from the source that shows why.
- If a check makes you ask what it means, strike it out. To do that, tap the check on the card, make it red and type STRUCK: in front of its words, so the group who wrote it can still read it. Then add a line under it saying what the check would have needed to say for you to be able to use it.
- Hand the device back to its group, with your strike-outs on the card.
Make sure every check on the card you tested has either a yes, no or not sure with evidence, or a strike-out with a reason.
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