Teaching Students to Evaluate Websites

Anybody can post information on the Net, making it possible for student to find "proof" of any ideas or belief. For many students, "If it's on the Web, it must be true."The fact is that students increasingly depend on the Net for information. As they search the Web, they need to evaluate their findings. We teach student about author's purpose in Reading/Lang. Arts classes, but we also need to teach students to determine a Web site's purpose. Most Web sites are designed to sell services and products, present information, advocate ideas, or entertain. Some do several of these at once. Teachers should make sure that kids understand the purpose(s) of a site, and that the purpose(s) may not be entirely obvious. A good starting point for students when teaching TEKS 6A-6C of the technology TEKS is to ask the 5 W's of Evaluating Websites.

1. What am I getting?


2. When was it created?


3. Where am I?


4. Why am I there?


5. How can I distinguish quality information from junk?

Websites that may assist in teaching kids to evaluate websites are as follows:
http://www.shsu.edu/~lis_mah/documents/TCEA/hoaxtable.html

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/evalmidd.html

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/pdf/weval_02.pdf

http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/evalrole.html

http://www.2learn.ca/evaluating/div3netscheck2.html