Evaluating sources instruction.

1. Teaching Students to Evaluate Sources
Presentation By: Samantha Long and Kelly Blewett

2. The problem is the students don’t know
how to research.
Students need to conduct research in order to find
information to support their arguments, but they don’t know
how.
When they do find information, they don’t know how to
assess the value of the information in relation to their
project.
Students tend to rely on research strategies used
in high school that are now insufficient
Where do
I start?!

3. How Novice Students Conduct Research
Basic Ekstrom
Library Minerva
catalog search
General sources
(Encyclopedia,
newspapers, popular
non-fiction)
Collect data
from familiar
sources (HS
books, study
guides,
Wikipedia)Basic term search within
an Internet search engine
(Google,Yahoo,AOL)

4. We think the following activity might be a good “opener” to get
your students thinking through different kinds of resources.
When they search “GeorgeWashington” in Ekstrom, 297
resources come up.
How can the students make sense of the resources?

5. Kelly to direct quick in-class activity.
You can find a bibliography of the resources we used for this
activity in the eFiles.

7. We want the students to learn how to find
and evaluate their resources.
Challenge them to think beyond their default research
strategies
Provide a structure for understanding the resources they find
Distinguish academic from non-academic sources
Distinguish primary from secondary sources
Introduce students to resources available at the University of
Louisville

8. This work builds on the strategies and classroom
activities suggested by Spatt and Burkhardt et al.
Both authors suggest that students need to develop a framework for
evaluating sources that take the following into consideration: genre,
currency and bias.

9. Criteria 1: Determining the genre will help students understand
what to expect from the source.
Fiction, we think, is generally unsuited for the research we want 102
students to do. But, of course, there are a lot of sources that could
sidetrack them:
Washington’s Lady GeorgeWashington’sTeeth


10. Nonfiction also has many sub-branches which we should
explain.
Non-fiction may be characterized as:
●
Popular--Intended for widest audience and conducive for wide range of educational
backgrounds. EXAMPLES: USAToday, Wikipedia.
●
General interest--Intended for audience with casual interest in subject. Can
provide some level of complexity. EXAMPLES: National Geographic ,Newsweek.
●
Academic--Intended for an audience familiar with the field and/or subject.
Contains level of analysis and depth beyond the interest of the general public.
EXAMPLES: journal articles, dissertations, textbooks.

11. Criteria 2: Currency is another important criteria for students. First, it
should help students understand how the conversation about the object
of study has changed over time.
Old George Washington
Biography
New George Washington
Biography

12. The importance of currency is perceived differently
by different disciplines.
Importance of currency within different disciplines
(Engineering v. Humanities)

13. Currency is also the umbrella under which primary
vs. secondary sources fall.
Primary Sources Secondary Sources

14. Criteria 3: Students need to be able to identify the level of
personal interest the author has in the subject.
Both authors we read addressed this topic, but talked about it
differently.
Subjective/objective Partial/impartial
Our term: bias.We think this goes back to the “search for truth”
doctrine from Writing Arguments. It’s useful for the students at this
stage.

15. Here’s an example of two sources.
Clearly Biased Source about George
Washington
Less Biased Source about George
Washington

16. How do we know the source are
biased/unbiased?
Biased: Look to previous
publications, look to
publisher. Look for
documentation
Unbiased: Look to previous publications, look to
publisher. Look for documentation.

17. We want to tell our students to use specific criteria
to evaluate whether the source is biased.
Documentation can be clue
Criticism of the source can help
Previous publications by author
Publisher

18. We’ve provided resources for you to
discuss these topics in your classroom.
1. A bibliography of the GeorgeWashington resources
we’ve used today. (See eFiles)
2. A worksheet for evaluating primary vs. secondary
sources and biased vs. unbiased sources. (See eFiles)
3. A worksheet students can take to the library with
them to evaluate their resources according to some
of the criteria we’ve discussed today. (See eFiles)

19. Additional Topics to Discuss with Your Class
Note the distinctions between evaluating print andWeb
sources
Introduce students to UofL resources
Schedule an Ekstrom library presentation.
Introduce the students, in a limited way, to OnlineAcademic
Databases.
Inter-Library Loan

20. Resources
 Burkhardt, Joanna M., MacDonald, Mary C., and
Rathemacher,Andree J. Teaching Information Literacy:35
Practical Standards-Based Exercises for College Students. Chicago:
American LibraryAssociation, 2003.
Spatt, Brenda. Writing From Sources.7th Edition. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.