LESSON FOUR: Evaluating Accuracy and Adequacy
LESSON DESCRIPTION
Students evaluate nonfiction passages for accuracy and adequacy.
GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
R3C Using details from text
§ evaluate adequacy of evidence
§ determine author’s purpose based on text analysis
§ analyze details from text for
o word choice and connotation
o selection of details
o organizational effectiveness
o accuracy of information
§ analyze multiple text
o by comparing and contrasting details
o by determining importance of information
o for authors’ viewpoints
§ identify problem solving processes and explain the effectiveness of solutions
LESSON MATERIALS
o Teacher-provided passages
§ Supplies:
o Overhead projector, Notepad, or SmartBoard
o Dictionaries
§ Handouts provided
o Formative assessment scoring guide
§ Words to know
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o evaluate |
o author's purpose |
o analyze |
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o connotation |
o compare |
o contrast |
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o nonfiction |
o text features |
o graphic organizer |
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o main idea |
o summarize |
o reliability |
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o validity |
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Students will read Passage C or a new pair of passages. The teacher will provide each student with a copy of the formative assessment writing prompt and the formative assessment scoring guide.
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Strategy
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If the teacher chooses to use two pair of passages for this lesson rather than three passages (A, B and C) about the same topic, he/she will need to adjust the formative assessment to include evaluation of both of the passages in the second pair. It may be useful to create a graphic organizer for students to complete to compare and contrast details presented in those two passages. |
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Students work in pairs or individually to use a dictionary to look up “accurate” and “adequate,” recording the words’ meanings in their own words. In whole-class discussion, have some students share their definitions, making adjustments to those as necessary, and record the definitions on the board or overhead. Based upon the definitions generated, lead students in discussing how we can determine if something (a news story, a research paper, a report of a science experiment, etc.) is accurate and/or adequate.
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Questions for Students |
What does it mean to be accurate? How can we determine if something (a news report, a thermometer, a bathroom scale, a story a friend tells us, etc.) is accurate? What does it mean when something is adequate? What factors influence whether something is adequate? (quantity and quality) What might we consider in a passage to determine if the information presented is adequate? |
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Strategy
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In order to aid understanding, it may be useful for students to apply the terms accurate and adequate to everyday real-life situations they might encounter. For example, describe to students a scenario in which a child wakes at midnight with a headache and a parent gives him/her a pain reliever for that. The pain subsides, and an hour later the child is back asleep. The next morning, though, the child is tired and doesn’t want to go to school. He/she complains to his/her parents that he/she ought to be able to stay home since he/she was up all night sick. Is this an accurate account of the situation? Why or why not? A similar situation might be used to illustrate the term adequacy. For example, describe to students a scenario in which a student must walk to school on a winter day when two inches of snow cover the ground and the expected high temperature for the day is 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The student heads out the door for his six-block walk wearing a tee-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes. Is this clothing adequate for the situation? Why or why not? |
2. Redirect students’ attention to the definitions of accurate and adequate previously recorded on the board or overhead. Discuss the fact that when we see something in print, we tend to assume it’s accurate or it wouldn’t have been printed, but that’s not always true. Ask students what kinds of things might help a reader determine that information presented is accurate and list those on the board or overhead. Things to include are the passage is a first-hand account, there’s evidence of the author’s personal experience with the topic, the author’s educational background and/or professional experience suggest knowledge about the topic, the writer quotes and/or cites others supposedly knowledgeable about the topic, etc.
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Questions for Students |
If we only had one passage – one set of facts/ details provided – what could we look for in that passage to help us determine if the information was accurate? |
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Strategy
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Make it clear to students that these clues may suggest that information presented in a passage is accurate but aren’t necessarily proof of that. The teacher may want to explain that we often interchange the words accurate, reliable and valid. (See the Communication Arts Grade Level Expectations Glossary of Terms for definitions of reliability and validity.) Again, it may be useful to apply the term accurate to a real-life situation: If someone tells you something, what can you do to verify the information? (For example, a classmate tells you tonight’s ballgame has been rescheduled for next week, and you stop by the office to be certain that information is correct.) |
3. Explain to students that the best way to determine whether information presented in a passage is accurate is to check it against another source, as we do when researching a topic. Note that if a second source corroborates the information provided by the first, the information in the first is likely to be accurate. (If the second source contradicts the first, it may be necessary to consult a third source to determine which of the first two is more likely accurate.)
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Questions for Students |
If we questioned whether a fact/detail presented in a passage was accurate, what could we do to prove or disprove it? (consult a second source) |
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Strategy
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Note that not only can we use text-to-text connections to confirm the accuracy of information, we can also use text-to-self connections and access our prior knowledge to reinforce or question information presented. |
4. Use the think-aloud strategy to evaluate a passage for accuracy and adequacy.
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Strategy
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Think-Aloud Strategy
What is it? Think-Aloud strategy is an approach in which teachers verbalize their own thought processes while reading, thereby modeling for students the cognitive and meta-cognitive processes that good readers use to construct meaning and monitor their comprehension.
What is its purpose? Think-aloud facilitates learning by: § providing students with the opportunity to see various strategies a good reader uses to construct meaning and cope with comprehension problems. § assisting students with developing their ability to monitor their reading and take corrective action when needed. § providing an opportunity for students to experience effective reading and problem solving and to transfer these strategies to their independent reading. § assisting students develop their ability to make predictions about text; compare and contrast events, ideas, and characters; visualize the information that is described in the text; and make connections to prior knowledge. § helping students focus.
How do I do it? Preparation for class: 1. Select two passages on the same topic that contain points of difficulties, ambiguities, unknown words when comparing the two passages. 2. Preview the passage and imagine that you are reading it for the first time as one of your good readers would. 3. Use a copy of the passage to make note of the comments and questions to model for students.
In the classroom: § Provide students with a nonfiction passage, Passage A, and have them read it silently or read it aloud to or with them. This passage can also be displayed on the overhead. § Identify and then record the passage’s main idea. § List details from the passage that support its main idea. § Place a star by the detail(s) which you consider the most important. § Identify details you are skeptical about by placing a question mark beside them. § Have students skim the passage for any of the previously-discussed clues that might suggest information presented in the passage is accurate; discuss those. |
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Questions for Teachers |
How many details are used to support the main idea? Do those details provide essential or trivial information? Do those details provide adequate support? |
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Strategy
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The teacher will provide students with three different passages (A, B and C) about the same topic for the modeling, practice and formative assessment portions of this lesson. Those passages should have discrepancies in the facts/details presented and should illustrate variations in the adequacy of information presented.
The teacher may choose rather than using three articles about the same topic to use two pairs of articles (one pair for modeling and practice and one pair for the formative assessment), each pair about the same topic (though the two pairs can be on entirely different topics). For example, one of the two pair of passages could include an article from a newspaper written by a health or news reporter and the other passage might be from a medical journal written by an expert on adolescent obesity. |
5. Turn attention to adequacy and again use the think-aloud process to discuss with in looking at the previously-generated list of details whether the passage has adequate support for its main idea.
6. Provide students with Passage B (or the second passage of the first pair) and again have students read it silently or read it aloud to or with them. Students work individually or in pairs and use the same process modeled to identify and list details in the passage that support its main idea. They should star the most important detail(s).
7. Next, students identify any discrepancies they note between the information presented in the two passages. Students can designate the conflicting details with a question mark.
Then students evaluate the adequacy of information presented in Passage B in the same manner the teacher did with Passage A. Students compare details recorded from the two passages to determine which more adequately addresses the topic. (The teacher may choose to have students respond to a constructed response question regarding this, or the teacher may choose simply to discuss students’ ideas in a whole-class setting.)
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Questions for Students |
Which of the details used to support the main idea is/ are most important? Why? What, if anything, in this passage contradicts something you already know or believe to be true, or are there any facts/ details presented in Passage B that contrast with or contradict those presented in Passage A? Which account/ fact do you think is accurate? Why? Is there any fact/ detail presented in the passage that is questionable or difficult to believe? Why? What do we know about the writer or the source from which the passage came that might help convince us that the passage is accurate? What, if any, other clues in the passage might suggest it is likely accurate? Which of the two passages, A or B, more adequately addresses the topic? Why?
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Strategy
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Draw students’ attention particularly to any facts/details from Passage A that were previously marked as questionable. Were those details reinforced or contradicted by the second passage? When evaluating adequacy of information, remind students to consider both the quantity and the quality of the support each passage includes for its main idea. |
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Ideas
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For example, appropriate passages about Christopher Columbus can be found on the following Internet sites: 1. www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/caribb/special/westind.htm 2. www.masterliness.com/a/Christopher.Columbus.htm 3. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus 4. www.basicfamouspeople.com/index.php?aid+1797 tacky site 5. http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/c-Columbus/columbus.html |