I used our school’s curriculum mapping tool Atlas Rubicon for creating my lesson plan. Atlas Rubicon is web based database our school uses for unit and lesson planning, curriculum development and analysing. I retrieved the lesson plan, because it is a password protected environment. Still it shows the template we use for planning our units.
I decided to create a unit plan to teach my Grade 5 students how to evaluate websites (stage 2 of my model: Risk takers; Plan your research, list, find and evaluate your sources.) This is something that they have not learnt and I have not taught yet. As to acquiring and applying this skill takes longer than one lesson I created a 3 lesson unit with possible extension into discussing the role of libraries in research process.
At the end of Grade 5 students have PYP Exhibition (kind of a personal project), when each student researches a topic of interest and global significance in depth, culminating in a presentation to the school community. To complete the Exhibition successfully they need to apply research and critical thinking skills. I see my role as a teacher-librarian in helping them to developing these skills, not necessarily teaching a topic.
I will use the following strategies to engage students: discussion, group work, pair work, individual practice, worksheets, and hands on, internet work, investigation. They will learn the criteria for evaluating the websites, and apply it in groups and/or individually. They will access an Internet site and rate it, comparing and discussing the results afterwards. After the unit students will understand that all Internet sites do not make a good source for research, and learn to use the criteria to evaluate the Internet sites.
For self-assessment students will individually evaluate a site and reflect upon how successful do they think they were? (Would you use this site for your research? Why/why not?).
As I do not give grades I often assess by observation, discussion, or students’ presentation. I will observe the students while conducting Internet search, check what sort of sites they get their information from, and discuss with the homeroom teacher upon how successfully students are locating information from the Internet. Are they using the evaluation criteria, and finding reliable information? Are students comfortable on the Internet? My teaching is successful when students apply skills learned in class to research situations outside classroom.