Ch. 7--Stage 3: ANALYZING

As we move to the third stage of the 5As process, the Analyzing lesson planner should be easy to use for the teacher, since it is structured exactly like the Asking and Accessing planners. I like the fact that the planners do not have to be filled out in a linear fashion, but can be done following a teacher's own thought patterns. Teachers can "go back and forth between the various components until all five seem to fit together into a single cohesive strategy" (Jukes, 2004, p. 50).

In the Analyzing stage, students must consider whether the Web sites they have identified for use in their project are good, mediocre, or bad. This is not just a random judgement, as the students must "qualitatively and quantitatively analyze the merits and/or demerits of a Web site" in the categories of content, organization links, authorship, sources, authentication of information, ad presentation (Jukes, 2004, p. 50). In addition to just circling a number on a rating scale, the students must give justification for their responses. At the end of the Analyzing tool, they add up their points to determine the worth of the site.

It is important for students to take note of the author of a particular Web site when they are considering the site as a source. Since anyone can publish a Web site, regardless of expertise or intentions, it is crucial for students to learn how to determine whether the information is going to be reliable for their needs. Web sites created by other students should not be considered as sources, since the information they contain is usually third-hand (or worse), and more likely to contain errors than the sites of highly experienced individuals or institutions.

Once students have found a reliable source, they need to document it. There is a tool for documenting sources available in Jukes' book. This tool is well suited to older students, but will still require some teacher guidance, as it asks students to determine the perspective and motives of the author of the site. I would probably have to refine the tool to be less advanced before using it with my third-graders, although they do have some limited practice identifying author's viewpoint. This is a difficult skill for many students to master, and I would include it in the Techniques Skills section of the Analyzing lesson planner so I would know to spend a good bit of instructional time in this area.

References

Jukes, I., Dosaj, A., Macdonald, B. (2000). net.savvy: Building information literacy in the classroom (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.