Perspective Foundational Inquiry

Class begins by giving students a set of blind sources from different places on the same topic: Are energy drinks safe for teens? Without knowing each source’s origin, students individually examine and rank the sources based on which perspective they trust: most (1) to least (5). Then, students compare their rankings with one another in small groups, examining each source and explaining their thought processes. The teacher then reveals the citations of each source, and students use their discussion to create criteria for a class checklist to evaluate future sources (e.g., bias, corroboration, insufficient data, missing voices, etc.). Finally, students vet the sources using the credibility checklist the class created to determine the extent to which students should trust each of the sources. **The teacher may choose to omit the criteria for students to withhold the list until after students have fully created the class list.