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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 13

Research Skills

Primary sources, credibility and citations

What your child practices

Children practice primary and secondary sources, conflicts of interest, focused searches, checking AI answers and online images, quoting, paraphrasing and citing.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.23; 7.27 · primary and secondary sources, focused searches, quoting and citing

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Check credibility: what are the author’s qualifications? Is there a conflict of interest?
  2. Keep a research log of questions, sources and findings.
  3. Quote and paraphrase carefully, check AI answers and list all sources on a works cited page.

Example: An article reviewing a product was written by the company that sells it. What is this? The writer gains if you buy. That makes the review less fair. Answer: conflict of interest

Research Skills in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 11 of 13 in 7th grade English Language Arts, after Roots & Word Parts and before Framing the Message.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is the main benefit of using a library database instead of a general web search?

    • it never needs citing
    • it is always shorter
    • it has more ads
    • its sources are usually checked and credible

  2. Question 2

    Which search is likely to give the most focused results?

    • bugs that fly
    • interesting animals
    • "monarch butterfly" migration Mexico
    • butterflies

  3. Question 3

    What does “accurate, logical and fair” mean for information?

    • colorful, long and loud
    • new, funny and free
    • exciting, short and popular
    • correct, well-reasoned and balanced

  4. Question 4

    Which is a primary source about a 1960s march?

    • an encyclopedia entry
    • a documentary made last year
    • a speech recorded at the march
    • a textbook chapter from 2015

  5. Question 5

    What is a research log used for?

    • playing games
    • drawing pictures
    • tracking questions, sources and findings
    • writing fiction

  6. Question 6

    How does a URL ending in .edu usually differ from .com?

    • .edu sites sell things
    • they mean the same
    • .edu is usually a school or university; .com is often a business
    • .com is always more reliable

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