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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.

Alaska content standards learning standard: W.7.7; W.7.8 · 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 Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, 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: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

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

    An article was written by a group that sells the product it reviews. This is a…

    • citation
    • primary source
    • summary
    • conflict of interest

  2. Question 2

    What is the difference between a primary and a secondary source?

    • secondary sources are always older
    • primary sources are always books
    • a primary source is first-hand; a secondary source interprets it
    • there is no difference

  3. Question 3

    Which is a warning sign of an unreliable website?

    • it lists its sources
    • it makes big claims with no evidence
    • it has an author with expertise
    • it shows when it was updated

  4. Question 4

    An encyclopedia, a museum website and a science journal all agree. What does this suggest?

    • it is an opinion
    • the information is likely reliable
    • they copied each other so it is false
    • you need no citation

  5. Question 5

    What is the purpose of a works cited page?

    • to summarize the report
    • to give your opinion
    • to list the full details of sources used
    • to list key words

  6. Question 6

    An AI tool summarizes an article for you. What is a risk?

    • it reads the article aloud
    • it adds citations for you
    • it may leave out or change key details
    • it always quotes exactly

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