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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.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 7.W.7; 7.W.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 Arizona

In the Arizona Academic 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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    Why might an image found online not be what it claims to be?

    • images are primary sources
    • images are always captioned correctly
    • images never change
    • it could be edited, AI-made or from a different event

  2. Question 2

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

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

  3. Question 3

    Which search is likely to give the most focused results?

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

  4. Question 4

    Why should you check several sources for a controversial topic?

    • to make your report longer
    • to understand different viewpoints and find accurate facts
    • to avoid reading
    • to copy more

  5. Question 5

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

    • conflict of interest
    • citation
    • primary source
    • summary

  6. Question 6

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

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

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