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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 10 of 12

Research & Credibility

Peer review, AI output and synthesis

What your child practices

Students practice effective research questions, peer review, conflicting sources, sampling, lateral reading, checking AI output for invented sources, and citing and synthesizing evidence honestly.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 9-10.W.7; 9-10.W.8 · research questions, conflicting sources, credibility and citing

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Use peer-reviewed sources when you can, and ask who funded a study.
  2. Read laterally: check what other reliable sources say. AI tools can invent sources and facts.
  3. Correlation is not causation: two things happening together doesn’t prove one causes the other.

Example: Ice cream sales and sunburns both rise in summer. Does ice cream cause sunburns? They happen at the same time. Both are caused by something else: hot, sunny weather. Answer: No: correlation does not prove causation.

Research & Credibility in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 10 of 12 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Form & Composing and before Proofreading.

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 is it important to read beyond the headline before citing an article?

    • headlines can oversimplify or exaggerate
    • the article has no facts
    • headlines are always neutral
    • the headline is the whole story

  2. Question 2

    When should you use a primary source in a history essay?

    • only for opinions
    • never
    • only for pictures
    • to provide direct evidence from the time

  3. Question 3

    Which is the strongest way to use a statistic in an essay?

    • state the number alone
    • give the number, its source and why it matters
    • round it up to sound bigger
    • put it in the title

  4. Question 4

    A survey of 50 people from one club is used to describe a whole state. What is the problem?

    • the survey is too long
    • surveys never work
    • the sample is not representative
    • 50 is too many

  5. Question 5

    What is the difference between correlation and causation?

    • causation is a type of chart
    • two things happening together does not prove one causes the other
    • they mean the same
    • correlation always proves cause

  6. Question 6

    Which practice best supports academic honesty in a research project?

    • citing only books
    • keeping track of sources and citing all borrowed ideas
    • citing at the end if there is time
    • only citing direct quotes

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