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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 12

Weigh the Evidence

Accurate, logical and fair sources

What your child practices

Children judge evidence and sources for accuracy, logic and fairness, spot fallacies and weak statistics, check content made by technology and combine sources with proper citations.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 8.1.9.2; 8.1.7.1 · whether sources and evidence are relevant, sufficient and credible

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Bias is a leaning toward one side that can affect fairness.
  2. Fair information shows different sides and doesn’t distort facts.
  3. An annotated bibliography lists sources with notes on how useful each one is.

Example: Which is more likely balanced on a new schedule: a report interviewing students, teachers and parents, or one upset student’s post? Balance means hearing many sides. The report includes three groups. Answer: a report that interviews students, teachers and parents

Weigh the Evidence in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 12 of 12 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Media Influence.

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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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

    Which is the strongest reason to trust a news report?

    • it has a dramatic headline
    • it makes you feel angry
    • it names sources and other reliable outlets confirm it
    • it is shared a lot

  2. Question 2

    What makes evidence strong in research?

    • it is emotional
    • it is relevant, accurate and from a credible source
    • it is the first thing you found
    • it is short

  3. Question 3

    Why might content generated by technology repeat bias?

    • machines have opinions
    • it never uses data
    • it learns from data that may contain bias
    • it is always neutral

  4. Question 4

    An infographic has no source listed for its numbers. What should you think?

    • the numbers can't be checked yet
    • it is fully reliable
    • it is a primary source
    • it is an opinion

  5. Question 5

    Which helps you avoid plagiarism when taking notes?

    • write notes in your own words and record the source
    • skip writing sources
    • copy full paragraphs
    • use only one source

  6. Question 6

    An AI image of a historical event is in a slideshow. What should the creator do?

    • say it is a real photo
    • use it as evidence
    • hide where it came from
    • label it as AI-made, not a real photo

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