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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 15

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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 7.12(E); 7.12(G); 7.12(I) · primary and secondary sources, 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 Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 11 of 15 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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 sentence correctly credits a source in a report?

    • According to the National Park Service, the park has over 200 bird species.
    • Some people say there are birds.
    • The park has over 200 bird species, I think.
    • Everybody knows the park has birds.

  2. Question 2

    Which search is likely to give the most focused results?

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

  3. Question 3

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

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

  4. Question 4

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

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

  5. Question 5

    What is a research log used for?

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

  6. Question 6

    A source is credible but from 1995. When is that a problem?

    • when the topic has changed a lot since then
    • never
    • only if it is long
    • always

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