Author:
Lesley James
Subject:
Information Science, Communication, Electronic Technology
Material Type:
Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
Level:
High School
Tags:
  • Civic Online Reasoning
  • Information Literacy
  • Lateral Reading
  • Media Literacy
  • SHEG
  • Stanford History Education Group
  • civic-online-reasoning
  • sheg
  • stanford-history-education-group
  • wa-dcml
  • License:
    Creative Commons Attribution
    Language:
    English
    Media Formats:
    Text/HTML

    Education Standards

    Civic Online Reasoning Website Guidance

    Civic Online Reasoning Website Guidance

    Overview

    This guide walks you through the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum from the Stanford History Education Group. Their extensive suite of lessons and assessments helps students acquire skills for thinking critically about the information they find online. The target audience is high school but some lessons can be adapted for younger students. 

    Civic Online Reasoning | Stanford History Education Group

    Link to website

    Purpose of Website

    Their stated mission: "Students are confused about how to evaluate online information. We all are. The COR curriculum provides free lessons and assessments that help you teach students to evaluate online information that affects them, their communities, and the world.”

    The COR curriculum is one of many resources available from the Stanford History Education Group, a research and development group at Stanford University.

    The lessons are aimed at high school students but some of them can be adapted for younger students.

    Site Navigation Strategy

    According to the site: “Download a single lesson or the full curriculum. Either way, you get classroom-ready materials. Integrate lesson plans into existing curriculum or teach as a separate module.

    You can explore the entire curriculum, which is organized around 3 questions:

    • Who’s behind the information?
    • What’s the evidence?
    • What do other sources say?

    Or you can look at just the lessons or just the assessments, which were made to be used with specific lessons but can also be used independently.

    The curriculum can be a bit overwhelming, so it’s good that it has also been curated into collections, which currently include:

    • Intro lessons
    • Teaching lateral reading
    • A little of everything
    • COR for the science classroom
    • COR for the history classroom

    Each lesson includes a slide deck, a full “script” for teachers to use, and all the necessary handouts.

    Many of the lessons have a Level 1 and a Level 2 version for differentiation purposes.

    If you’re pressed for time, there’s a series of 3 lessons that touch on the main points called “Saturday School.”

    Additional Resources

    There’s a collection of videos, which includes the “Navigating Digital Information” series developed in collaboration with John Green’s Crash Course.

    Comments

    You have to create a free account to access most of the resources on the site.

    Attribution and License

    Attribution

    Image and Mission by Stanford History Education Group. Used pursuant to fair use.

    License

    Creative Commons Attribution License logo

    Except where otherwise noted, this website guidance document by Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All logos and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Sections used under fair use doctrine (17 U.S.C. § 107) are marked.

    This resource contains links to websites operated by third parties. These links are provided for your convenience only and do not constitute or imply any endorsement or monitoring by OSPI. Please confirm the license status of any third-party resources and understand their terms before use.