Civic Online Reasoning Website Guidance

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

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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.

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