2023 Philadephia Institute:

Teaching Students to Evaluate Sources and Claims

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Screenshot from Google Street View of Philadelphia Performing Arts: A String Theory Charter School

Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Day 1

Logistics

Introductions, Icebreaker & Paperwork

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• Activity 1: Welcome and Intro (Acrobat (PDF) 675kB Jul31 23)
• Icebreaker (Acrobat (PDF) 721kB Jul31 23)

Science in the News

How often do you see claims made in the news that seem to be backed by scientific evidence? How can you tell what is real and what is not? Analyze two sources to identify claims or models and the evidence that supports them.

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• Activity 2: Science in the News (Acrobat (PDF) 508kB Jul31 23)
• Activity 2 Handout: What can we learn from these sources? (Acrobat (PDF) 45kB Jun4 23)
• Source#1: What to Know About the Study Linking a Popular Artificial Sweetener to Cardiovascular Disease
• Source #2: Debunking The Erythritol Study

Break

Break

• ....a little time for yourself

Disciplinary Venn Diagram

Consider how Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts practices overlap in each content area.

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• Activity 3: Venn Diagram (Acrobat (PDF) 557kB Jun6 23)
• Disciplinary Venn Diagram (Acrobat (PDF) 77kB Jun5 23)

Lunch

Lunch!

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LR Activity: Extreme Weather

Use lateral reading to evaluate the credibility of two sources related to extreme weather.

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• Activity 4: LR Extreme Weather (Acrobat (PDF) 669kB Jun6 23)
• LR Guiding Questions (Acrobat (PDF) 28kB Jun8 23)
• Source #1: The 2015 Wildfire Season Set an Ominous Record
• Source #2: Climate at a Glance: U.S. Wildfires

Break

Break

• ....a little time for yourself

MEL Activity: Extreme Weather pcMEL

Use a pre-constructed MEL (pcMEL) diagram to investigate two explanations for increases in extreme weather events over the last fifty years.

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• Activity 5: pcMEL Extreme Weather (Acrobat (PDF) 2.6MB Jul31 23)
• Extreme Weather pcMEL Teaching Resources

Connections between LR and MEL Activities

Revisit your Disciplinary Venn Diagram posters. What connections exist between an LR lesson and a MEL lesson? What further connections can we make?

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• Activity 6: Connections (Acrobat (PDF) 298kB Jul31 23)

Wrap Up

Feedback on two questions: 1) How do you feel after today? and 2) What questions do you have after today?

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  Day1 Q1 Mentimeter

  Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
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  Day1 Q2a Mentimeter

  Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
  Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
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  Day1 Q2b Mentimeter

  Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
  Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

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LR-MEL 2023 Philadelphia Workshop: Science, Social Studies and English Language Arts teachers consider the common standard of "Value, gather, analyze, and evaluate data and evidence" across the three disciplines. They discuss how it is addressed in each content area. They identify similarities, differences and opportunities to mutually support students' mastery of the standard.

Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Day 2

MEL Research Talk

How do students negotiate evaluations of the relations between lines of scientific evidence and alternative explanatory models of a phenomenon during an argument-based learning activity? How do students plausibility judgements change pre- and post- MEL activities? Does this make a difference between pcMELs and baMELs? What does the research show?

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• Activity 10: MEL Research (Acrobat (PDF) 5.6MB Aug1 23)
• Some of our recent research publications
• The curious construct of active learning
• Negotiations in scientific argumentation: An interpersonal analysis
• Students’ Scientific Evaluations of Water Resources (Acrobat (PDF) 2.7MB Jun12 23)
• Climate crisis learning through scaffolded instructional tools
• Scientific evaluations and plausibility judgements in middle school students' learning about geoscience topics

MEL Activity: Soil & Food Security baMEL

Build a MEL (baMEL) diagram to investigate the role of soil in providing food for the world's growing global population. Choose from three models and eight lines of evidence.

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• Mel Activity: Soil & Food Security (Acrobat (PDF) 3.6MB Aug1 23)
• Soil & Food Security baMEL Teaching Resources Below
• Food Security baMEL Model Plausibility Ratings (Acrobat (PDF) 122kB Aug1 23)
• Food Security baMEL Model Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 159kB Aug1 23)
• Food Security baMEL Evidence Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 28kB Aug1 23)
• Food Security baMEL Evidence Texts (Acrobat (PDF) 4MB Aug1 23)
• Food Security References (Acrobat (PDF) 80kB Aug1 23)

LR Activity: Conserving Attention with Lateral Reading

While students are able to quickly access vast amounts of information today, they often need help deciding what deserves their attention.

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• LR Activity: Conserving Attention with Lateral Reading (Acrobat (PDF) 2MB Jun8 23)

LR Activity: Introduction to Credibility

What does it mean for a source to be credible? How do you decide whether to believe someone?

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• LR Activity: Intro to Credibility (Acrobat (PDF) 730kB Jun7 23)
• Intro to Credibility Graphic Organizer (Acrobat (PDF) 89kB Jun8 23)
• Lateral Reading Lesson Materials

Break

Break

• ....a little time for yourself

MEL Activity: Compare and Contrast pcMELs and baMELs

What are the instructional differences for students and teachers between pcMELs and baMELs?

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• MEL Activity: Compare Contrast Venn (Acrobat (PDF) 449kB Jun8 23)

MEL Activity: Assessing Student Work

Read an article. Then use a rubric to assess NGSS scientific practices and cross-cutting concepts within samples of student MEL explanation tasks.

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• MEL Activity: Assessing Student Work (Acrobat (PDF) 2.1MB Aug1 23)
• Assessment Article (Acrobat (PDF) 277kB Jun8 23)
• MEL Explanation Task Rubrics (Acrobat (PDF) 80kB Jun8 23)
• Samples of Student Explanation Tasks (Acrobat (PDF) 474kB Jun8 23)

LR Activity: Modeling Lateral Reading

Plan a modeling lesson for lateral reading. Analyze a transcript of Sarah modeling. Then generate your own script for modeling lateral reading. "Model" that script and reflect on the process with a partner.

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• LR Activity: Modeling Lateral Reading (Acrobat (PDF) 337kB Aug1 23)
• Transcript of Sarah Modeling (Acrobat (PDF) 63kB Jun8 23)
• Planning for Modeling (Acrobat (PDF) 27kB Jun13 23)
• Source#1: Does hydraulic fracturing cause earthquakes?
• Source#2: Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?

Lunch

Lunch!

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Online Materials

Take a quick tour of the project website.

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• The LR-MEL project website
• With this new grant we will be incorporating lateral reading activities into the website.
• Materials from this workshop and more are posted here. Refresh frequently!

MEL Activity: Dead Zones baMEL

A dead zone is an area of water that is low in oxygen. Aquatic life cannot survive in a dead zone. Build a MEL (baMEL) diagram to investigate whether and how aquatic dead zones may be repaired. Choose from three models and eight lines of evidence.

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• MEL Activity: Dead Zones baMEL (Acrobat (PDF) 1.4MB Aug2 23)
• Dead Zones baMEL Teaching Resources Below
• Dead Zones baMEL Model Plausibility (Acrobat (PDF) 14kB Aug1 23)
• Dead Zones baMEL Large Model Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 135kB Aug1 23)
• Dead Zones baMEL Large Evidence Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 41kB Aug1 23)
• Dead Zones baMEL Evidence Texts (Acrobat (PDF) 357kB Aug1 23)
• baMEL Diagram (Acrobat (PDF) 98kB Aug1 23)

LR Activity: Facilitating Discussions About Lateral Reading

What purpose does discussion serve in a lateral reading lesson? Plan a discussion about a source, rehearse that discussion with your colleagues, and reflect on the process with them.

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• LR Activity: Facilitating Discussions About Lateral Reading (Acrobat (PDF) 311kB Jun8 23)
• Source#1: Does hydraulic fracturing cause earthquakes?
• Source#2: Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?

Break

Break

• ....a little time for yourself

Talk Moves

In order to process, make sense of, and learn from their ideas, observations, and experiences, students must talk about them. What does academically productive talk look like?

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• Activity 11: Talk Moves (Acrobat (PDF) 949kB Jun12 23)
• Talk Moves Infographic (Acrobat (PDF) 603kB Jun26 19)
• Talk Moves Checklist (Acrobat (PDF) 139kB Jun26 19)
• Talk Science Primer (Acrobat (PDF) 880kB Jun26 19)
• Ready, Set, SCIENCE
• How (Well-Structured) Talk Builds the Mind
• Discussion Moves Transcripts (Acrobat (PDF) 61kB Jun12 23)

Wrap Up

Feedback on one Padlet question: 1) What did you learn today that you want to implement in your class and where/when would you implement it?

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  LR-MEL Day2 Padlet Wrap Up

  Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
  Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

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LR-MEL 2023 Philadelphia Workshop: Teachers consider the connections between lines of evidence and models in the Dead Zone baMEL.

Provenance: Science Learning Research Group, UMD
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Day 3

Lateral Reading Research Talk

How does lateral reading affect students' abilities to evaluate sources, claims, and evidence? What does the research show?

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• Research on teaching lateral reading (Acrobat (PDF) 2.9MB Jun8 23)
• Learning to evaluate: An intervention in civic online reasoning
• Lateral reading: College students learn to critically evaluate internet sources in an online course
• Students' Civic Online Reasoning: A National Portrait
• Teaching Students to Navigate the Online Landscape (Acrobat (PDF) 80kB Jun12 23)

MEL Activity: Framing the MELs

How will you frame MEL activities for students? Consider how framing can impact students' epistemic agency.

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• MEL Activity: Framing the MELs (Acrobat (PDF) 1.4MB Aug2 23)
• Epistemological resources and framing: A cognitive framework for helping teachers interpret and respond to their students' epistemologies
• Addressing the epistemic elephant in the room: Epistemic agency and the next generation science standards

MEL Activity: Transfer Task

Use a transfer task to determine if students can: 1) transfer the skills acquired from MELs and baMELs to science phenomenon and claims made in real-world scenarios; 2) identify models and evidence in science articles; and 3) based on the evidence presented, evaluate the plausibility of each model. What do students do differently when evaluating articles compared to the MEL task? What similarities?

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• MEL Activity: Transfer Task (Acrobat (PDF) 278kB Jun8 23)
• Transfer Task Handout (Acrobat (PDF) 53kB Jun8 23)
• Transfer Task Teacher Guide (Acrobat (PDF) 78kB Jun8 23)
• Oxygen-rich Air (Acrobat (PDF) 316kB Jun27 19)
• Oxygen-rich air emerged super early, new data show

MEL Activity: The MEL Project Teacher Guide

Take a tour of The MEL Project Teacher Guide. Check out directions and hints for using pcMELs, baMELs, and virtual MELs in the classroom.

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• MEL Project Teacher Guide presentation (Acrobat (PDF) 642kB Aug2 23)
• MEL Project Teacher Guide (Acrobat (PDF) 4.6MB May24 21)

LR Activity: Addressing Unhelpful Strategies

What do you think/know your students have learned from other classes or past teachers about evaluating online information? How can you help counter unhelpful strategies?

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• LR Activity: Addressing Unhelpful Strategies (Acrobat (PDF) 858kB Jun13 23)
• Weak Heuristics Transcripts (Acrobat (PDF) 45kB Jun13 23)
• Lateral Reading Lesson Materials

LR Activity: Resources for Lateral Reading

Research a lateral reading source. Why is it a good resource for lateral reading? Consider additional assessment options for lateral reading.

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• LR Activity: Resources for Lateral Reading (Acrobat (PDF) 824kB Aug2 23)
• Civic Online Reasoning Assessments
• Civic Online Reasoning Website Reliability
• Civic Online Reasoning Article Evaluation
• Lateral Reading Lesson Materials

Break

Break

• ....a little time for yourself

MEL Activity: Reviewing four build-a-MELS

Read and analyze four articles about baMELs. Examine the models and the type of explanation that underlies the models. What tips, pedagogical strategies, & potential problems are given for implementing these baMELs?

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• MEL Activity: Reviewing Four Build-a-MELs (Acrobat (PDF) 978kB Aug2 23)
• The Origins build-a-MEL (Acrobat (PDF) 492kB Feb8 21)
• Climate Changes of the Past (Acrobat (PDF) 324kB Feb8 21)
• Freshwater Resources: The Challenges of Quantity and Quality (Acrobat (PDF) 529kB Feb8 21)
• Extreme Weather Events and the Climate Crisis (Acrobat (PDF) 223kB Feb8 21)

MEL Activity: Deep Dive - pcMELs and baMELs

How do the MELs align with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? What instructional strategies do you have for implementation?

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• MEL Activity: Deep Dive - pcMELs and baMELs (Acrobat (PDF) 458kB Aug2 23)
• MEL Teaching Resources

LR Activity: What Comes After Lateral Reading?

Explore additional resources, ways to assess lateral reading, and strategies, such as click restraint, that might help students abandon sources that aren't credible enough for their information goals and instead, help them read credible sources, analyze claims and evidence, and ultimately develop their own explanations or claims.

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• LR Activity: After Lateral Reading (Acrobat (PDF) 903kB Aug2 23)
• Civic Online Reasoning Resources from the Stanford History Education Group - Includes curriculum, videos, and research.
• Lateral Reading Lesson Materials

Lunch

Lunch!

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Making LR and MEL Connections

How might LR and MEL activities go together? What could this look like in the classroom?

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• Making LR and MEL Connections (Acrobat (PDF) 339kB Aug2 23)
• LR Sources Mapped to MEL Topics (Acrobat (PDF) 50kB Jun12 23)

Break

Break

• ....a little time for yourself

Implementation Planning

If you're here in a team, what will implementing LR and MEL in your classrooms look like? What kinds of coordination will you need to do? If you're flying solo, what components (LR or MEL) can you use? Are there ways to bring in the principles of the other into your classroom? Are there teammates at your school that you could teach with about LR and MEL?

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• Implementation Planning and Evaluation (Acrobat (PDF) 216kB Aug2 23)
• Field Test Feedback
• UMD Science Learning Research Group
• Project Website
• Lateral Reading Lesson Materials

Participating in Research During the Upcoming School Year

Find out what's involved and what you get by participating.

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• Academic Year Research (Acrobat (PDF) 90kB Aug2 23)

Wrap Up

Contact us at MEL2institutes@gmail.com with your questions, suggestions, ideas, etc.

MEL/baMEL Gameboard

Some teachers like to create large "gameboard" versions of the MEL/baMEL diagram. The components included in the Teaching Resources section are designed for letter size paper. The components below are for an 18 X 24 inch version.

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MEL Gameboard for Climate Change pcMEL

Provenance: Carla McAuliffe, TERC
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Components

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MEL/baMEL Gameboard Template 18x24

Provenance: UMD Science Learning Research Group
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

• Download the full size MEL/baMEL Gameboard image here. Do not right-click or control-click to save the image above as it is reduced for web display.
• Arrow Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 73kB Jun26 19)
• Dead Zones Large Model Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 124kB Jun13 23)
• Dead Zones Large Evidence Cards (Acrobat (PDF) 33kB Jun13 23)

Project Support

This institute is supported in part by the NSF under Grant Nos. DRL-2201012, DRL-2201013, DRL-2201015, DRL-2201016, DRL-2201017, and DRL-2201018. Previous support came from Grant Nos. DRL-2027376, DRL-1721041, and DRL-1316057. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the NSF's views.