Information

Standard
No Evidence
Beginning
Developing
Proficient
Mastering
L-1. Information
 
Collect and evaluate the quality of information
No evidence of collecting information
You collect information
You collect useful information from a few sources
You collect quality information from a variety of sources that is useful to your task
Your work is excellent and your information represents a variety of perspectives

Good Information

  • is useful
  • comes from a trusted source
  • is the same regardless of who you ask

Excellent Information

  • includes appropriately formatted citations

Go Above & Beyond

by explaining how your information represents a variety of perspectives
Information can come from online and text research or from a personal investigation. 
Regardless of where you're getting the information, you should go through two steps: collecting and evaluating. 
Step
Research
"Secondary Knowledge"
Investigations
"Personal Knowledge"
Collect
Split your search into two phases:
  • Impression Building: skim many sources quickly to get an overview of the topic. Don't pursue any resource for too long, move on to get a broad overview. Consider encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, Britannica, World Book, etc. for this phase.
  • Targeted Research: have a specific goal or question in mind that you search out the answer for. If you are not sure of your question, go back to the first phase. This is where you actually start grabbing evidence
  • Perform an investigation or receive data from your teacher
  • See if you can produce data that from a variety of perspectives (multiple test from multiple people) and in many models (quantitative, qualitative, measured, observed). 
Evaluate
Is the information high-quality?
  • Quality information is useful to your task
  • Be careful with statistics or other quantitative data. Being over precise can lose your reader. List only the information that is specifically useful.
Is the source of the information qualified and unbiased?
  • Sources are qualified when they have the appropriate background and information to make their statement.
  • Sources are unbiased when they gain nothing from convincing you of the information.
Is the information high-quality?
  • Do you have high confidence in your results? 
  • Be careful with  quantitative data. Being overly precise can be misleading (ex. The mass of an elephant is 12,305.891 kg).
  • Is the information useful?
Pick information that helps you with your task
  • Pick information that will be clear and logical to the reader
  • Pick information that fully supports your claim or consider information that does not support your claim, and explain the alternative claim that it does support
Picture
Image courtesy of Van Andel Education Institute, Nexgeninquiry.org