Lesson summary
The teacher will begin by setting students up to participate in a humorous skit about why reliable sources are important. The teacher will then guide students through a Google Presentation that will involve instruction, modeling, student exploration and class discussion. The lesson ends with a story from the Texas legislature about why examining the reliability of sources is so important. Students will then end with an author background check that the teacher can grade if they would like to.

Rationale for the lesson
Although there is more information available today than ever before, the positive of a vast amount of information comes with the negative of a significant amount of unreliable information being very accessible for students. The lesson forces students to think about and evaluate websites and authors in order to refine their critical eye for reliability.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills
None required...students will not likely be very adept at evaluating sources. If they do have experience, they can always use more practice. It is also likely they are not as skilled as they might think. Lastly, you can use the lesson with any content since the focus will be on student exploration and evaluation rather than a particular subject or discipline.