About the Curriculum
The middle school English Language Arts curriculum in Howard County, Maryland is missing a research component, something that is important to teach to middle school students. However, the Thrills and Chills unit, the first unit taught in seventh grade English, which is a favorite among teachers and students, has a surprising way of meeting these research standards. Furthermore, by integrating research into this unit, students can also learn about critical information literacy early in their seventh grade year.
A majority of the Thrills and Chills unit is spent learning about American writer Edgar Allan Poe, and during this unit, I choose to discuss Poe’s death. Poe died mysteriously in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, and to this day, there is not a concrete cause of death. For students, researching Poe’s death is interesting in that he could have possibly died from tuberculosis, alcoholism, or even rabies. However, with so many theories available online, it can be difficult for students to find reliable information. In order to teach students critical literacy, I have incorporated a website evaluation activity into my Edgar Allan Poe unit. For this activity, students will use this website that I have created.
As mentioned, the Edgar Allan Poe unit is usually the first unit taught to seventh graders. Because of this, the Evaluating Poe’s Death activity is meant to serve as an introduction to website evaluation. With this activity, students will be introduced to the modified 5Ws of Web Site Evaluation, and we will also be completing an example website evaluation as a class. By working through a website evaluation with the students, I will be able to model and show students what to look for when evaluating a website. This will also prompt discussion with the students about what is reliable to use and what is not reliable to use when using websites. The students will also need to use some of these same websites while completing a project that argues for one of the possible death theories. Overall, this activity is used as not only an introduction to project about Poe, but it is also an introduction to online information literacy. The teaching of critical literacy is not a solitary unit, but an ongoing topic that needs to be taught to students throughout their academic careers.
A majority of the Thrills and Chills unit is spent learning about American writer Edgar Allan Poe, and during this unit, I choose to discuss Poe’s death. Poe died mysteriously in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, and to this day, there is not a concrete cause of death. For students, researching Poe’s death is interesting in that he could have possibly died from tuberculosis, alcoholism, or even rabies. However, with so many theories available online, it can be difficult for students to find reliable information. In order to teach students critical literacy, I have incorporated a website evaluation activity into my Edgar Allan Poe unit. For this activity, students will use this website that I have created.
As mentioned, the Edgar Allan Poe unit is usually the first unit taught to seventh graders. Because of this, the Evaluating Poe’s Death activity is meant to serve as an introduction to website evaluation. With this activity, students will be introduced to the modified 5Ws of Web Site Evaluation, and we will also be completing an example website evaluation as a class. By working through a website evaluation with the students, I will be able to model and show students what to look for when evaluating a website. This will also prompt discussion with the students about what is reliable to use and what is not reliable to use when using websites. The students will also need to use some of these same websites while completing a project that argues for one of the possible death theories. Overall, this activity is used as not only an introduction to project about Poe, but it is also an introduction to online information literacy. The teaching of critical literacy is not a solitary unit, but an ongoing topic that needs to be taught to students throughout their academic careers.