South Dakota ELA 9-10.W.8.b

ELAGrades 9–10Writing

The Standard

Assess the relevance, accuracy, and credibility of each source.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students decide whether a source helps answer their research question. They check its claims against evidence and look at who published it, when, and why.
What Mastery Looks Like: Given two sources, a student can explain which one fits their question and spot a claim that conflicts with an original report. They can give specific reasons for trusting or questioning each source.
Common Misconceptions: Students may trust the top search result or assume any source that mentions their topic is useful. They may also treat an author's credentials as proof that every claim is accurate, or use an old statistic as if it were current.
How to Assess It: Exit ticket: A 2025 school office survey of 100 students says 38 skip breakfast. An unsigned post citing it says 70. For a report on breakfast habits at your school, which would you cite, and how do relevance, accuracy, and credibility affect your choice?

Lesson moves

Give pairs a printed survey table and a blog post citing it; have them circle matching numbers and mark claims the table does not support.
Ask students to write: Would you cite an unsigned post about teen sleep if its claim matches a hospital report? Explain your choice.
Teams rank dated source cards for a teen sleep paper: a district schedule, an opinion post, a sleep study, and a bus timetable.
Compare a printed claim about a local park's closing time with the city parks page before choosing a time to meet.

Free download

A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to 9-10.W.8.b, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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