8.12.D
The Standard
identify and gather relevant information from a variety of sources
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students turn a research question into useful search terms and locate details that help answer it. They collect evidence from more than one source type and record where each detail came from.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a focused question, a student finds useful details in print, digital, or firsthand sources. The student leaves out unrelated material and records enough source information to find each detail again.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may choose a source because it mentions the topic, even when it does not answer the research question. They may treat search snippets as evidence, copy whole passages, or rely only on the first website they find.
How to Assess It
- Give students four source cards about later school start times: a study abstract, student blog, bus schedule, and sports article. Have them select two, record one useful detail from each, and explain each choice.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Place six printed sources at stations, then have students highlight useful details and sort each source as relevant or unrelated to one research question.
Ask students to explain in writing why a source about teen sleep may or may not answer a question about school start times.
Play Source Match by giving teams research questions and source cards to pair, with one spoken reason required for every match.
Have students investigate a proposed school change using the school website, a local news article, and a short staff or student interview.
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