As our group was considering the lesson we reflected the checklists for evaluating a website that we were presented in class. It was apparent that most if not all of those checklists could use some tweaking. With this in mind we discussed four main sections of analyzing a website.

The first part was the purpose of the website. We compared this section to the author’s purpose which students have been working with since first grade. Students are asked to hunt for the “whys” the author made this web page. The three domains of author’s purpose they are familiar with are persuade, inform and entertain. Students search for the purpose and evidence to support one or more of these domains.

          The next part is taking a deeper look into the URL. Students analyze the URL and the author or company of the site. This will help them understand the purpose of the website even further. For example, if the website is created by the company Walmart they can look into the company. After researching the company they will learn it is a store to sell goods. They will be able to understand the purpose of the site better, specifically, to persuade visitors to purchase goods.

          The third portion of our checklist was designed to evaluate the website as a whole. There are five yes or no questions that ask the students to look at the content of the website. If the student answers “yes” to a question they record one point. If the student answers “no” to a question they record no points. The idea is for the students to find a number out of five. If the website scores a zero, one or two out of five; the student needs to be wary of the site. If the website receives a three out of five you should consider other aspects of the checklist. Lastly, if the website scored a four or five out of five; the site should be reliable but you want to consider the other parts.

          The final part of the checklist, which may be arguably the most important section, asks the students to utilize their common sense. We decided after reading Kaufmann Modes that in order for our students to truly be critical thinkers they need to enter the dialectical mode. They need to think about all of the other parts of the checklist and ask themselves “Do I trust this site?” We want them to reflect on their experiences and make a deductive conclusion.

       After generating this checklist we wanted to test it out to make sure it was effective. We took two checklists that we were presented with in class plus our new checklist. Students analyzed the same site with the three different checklists. The outcomes were impressive. The students gave the site the okay with the two original checklists. However, once they used our new checklist the students started to question the validity. Some students reported that some parts can be trusted but it wasn’t the best source. Other students rejected the website altogether. The website was attempting to sell wind turbines to them so it is appropriate for them to have doubts about the content. Overall, we feel that we came up with a reliable resource for students to utilize when evaluating a website.