Taming the Wild Wiki - Lesson

Lesson Plan

Level: Grades 7 to 9

Author: Matthew Johnson, Director of Education, MediaSmarts

Duration: 2 hours (excluding assessment and evaluation tasks)

Overview

Students are introduced to Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, and given an overview of its strengths and weaknesses as a research source. They are taught how to evaluate the reliability of a Wikipedia article and then attempt to improve an existing article.

Learning Outcomes

 Students will:

• learn how to evaluate a Wikipedia article for reliability
•  learn how to effectively use Wikipedia as a research source
• assess the reliability of sources
• state and defend an opinion
• research a topic and publish their research
• contribute to a public debate 

 This lesson and all associated documents (handouts, overheads, backgrounders) is available in an easy-print, pdf kit version.

Lesson Kit:

Lesson_Taming_Wild_Wiki.pdf