Getting students to explain sources beyond “I found it on Google” has always been a challenge. But in the modern era of TikTok gurus and AI bots, it feels nearly impossible. And something as simple as an evaluating sources worksheet doesn’t feel like nearly enough. 

But it can be a helpful tool and a great scaffold for students entering ​the wide world of research. 

One of the hardest parts of teaching research isn’t getting students to find information. It’s getting them to figure out whether the information they’ve found is actually worth using.

A quick Google search can produce thousands of results in seconds, but that doesn’t mean those results are accurate, reliable, or appropriate for a research paper. Teaching students how to evaluate sources is an important step in the research process—and an essential part of building information literacy. As ELA teachers, helping students build their media literacy is quickly becoming one of the most important parts of our job.

In this post, I’ll share some tips for teaching source evaluation that you can use with high school students.

(And if you want to skip all of this and go straight to a FREE Evaluating Sources Worksheet, you can find mine right here!)

Why Source Evaluation Matters

Students today have access to more information than ever before. They can find news articles, blog posts, social media posts, videos, podcasts, scholarly articles, websites, and digital resources with just a few clicks. With social media at their fingertips, our students are probably exposed to more media and text in a few days than we used to see over the course of weeks. 

Access to information isn’t the problem. (In fact, students might have access to too much information.) The problem is knowing what to do with all of it.

Being able to distinguish between credible sources and unreliable information is a vital skill for high school students. It requires critical thinking, media literacy, and information literacy—not simply the ability to search the internet.

This becomes especially important when students are writing research papers or completing a research project. If students choose unreliable information sources at the beginning of the research process, that misinformation can make its way into everything they write afterward.

In other words, source evaluation isn’t an extra step you squeeze into the end of a research unit.

It’s part of the research process from the beginning.

(Need a lesson for the actual research part of a project? Check out my Research Lesson here.)

The Evaluating Sources Worksheet

If you’re looking for a quick worksheet or checklist you can give your students to help them think about their sources, grab my FREE Source Credibility Checklist here!

This checklist uses the CRAAP method to guide students through a series of questions to help them evaluate their source. For each question, a source is either given one point or none. The more points at the end of the checklist, the more likely the source is to be credible. 

There’s no single point threshold at which a source is absolutely credible, but it provides a framework for students to start thinking about source credibility.

You can use this checklist as a standalone evaluating sources worksheet, incorporate it into a larger research activity, or keep it available as a reference while students work on their research papers. It’s the perfect supplementary material to any research project.

It’s especially helpful for students who need a little structure when navigating online sources and other digital resources.

Keep reading to learn more about the CRAAP test, and why I think it’s a helpful framework for students.

The CRAAP Test

One popular method for evaluating sources is the CRAAP test. 

I like this method because, well, it sounds funny, so students will remember it. It’s also simple enough to remember.

CRAAP stands for:

C — Currency
When was the information published or updated? Is the information still relevant?

R — Relevance
Does the source actually address the student’s research question? Is it appropriate for the intended audience?

A — Authority
Who wrote or published the information? What makes the author qualified to discuss the topic?

A — Accuracy
Is the information supported by evidence? Can the claims be verified through other reliable sources?

P — Purpose
Why was the information created? Is the author trying to inform, persuade, entertain, or sell something?

The CRAAP test gives students a simple framework they can use when evaluating everything from an academic article to a random website they discovered through Google.

It also works well as a research activity because students can practice the process with actual sources rather than simply memorizing definitions.

An evaluating sources worksheet like my FREE CRAAP Checklist here can make working through this acronym painless for your students. 

Teaching Students How to Evaluate Sources

A simple worksheet or checklist isn’t going to teach your students everything they need to know about evaluating sources, however. You still need to teach them: show them how to ask the right questions and model thinking through source credibility for them. 

Here are some tips to help you teach your students to choose strong sources.

Teaching Tip #1: Teach Students to Ask Questions About Every Source

When students find an interesting website or article, their first instinct is often to start taking notes or to get the answer down.

Sometimes, they don’t even really process what the source actually is. (No, Google is not a source. Nor is TikTok.)

Instead, encourage them to pause before they start writing.

Before using a source, students should ask a series of questions about where the information came from, who created it, and why it exists.

You might have students consider the following questions:

• Who created this information?
• What are the author’s qualifications?
• When was the information published or updated?
• What evidence does the source provide?
• Does the author cite other reliable sources?
• Is the information supported by scholarly articles or research?
• Is the purpose to inform, persuade, entertain, or sell something?
• Does the source contain obvious bias?
• Can the information be confirmed by other credible sources?
• Is this source appropriate for my research question?

These questions can turn source evaluation into a repeatable process rather than a vague instruction to “make sure your sources are reliable.”

Teaching Tip #2: Don’t Assume Students Know What Makes a Source Credible

One common mistake is assuming students already know what a credible source looks like. 

They don’t.

This assumption is especially easy to make when you’re teaching high schoolers. After all, didn’t they learn this stuff in middle school? But knowing what makes a source credible can be tricky.

A website can look professional and still contain inaccurate information. A page can use statistics and citations without actually being trustworthy. And a website with a .edu domain name isn’t automatically a perfect source.

Yes, an edu domain name can be a helpful clue. But students should still investigate who created the page, when it was published, what evidence it uses, and what its purpose is.

The same principle applies to other domain names. A .gov website may be an excellent source for certain types of information, while a commercial website might be useful for other topics. The domain name is one piece of evidence—not a final verdict.

Teaching Tip #3: Practice With Questionable Online Sources

One of my favorite ways to teach source evaluation is to make students evaluate sources that aren’t obviously terrible.

If every example is a clearly fake website covered in flashing advertisements, students don’t have to use much critical thinking.

Instead, give them a mixture of:

• A reputable news article
• A university website
• A government website
• A personal blog
• A commercial website
• A social media post
• A scholarly source
• A questionable news article
• A Wikipedia page
• An obviously unreliable website

Then ask students to evaluate each one.

You can even turn it into a friendly competition: Which source would you trust for this research question—and why?

This forces students to explain their reasoning rather than simply labeling something “good” or “bad.”

One example is the classic DHMO.org. This is probably my favorite for a first introduction because students often initially believe it. The site presents dihydrogen monoxide as an extremely dangerous substance—because, of course, it’s water.

The Onion articles are also great because students have a really, really hard time with satire. (In fact, you may want to teach a Satire Lesson as well!)

Teaching Tip #4: Connect Source Evaluation to Fake News and Media Literacy

Source evaluation doesn’t have to live exclusively inside the English classroom.

Students encounter questionable information constantly, whether they’re researching student athletes, watching videos on YouTube, scrolling through social media, or reading the latest headline.

This makes source evaluation an important part of media literacy.

Students need to understand that misinformation isn’t always obvious. Sometimes unreliable information looks polished, includes statistics, or uses language designed to sound authoritative.

Teaching the CRAAP test and other source-evaluation strategies gives students a framework they can use outside of school, too. Honestly, it might be even more important for students to be able to weed out unreliable Instagram influencers than it is to conduct research for a project.

Teaching Tip #5: Turn Source Evaluation Into a Research Lesson

If you’re planning a research unit, I recommend teaching source evaluation before students begin collecting sources for their research project.

Start with a short lesson plan introducing the criteria you want students to use. Then give them several internet sources to evaluate.

For example, you could give everyone the same article and have students work through the CRAAP criteria. Once they’ve practiced together, have them evaluate sources independently.

Finally, have students apply the same process to sources they found for their own research.

This progression—from teacher modeling, to guided practice, to independent practice—helps students understand what source evaluation actually looks like.

Teaching Tip #6: Teach Source Credibility with a Worthwhile Research Project

If source credibility or research is the main skill you want to teach, you’ll need a project for students to demonstrate their skills.

A research essay is a classic. In this End-Of-The-Year Research Essay, students choose a future path (a dream job, the military, college, etc.) and research the steps required to follow it.

You could consider having students create a slideshow to share with the class on a relevant topic, like a World Genocide Project.

Or, consider having students give a speech on a particular topic. This Social Justice Speech Project allows students to choose a topic about which they’re passionate.

Make an Evaluating Sources Worksheet Part of the Research Process

Ultimately, the goal isn’t for students to memorize what each letter in CRAAP stands for.

The goal is for them to develop the habit of stopping and asking, “Can I trust this information?”

That question should become automatic.

Whether students are evaluating scholarly articles for a research paper, comparing internet sources for a research project, or deciding whether a social media claim is legitimate, they’re practicing the same fundamental skill: using evidence and critical thinking to evaluate information.

And that’s why teaching students how to evaluate sources is such an important step in any high school English research unit.

The more opportunities students have to practice source evaluation, the more confident they’ll become at recognizing credible sources—and the better prepared they’ll be to navigate the enormous amount of information they encounter both inside and outside the classroom.