The AI Literacy · Plate 03 · 45 min · unlocked
Checking a claim
A forty-five-minute lesson on what a source is, what only looks like one, and the most useful sentence in research — "I could not find a source for that."
Outcome
Can find a source for a statement, or say clearly that they could not find one.
Plate 2 left the class with a confident wrong answer and an account of why it happened. This plate answers the question that follows: so how would I know? The skill is verification, and the lesson is built to make one particular outcome respectable — looking carefully, finding nothing, and saying so.
Before you start
The class needs somewhere to look things up that is not the model: the library, an encyclopedia, a museum or archive website on the board, or a set of printed pages you have chosen. Decide in advance which claim the whole class will check together and have its source to hand.
One device with a chat model, at the front, for the starter only.
Starter, five minutes
Take the confident wrong answer from plate 2 — or produce a fresh one at the front — and write it on the board as a claim. Beside it write a true claim on the same subject.
Ask: which one is true? Then ask the real question: how would we know, without asking anyone in this room how sure they feel?
The answer the lesson wants is "find where it was written down by someone who was there or who studied it." Get to the word source and define it on the board: a place where a fact was recorded by someone who was in a position to know, and who can be named.
Main task, twenty-five minutes
Part one, ten minutes, whole class. Check the class claim together. Say it precisely. Find the source you prepared. Compare. Record where you found it. Do the four moves slowly and name each one as you do it; this is the template for part two.
Part two, fifteen minutes, pairs. Give each pair a claim on a card. Mix them deliberately:
- Two claims that are true and easy to source
- One that is false and easy to disprove
- One that is true but hard to source with what is in the room
- One that a chat model produced, complete with a fake-looking citation
Pairs write three lines: the claim in their own words; what they found and where; and one of three verdicts — confirmed, contradicted, or could not find a source.
The pairs holding the hard-to-source card will want to guess. Do not let them. "Could not find a source" is a full-credit verdict.
Plenary, ten minutes
Collect verdicts. Ask the pair with the model-produced citation what happened when they looked for it. Usually it does not exist. Ask why a machine that predicts likely words would produce a likely- looking citation for a source that is not there. The class already has the answer from plate 1.
Then ask the hard-to-source pair to read their verdict aloud, and treat it as the best answer in the room. It is.
Teacher notes
The two failures this lesson guards against pull in opposite directions. One is "everybody knows" — treating agreement or popularity as evidence. A view count, a thumbs-up, a friend's certainty: none of them is a source, and the lesson should say so plainly. The other is checking the machine against the machine — asking it again, or asking it whether it is sure. The course's grade 6 text puts it well: that is not a second opinion, it is a second guess.
The sentence "I could not find a source for that" needs to be modelled by you, out loud, at least once during the lesson. Children learn from watching an adult say it without embarrassment.
Assessment
For one claim: the claim restated precisely, the source found (named, so another person could find it) or a clear statement that none was found, and a verdict.
A verdict without the restated claim, or a source that is "the internet", has not met the outcome.
What comes next
Plate 4 turns from claims about the world to claims about work — whose words are these? — and it uses the same habit: say precisely what was done, and by whom.
Teach it · Read It Together
Where Was It Written Down?
What a source is, what only looks like one, and the most useful sentence in research. The lesson above, as a booklet to read together: a teacher at the front with the class, or a parent at the table with one child. 45 minutes, in two voices. In the app, Archie reads it aloud.
Download the deck (PowerPoint)Print it (PDF) · 8 pages · grades 3-5
A read-aloud for kids, parents and teachers
Where Was It Written Down?
Last time the machine was sure and wrong. So here is the big question. How would we know?
Not by asking who feels sure. By finding where it was written down, by someone who was there or who studied it.
Forty-five minutes. A grown-up, a child or a class, and somewhere to look things up that is not the machine.
Step 1 · The starter · 5 min
Two claims on the board
Write the confident wrong answer from last time, or make a fresh one at the front. Beside it, write a true claim about the same thing.
Ask: which one is true? Then the real question: how would we know, without asking anyone in this room how sure they feel?
The answer we want: find where it was written down by someone who was there, or who studied it, and who can be named.
That place has a name. A source.
Step 2 · The four moves, together · 10 min
Check one claim as a class
Say the claim exactly. Not roughly. Exactly.
Find the source the grown-up brought: a book, an encyclopedia, a museum page, a printed sheet.
Compare. Does the source say the same thing?
Write down where you found it, so another person could find it too.
Do the four moves slowly and say each one out loud. This is the pattern for the next part.
Step 3 · Cards in pairs · 15 min
Five cards, three verdicts
Each pair gets a claim on a card. Some are true and easy to find. One is false and easy to catch. One is true but hard to find with what is in the room. One came from a chat machine, complete with a source that looks real.
Write three lines: the claim in your own words, what you found and where, and a verdict.
The verdicts: confirmed, contradicted, or could not find a source.
Do this together
The pair with the hard card will want to guess. Do not let them. "Could not find a source" is a full-marks answer. Say it yourself, out loud, at least once today.
Watch your words
Things that look like sources
Lots of things feel like proof and are not. Here are the ones that catch people out.
- Someone might say: Everybody knows it.
- Say instead: Lots of people agreeing is not a source. Where was it written down?
- Someone might say: It has a million views.
- Say instead: A view count tells you it was popular, not that it was true.
- Someone might say: I asked the machine again and it said yes.
- Say instead: That is not a second opinion. It is a second guess.
The plenary · 10 min
The source that was not there
Ask the pair with the machine's card what happened when they looked for its source. Usually, it does not exist.
Why would a machine that predicts likely words produce a likely-looking source for a thing that is not there? You already know. It picked the words that usually come next.
Then ask the pair with the hard card to read their verdict aloud. "We could not find a source for that." Treat it as the best answer in the room. It is.
Next time · Plate 4
Whose words are these?
We have checked claims about the world. Next, claims about work. If a tool helped me write it, did I write it?
The same habit, turned around. Say exactly what was done, and by whom.
For the grown-up
Why this plate matters
Two failures pull in opposite directions. One is "everybody knows": treating agreement or popularity as evidence. A view count, a thumbs-up, a friend's certainty. None is a source.
The other is checking the machine against the machine. Asking it again, or asking whether it is sure. That is not a second opinion, it is a second guess.
The sentence "I could not find a source for that" needs to be modelled by you, out loud, without embarrassment. Children learn it by watching an adult say it.
Prepare the cards in advance, and keep the hard-to-source one hard. The lesson is built to make looking carefully, finding nothing, and saying so respectable.
Download the deck (PowerPoint)Print it (PDF) · 8 pages · grades 6-8
Read it together · for students, parents and teachers
Where Was It Written Down?
Plate 2 left you with a confident wrong answer and an account of why it happened. This plate answers the question that follows. So how would I know?
The skill is verification. The lesson is built to make one outcome respectable. Looking carefully, finding nothing, and saying so.
Step 1 · The starter · 5 min
Which one is true, and how would we know?
Put the confident wrong answer from plate 2 on the board as a claim. Beside it, a true claim on the same subject.
Ask which is true. Then the real question: how would we know, without asking anyone in the room how sure they feel?
The answer is a definition. A source: a place where a fact was recorded by someone in a position to know, and who can be named.
Step 2 · Whole class · 10 min
The four moves
Say the claim precisely. Find the prepared source. Compare. Record where you found it.
Do them slowly and name each one. This is the template for the pair work.
Step 3 · Pairs · 15 min
Five cards, three verdicts
Each pair takes a claim. The set is mixed on purpose: two true and easy to source, one false and easy to disprove, one true but hard to source with what is in the room, and one produced by a chat model, complete with a plausible citation.
Three lines: the claim restated; what you found and where; a verdict. Confirmed, contradicted, or could not find a source.
Do this together
"Could not find a source" is a full-credit verdict. A source that is "the internet" is not a source. A verdict without the restated claim has not met the outcome.
What only looks like evidence
Agreement is not a source
Each of these feels like confirmation. None of them records anything.
- Someone might say: Everybody knows that.
- Say instead: Agreement is not evidence. Where was it recorded, and by whom?
- Someone might say: It has a million views.
- Say instead: Popularity measures attention, not truth.
- Someone might say: I asked the model again and it confirmed it.
- Say instead: That is the same prediction run twice. A second guess, not a second opinion.
Plenary · 10 min
The citation that does not exist
Ask the pair with the model's claim what happened when they looked for its source. Usually it is not there.
Why would a machine that predicts likely words produce a likely-looking citation for a source that does not exist? The class has the answer from plate 1.
Then have the hard-to-source pair read their verdict aloud, and treat it as the best answer in the room.
Next · Plate 4
Whose words are these?
From claims about the world to claims about work. The same habit applies. Say precisely what was done, and by whom.
For the adult in the room
Notes
Two failures, in opposite directions. "Everybody knows", which treats agreement or popularity as evidence, and checking the machine against the machine, which treats a repeated prediction as confirmation.
Model "I could not find a source for that" yourself, out loud, at least once. Students learn to say it by watching an adult say it without embarrassment.
Decide the class claim and its source in advance, and prepare the five cards. The hard-to-source card should stay hard.