Overview

Lesson Procedure

65-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Sketch a Viking warrior in 30 seconds. Then write where your picture of a Viking came from: a movie, a game, a book, a costume? What words would you type into a search engine to find out what Vikings really wore?"

   Most sketches will have horns. Ask students to hold them up, then ask: how could we find out whether the horns are real? Collect three or four search ideas on the board and keep them for Direct Instruction. Tell students that today they will do what a researcher does before writing a single sentence: search well, decide which sources deserve trust, and use other people's words and numbers honestly.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Define the words of research. Search terms are the words typed into a search engine or a library catalog. A print source was published on paper, such as a book or a magazine; a digital source is published online, such as a website or a database. A source is credible when a reader has good reasons to trust it, and accurate when its facts are correct, which a researcher checks by comparing it with other sources. To quote is to copy a writer's exact words inside quotation marks; to paraphrase is to restate an idea completely in your own words and sentence pattern. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own. A citation tells the reader where information came from; in MLA style, a short in-text citation in parentheses points to a full entry in the Works Cited list at the end. Read Tariq's log (Text 1) aloud, then work through the examples.

   1Assignment from Mr. Halloran, Grade 7 World History: Choose a question about the Middle Ages. Gather information from at least three sources, including at least one print source and at least one digital source. Decide whether each source is credible (worth trusting) and accurate (correct). Answer your question in one paragraph that quotes or paraphrases your sources, and end with a Works Cited list in MLA style.

   2My question: Did Vikings really wear helmets with horns?

   3Search 1, on the school's search engine: vikings. The first page of results showed a football team, a TV series, a river cruise company and an encyclopedia article about the Viking Age. None of them said anything about helmets.

   4Search 2: did vikings wear horned helmets. The first result was a store, VikingWarriorGear.com, selling horned helmets (Source C). Further down the page was a museum web page, "Horns or No Horns?" (Source B).

   5Search 3: viking helmet found archaeology. This search turned up several articles about a helmet found at Gjermundbu, a farm in Norway.

   6Search 4, in the school library catalog: Vikings, as a subject search. I found the book Raiders and Traders (Source A) on the shelf and read pages 42-47.

   • Revising search terms

     Tariq's Search 1 was one word, vikings. It brought up a football team, a TV series and a cruise company.

     Result: Search 3, viking helmet found archaeology, adds the object (helmet) and two words that point to real evidence (found, archaeology). Each added word removes results that are not about the question.

   • Judging a print source

     Source A is a library book. What makes it worth trusting?

     Result: It names its author and her field (a historian), its publisher and its year, and it describes a real find that a reader can look up (the Gjermundbu helmet). A named expert and checkable evidence are two strong reasons to trust it.

   • Checking accuracy by cross-checking

     Source C says, "Archaeologists have dug up hundreds of horned helmets all over Scandinavia."

     Result: Source A says that only a handful of Viking Age helmets have been found and none has horns, and Source B agrees. Two credible sources against one store's claim: the claim is not accurate, and Tariq should not use it.

   • Quote, paraphrase or plagiarism

     Source B: "Real horned helmets do exist, but they are far older than the Vikings." A note that copies this sentence without quotation marks is plagiarism, even with a citation.

     Result: Quotation: Haldane writes that real horned helmets "are far older than the Vikings" (Haldane). Paraphrase: Helmets with horns have been found, but they were made many centuries before any Viking lived (Haldane).

   • Citing in MLA 9

     Tariq quotes page 44 of Source A.

     Result: In-text: (Solberg 44), the author's last name and the page, with no comma. Works Cited: Solberg, Ingrid. Raiders and Traders: Everyday Life in the Viking Age. Fjordside Press, 2021.

   Use Diagram 1 to name the five credibility questions and Diagram 2 to show how an MLA entry is built from the same elements for any kind of source. Point out that a source's rank in a search does not measure its credibility: search engines rank pages for many reasons, including advertising.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read Tariq's three sources and fill in the chart below. For each source they write one detail that answers each credibility question, and then one fact from the source that another source confirms or contradicts. Circulate and ask pairs to point to the exact words that support each entry.

   Source chart (students fill in the empty cells)

   Source	Print or digital?	Who, where and when?	What evidence does it give?	Why was it written?	Confirmed or contradicted by?
   A
   B
   C

   1Raiders and Traders: Everyday Life in the Viking Age, by Dr. Ingrid Solberg, a historian. Fjordside Press, 2021. From page 44, in the chapter "Dressed for Battle."

   2The Viking Age lasted from about 793 to 1066 CE. In pictures and films, Viking warriors often wear helmets with a pair of horns. The evidence tells a different story. Only a handful of helmets from the Viking Age have ever been found, and not one of them has horns. The best known was dug up in 1943 at Gjermundbu, a farm in Norway. It is a rounded iron cap with a guard that protected the eyes and nose.

   3Iron was costly, so a helmet was a sign of wealth. Many fighters probably went into battle with a leather cap or no helmet at all. Horns would have made a helmet heavier, and an enemy's blade could catch on them. For these reasons, historians do not think that Viking warriors wore horned helmets in battle.

   1Northland Museum of History, Viking Gallery Online. "Horns or No Horns? Where the Horned Viking Came From," by Dr. Priya Haldane, Curator of European History. Updated 9 Feb. 2023. Web address: northland.example/horns

   2If Viking warriors did not wear horns, where did the picture come from? Much of it comes from the 1800s, long after the Viking Age ended. Artists in Scandinavia and Germany painted Viking heroes in winged and horned helmets. Then, in 1876, the costume designer Carl Emil Doepler put horned helmets on some of the singers in the first full performance of Richard Wagner's opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, in Bayreuth, Germany. The operas became famous, and so did the costumes.

   3Real horned helmets do exist, but they are far older than the Vikings. Two bronze helmets with long curved horns were found near Veksø, Denmark, in 1942. They were made around 900 BCE, about 1,700 years before the Viking Age began, and were probably worn for ceremonies, not for battle.

   4The best-known helmet from the Viking Age, found at Gjermundbu in Norway, has no horns. It is kept at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo.

   1VikingWarriorGear.com | Shop | Sale

   2AUTHENTIC HORNED VIKING HELMETS!

   3Every Viking warrior wore horns into battle to terrify his enemies. Archaeologists have dug up hundreds of horned helmets all over Scandinavia, and our replicas are made exactly like the originals. Hand-forged steel with real ox horns. Only $89.99, with free shipping!

   4Customer review: "Looks just like the helmets in the movies!" (5 stars)

4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Students read Tariq's first draft (Text 5). For each of its seven sentences they decide: fine as written, needs a citation, copied or nearly copied (plagiarism), or inaccurate. Then they compare the draft with Tariq's revised paragraph (Text 6) and list three changes he made, naming the part of the standard each change meets.

   [1] Vikings did not wear horned helmets. [2] Only a handful of helmets from the Viking Age have ever been found, and not one of them has horns. [3] The best known was dug up in 1943 at a farm in Norway, and it is a rounded iron cap with a guard that protected the eyes and nose. [4] Iron was very expensive, so a helmet showed that you were rich, and lots of fighters probably had leather caps or nothing. [5] Archaeologists have found hundreds of horned helmets all over Scandinavia. [6] The idea came from an opera in 1876. [7] "Real horned helmets do exist, but they are far older than the Vikings."

   Did Vikings really wear helmets with horns? The evidence says that they did not. According to the historian Ingrid Solberg, "Only a handful of helmets from the Viking Age have ever been found, and not one of them has horns" (Solberg 44). The best-known example, unearthed on a Norwegian farm in 1943, is a plain iron dome with a piece that shielded the face around the eyes and nose (Solberg 44). Because iron cost so much, Solberg explains, many Viking fighters probably wore leather caps or went without a helmet (44). The horned Viking seems to be an invention of the 1800s. Artists of that century painted Viking heroes in horned helmets, and a costume designer gave horns to several singers in the first full performance of Richard Wagner's Ring operas in 1876 (Haldane). Helmets with horns have been dug up in Denmark, but the museum curator Priya Haldane points out that they date from around 900 BCE, "about 1,700 years before the Viking Age began" (Haldane).

   Works Cited

   Haldane, Priya. "Horns or No Horns? Where the Horned Viking Came From." Northland Museum of History, 9 Feb. 2023, northland.example/horns.

   Solberg, Ingrid. Raiders and Traders: Everyday Life in the Viking Age. Fjordside Press, 2021.

   In the last ten minutes, hand out Lena's research log and her three sources (Texts 7-10), the science set for the homework and several quiz questions. Students read Text 7 and underline her two searches; the homework asks them to improve them.

   1Assignment from Ms. Duarte, Grade 8 Science: Research a health claim that people often repeat. Use at least three sources, including print and digital ones, judge each source, and report what the evidence shows in one paragraph with MLA citations.

   2My question: Does eating sugar make kids hyperactive?

   3Search 1: sugar. Results: a baking website, a page about sugar cane farming, an encyclopedia article about sugar and a song.

   4Search 2: sugar bad for kids hyper. Results: parenting blogs and a store that sells sugar-free candy. The top result was the blog post that became Source 3.

   5Then our school librarian, Mr. Abara, showed me PubMed, a free online database of medical research run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. He said that many of the journal articles listed there were also printed on paper in the journals themselves. In PubMed I found Sources 1 and 2.

   6What I still need: a clear decision about which sources to trust, and help writing MLA entries for journal articles.

   1Article record: Mark L. Wolraich, Scott D. Lindgren, Phyllis J. Stumbo, Lewis D. Stegink, Mark I. Appelbaum and Mary C. Kiritsy. "Effects of Diets High in Sucrose or Aspartame on the Behavior and Cognitive Performance of Children." The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 330, issue number 5, 3 February 1994, pages 301-307. DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199402033300501.

   2What the researchers did: The team, led by Mark Wolraich of Vanderbilt University, studied two groups of children: 25 preschool children aged 3 to 5, and 23 children aged 6 to 10 whose parents described them as sensitive to sugar. Each family followed three different diets, one after another, for three weeks each. One diet was high in sucrose (table sugar). One was low in sugar and sweetened with aspartame. One was low in sugar and sweetened with saccharin, which served as the placebo, a stand-in that is not expected to have any effect. The study was double-blind: neither the families nor the researchers knew which diet a child was on. The children's behavior and thinking skills were tested every week.

   3What they found: For the children described as sensitive to sugar, none of the 39 measures of behavior and thinking differed significantly among the three diets. For the preschool children, 4 of the 31 measures differed significantly, with no consistent pattern.

   4The authors' conclusion: "Even when intake exceeds typical dietary levels, neither dietary sucrose nor aspartame affects children's behavior or cognitive function."

   1Article record: Daniel W. Hoover and Richard Milich. "Effects of Sugar Ingestion Expectancies on Mother-Child Interactions." Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, volume 22, issue number 4, August 1994, pages 501-515. DOI: 10.1007/BF02168088.

   2What the researchers did: Hoover and Milich studied 35 boys aged 5 to 7 whose mothers described them as "sugar sensitive." The mothers were placed by chance into two groups. Mothers in one group were told that their sons had just been given a large dose of sugar. Mothers in the other group were told that their sons had been given a placebo. In fact, every boy received the placebo: aspartame, a sweetener that is not sugar. The researchers video-recorded each mother and son as they interacted, and then asked each mother about the session.

   3What they found: Mothers who believed that their sons had eaten sugar rated the boys as significantly more hyperactive. These mothers also stayed physically closer to their sons, and there were signs that they criticized, watched and talked to their sons more than the other mothers did.

   4What the study tested: the idea that some of the bad effects that parents report after children eat sugar may come from what the parents expect to see.

   1SweetFreeFamily.example | Recipes | Shop

   2Sugar Is Turning Our Kids Into Tornadoes!

   3Posted by "Mama Jen." No date is given.

   4Every parent knows the truth: give a kid a cupcake and watch them bounce off the walls! At my son's last birthday party, the kids ate cake and then ran around screaming for an hour. Studies prove that sugar makes 9 out of 10 kids hyperactive. That is why I created Calm Bites, sugar-free gummies that keep kids focused. Get 20% off with code CALM20!

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Write one search you would use to learn more about the Veksø helmets. (2) Name one reason a source can rank first in a search and still be a poor source. (3) Write a sentence from Source B as a quotation with an MLA in-text citation.

   Teacher notes: Tariq, Lena, their teachers, their school librarian, Dr. Solberg, Dr. Haldane, Fjordside Press, the Northland Museum of History, VikingWarriorGear.com, the SweetFreeFamily blog, "Mama Jen" and Calm Bites are invented; say so when you hand out the texts. The web addresses end in .example, a name reserved for examples, so they lead nowhere. The facts in Sources A and B about Viking helmets, the 1876 Bayreuth costumes and the Veksø helmets are real, and Sources 1 and 2 are real journal articles, summarized accurately from their published summaries. The invented sources were written with problems for students to find; the keys are in the activity procedures and the quiz explanations. The Works Cited entries follow MLA 9; if your school uses APA or another standard format, the same moves apply.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Tariq's question is Did Vikings really wear helmets with horns? Which result from his searches (Text 1) is relevant to that question?

   AThe football team's website, which uses a Viking as its mascot BThe TV series about Viking heroes and their adventures at sea CThe river cruise company that sails past old Viking towns DThe museum web page "Horns or No Horns?" about the helmets

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Mr. Halloran asks for at least one print source and at least one digital source (Text 1). Which pair of Tariq's sources meets that requirement?

   ASource A, the library book, and Source B, the museum page BSource B, the museum page, and Source C, the store's website CSource C, the store's website, and the TV series website DSource B, the museum page, and the online encyclopedia article

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Tariq now wants to learn more about how and when the Gjermundbu helmet was discovered. Which search is most effective?

   Ahelmet BGjermundbu helmet discovery Norway 1943 Ccool old viking stuff found in the ground Dwhat is the most famous helmet in all of history

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Tariq's Search 2 (Text 1), the first result was a store, VikingWarriorGear.com. What should this teach him about search results?

   AThe first result is always the most credible one, so he should use it first BA store cannot sell anything that is not historically accurate CA result can rank first and still be a poor source for research DQuestions typed into a search engine never return any useful results

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source C (Text 4) says, "Every Viking warrior wore horns into battle to terrify his enemies." Which detail from Source A (Text 2) shows that this claim is not accurate?

   A"Many fighters probably went into battle with a leather cap or no helmet at all." B"In pictures and films, Viking warriors often wear helmets with a pair of horns." C"The Viking Age lasted from about 793 to 1066 CE," the book reports. D"The evidence tells a different story," the historian writes about the horned helmets.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which detail in Source B (Text 3) gives the strongest reason to trust it?

   AIt asks the reader a question in its very first sentence. BIt says that the Wagner operas and their costumes became famous. CIt appears on a website that anyone can visit at any time of day. DIt names its author and her job, a date and real finds.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Source A (Text 2) ends: "For these reasons, historians do not think that Viking warriors wore horned helmets in battle." Which sentence paraphrases this conclusion accurately?

   ASolberg says historians have proved that no Viking ever owned or wore a horned helmet (44). BSolberg says historians believe Vikings wore horned helmets only when they fought (44). CSolberg says that, for these reasons, historians doubt Viking fighters wore horns (44). DSolberg says historians have no idea at all what real Viking helmets looked like (44).

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which note taken from Source B (Text 3) is plagiarism?

   A"Two bronze helmets with long curved horns were found near Veksø, Denmark, in 1942" (Haldane). BIn 1942, two horned bronze helmets turned up near Veksø in Denmark (Haldane). CTwo bronze helmets with long curved horns were found near Veksø, Denmark, in 1942 (Haldane). DHaldane notes that a pair of horned bronze helmets came to light in Denmark in 1942.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Sentence [2] of Tariq's first draft (Text 5) is plagiarism. Why?

   AIt gives a fact that is not true according to any of Tariq's three sources. BIt uses a number that should have been written out in words instead. CIt states Tariq's own opinion without giving any reasons for it. DIt copies Source A word for word, with no quotation marks or citation.

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In his revised paragraph (Text 6), Tariq cites Source A as (Solberg 44) but Source B only as (Haldane). Why?

    AA web page has no page numbers, so MLA gives only the author's name. BHaldane is less credible than Solberg, so she gets a shorter citation. CMLA gives page numbers only for sources that are more than a year old. DTariq forgot the page number for Source B and should add it back.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A new web page, "How Did Vikings Find Their Way at Sea?" by Sofia Brandt, was posted on the Northland Museum of History website on 3 May 2022 at northland.example/navigation. Which Works Cited entry follows MLA 9?

    ASofia Brandt. How Did Vikings Find Their Way at Sea? Northland Museum of History, May 3, 2022. BBrandt, Sofia. "How Did Vikings Find Their Way at Sea?" Northland Museum of History, 3 May 2022, northland.example/navigation. C"How Did Vikings Find Their Way at Sea?" Brandt, Sofia. Northland Museum of History, northland.example/navigation, 3 May 2022. DBrandt, S. How Did Vikings Find Their Way at Sea. Northland Museum of History (3 May 2022). northland.example/navigation

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In his revised paragraph (Text 6), Tariq writes, "Solberg explains, many Viking fighters probably wore leather caps or went without a helmet (44)." Why is a citation with only the page number correct here?

    APage numbers alone are enough whenever the source is a printed book. BMLA allows only one full citation for each source in any one paragraph. CThe author's name is already in the sentence, so only the page is needed. DSolberg's book lists no author, so a page number is the only thing to give.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 1 (Text 8) was double-blind. Why does that make its results more credible?

    AIt means that twice as many children took part as in most earlier studies. BIt means that the children were tested on two different days each week. CIt means that the study was printed in two journals, one after the other. DIt means no one's beliefs about the diets could color what was seen.

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence accurately reports data from Source 1 (Text 8)?

    AFor sugar-sensitive children, 4 of the 31 measures differed significantly among the diets (Wolraich et al.). BFor sugar-sensitive children, none of the 39 measures differed significantly (Wolraich et al.). CFor preschool children, none of the 39 measures differed significantly among the diets (Wolraich et al.). DFor all 48 children, sugar changed 4 of the 39 measures in one consistent pattern (Wolraich et al.).

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Paraphrase this sentence from Source A (Text 2) in your own words, with an MLA in-text citation: "In pictures and films, Viking warriors often wear helmets with a pair of horns."

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Source 3 (Text 10) supports its claim with a story: "At my son's last birthday party, the kids ate cake and then ran around screaming for an hour." Explain in two or three sentences why this story is weak evidence, and name the source that offers better evidence.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Paraphrase the finding of Source 2 (Text 9) about how the mothers acted, in one or two sentences of your own, with an MLA in-text citation.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write the MLA 9 Works Cited entry for this print magazine article: "The Longship Revolution," by Tomas Berg, in the magazine History Explorer for Kids, March 2024, pages 12-15. (The article and magazine are invented for practice.)

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Tariq has a new question: Did any Viking women fight in battle? Write two searches, the first broad and the second narrower, and explain in one or two sentences which words make the second one more effective.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Tariq finds a painting from the 1890s of a Viking in a horned helmet on an art museum's website (an invented example). Is it a credible source about what Vikings wore? Explain in two or three sentences, and say how he could still use it.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to WHST.6-8.8: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.