Mrs. Ram's Jams

My students and I have been working on argumentative texts, and I swore on Facebook not too long ago that I would ensure my students would never forget how to evaluate an argument and a source.

So I turned to Google while lesson planning and discovered the CRAAP method for examining sources. All you have to do is ask yourself is this source CRAAP to analyze for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose–and voila, the children remember how to evaluate a source! And they get to say CRAAP in the classroom, so it makes them feel like they can cuss but actually aren’t! Students love that cusp of danger feeling! 

And my teacher soul radiated warm fuzzies every time I heard them say CRAAP while discussing texts about failure.

CRAAP never sounded so good! CRAAP was magic! They were learning! They would know forever how to evaluate a resource!

Well.

It backfired.

While my students did test corrections yesterday, I examined exit tickets that analyzed if a failure fluff piece from Medium.com was a compelling argument.

What did my students do in their formal writing???

Used the word CRAAP–EVERYWHERE.

I audibly groaned everytime I came across a sentence that said “this source isn’t CRAAP.”

Not only did they come up with incorrect answers (sigh, only like five kids said the source and the argument itself was crappy), they actually thought saying CRAAP in their writing was a brilliant idea!!!

After having done a badass job of teaching how to evaluate sources and arguments using articles about failure, I WAS AND AM THE FAILURE AND IT MADE ME FEEL CRAPPY.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Extra Crap.

What if they do that on their benchmark???? Or god forbid the LEAP test????

How do I get the CRAAP out of them?

Well, that sounded terrible, but you know what I mean!

Looks like they’re in for a crappy Tuesday because they’re going to be rewriting those exit tickets. 

(Sidebar:  When I looked at these same exit tickets, so many students kept referring to the author by his first name. I asked my fourth block why–because they fully know to use the author’s last name. Their response? His last name was too hard to spell so it was easier to use his first name.)