During this unit in English 9 you will be reading a variety of nonfiction sources which raise different topics whether they be social, political or human rights on the topic of poverty. This Libguide is designed to give you access to information about poverty through different lenses. Whether your research will lead you to write on the communist history of Romania since Ceausecu or modern day social issues you will find background reading and videos here.
Zurich International School has an established partnership with Habitat for Humanity Int'l and it Global Village Volunteer Program. For over ten years groups of ZIS students have been volunteering to build houses in countries which include Romania, Macedonia, Hungary, Poland and Jordan. Now in its third year, Grade 9 ZIS students as part of their Advisory program are working together during their CWW week to offer service in Romania on a number of different Habitat building sites. This Libguide has also been compiled to help students and teachers to learn more about Romania and Habitat for Humanity but also to help us examine the efficacy of Aid work.
One final note is that the articles included here come from a wide variety of sources. As a student researcher it is your task to evaluate your sources. See the advice from Cornell University in the box titled Evaluating Sources.
Source Evaluation Checklist
Use this checklist which is adapted from the Cornell Digital Literacy Resource to evaluate the information sources you discover as a result of performing a search. Check the items in each of the following categories:
Purpose
• What is the purpose or motivation for the source? (E.g., educational, commercial, entertainment, or promotional.)
• Is it trying to sell you something? How easy is it to differentiate advertisement from content in the source?
• Based on your knowledge, is the information fact, opinion, or propaganda?
• Who is the intended audience for the information, and how is this fact reflected in the organization and presentation of the material?
Authority
• Is the author identifiable?
• What is the author's background? (E.g., experience, credentials, and occupation, and has he or she published anything else on the topic?)
• Does the author cite his or her sources?
Currency
• When was the resource last updated or revised, and how often is it updated?
Reliability
How stable does the resource seem to be? The resource’s dependability (particularly in the case of Web sites) is important if it is going to be cited as a source or recommended for use by others.
• For Web sites, do most of the links on the page work?
• From your evaluation of currency and authority, do you think the resource will be there the next time you visit it?
Coverage
• What information is included or omitted?
• Is the resource completed or under construction?
These are not the only criteria you will need to look at. Depending on what your professor has asked you for and on your research needs, you may need to look for certain kinds of material. In academic research in particular, your professor may ask you to find scholarly, peer-reviewed, or primary sources.
