FactCheckEd from the University of Pennsylvania seems to have some surprisingly good lesson plans.

I learned about it from The Big Deal Book Of Technology Newsletter, which is also a good resource with reading. Here is how they describe it:

FactCheckEd.org is an educational resource designed to help high school students learn to cut through the fog of misinformation and deception that surrounds the many messages they’re bombarded with every day. The site, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, aims to help students learn to be smart consumers of these messages, not to accept them at face value; to dig for facts using the Internet, not to stop looking once they get to Wikipedia; and to weigh evidence logically, not to draw conclusions based on their own biases.

Under the heading Tools of the Trade, find a five-step framework for analyzing information and avoiding deception. Some of the Lesson Plans present students with a message, such as a real advertisement, and guide them through a process of discovery leading to the facts. Another group of lessons teaches some of the basic concepts of reasoning, giving students the building blocks that will help them parse others’ arguments and strengthen their own. Using Monty Python skits and clips from other popular television programs and films, these core lessons address deductive versus inductive reasoning, logical fallacies and similar subjects. Straight from the Source is a list of Web sites to visit when looking for information, along with synopses of what they offer.

The lessons will need to be modified a lot to be made accessible to English Language Learners, but they’re perfect for my Theory of Knowledge students.

I’m adding the link to The Best Places To Find Free (And Good) Lesson Plans On The Internet.