Capstone research arm launch — ≥5 sources, CRAAP+ mastery review

Quick-share: of your 3 likely sources from yesterday's proposal, which is the strongest? Which is the weakest? Why?

• Affirm CRAAP+ thinking already at play
• Connect: today we launch the 12-week research arm

Today you launch the capstone research arm. The capstone demands ≥5 sources of ≥3 source-types (scholarly + journalistic + primary at minimum), with ≥10 MLA-cited references across the essay. You learned CRAAP+ in G8-fall — currency, authority, accuracy, purpose, plus diversity and source-type variety. Today CRAAP+ returns as MASTERY — applied quickly to candidate sources and decisive (keep / replace / supplement). The research arm runs 12 weeks — by week 6 your source-portfolio should be complete; by week 12 you should be drafting from a stable source set. AVOID over-researching: the temptation is to keep researching forever and never draft. Set a research deadline (week 6) and HOLD IT. Today: launch source-portfolio with proposal sources. Apply CRAAP+ to each. If any source fails 2+ criteria, replace.

• TED talks are great IF balanced with scholarly sources. Don't build a 5-source portfolio of only TED talks.

  model Currency: depends on date. Authority: TED platform is curated but speaker authority varies — check credentials. Accuracy: TED talks are not peer-reviewed; cross-check claims. Purpose: persuade general audience. Source-type variety: counts as multimedia. VERDICT: useful for civic-audience capstone as ONE source — pair with scholarly peer-reviewed source to balance.

  prompt Sample candidate source: a YouTube TED talk by a non-academic personality giving opinion on the topic. Apply CRAAP+.
• The Wikipedia references section is gold — use it to find peer-reviewed sources Wikipedia drew from.

  model Currency: usually recent. Authority: collective; not peer-reviewed; varies. Accuracy: usually accurate for verifiable facts but watch for vandalism/POV. Purpose: encyclopedic summary. VERDICT: NOT for direct citation in capstone. USE for: orienting yourself, finding cited sources in the references section, finding key terms. Wikipedia is a starting point, not an endpoint.

  prompt Sample candidate source: a Wikipedia article on the topic. Apply CRAAP+.

• Pair-share: of your sources, which type are you missing? (scholarly / journalistic / primary)
• Cold Call: name the 6 CRAAP+ criteria.

M-8-S-RES-04-A Chart

CRAAP+ card carryover from G8-fall with capstone-specific verdict framings (TED talks, Wikipedia, podcasts, blogs). Print-ready 11x17.

• Apply CRAAP+ to your 3 proposal sources + 2-3 new candidate sources. Keep / replace / supplement decision per source.

  scaffold CRAAP+ card (G8-fall carryover); source-portfolio template
• Identify which source-type you are missing. Use JSTOR-K12 / EBSCO / library catalog to find 1 source of the missing type.

  scaffold Database access guides; librarian on call

• Name your strongest source and why.
• Identify which source-type you still need.

• Restate: ≥5 sources of ≥3 types; CRAAP+ at mastery; research deadline week 6
• Preview lesson 5: L.8.1 verbals mastery check + voice/mood for effect

• Complete source-portfolio to ≥4 sources. Continue annotated reading log.