English Website Evaluation: Overview 

The evaluation form PRACTICE is intended for educators to evaluate online English/Language Arts resources for their students. This wiki is dedicated explicitly to ELA teachers in grades 6-8 but can apply to English teachers of any grade level. Specifically, the acronym PRACTICE stands for Purpose, Relevance, Accuracy, Credibility, Technology, Informative, Current, and Enjoyable. This general form can be used to evaluate anything from specific tools to blogs about lesson plans, as highlighted by the solo evaluations seen on other pages of this website. This form is limited to English/Language Arts resources since tools in other classes may be subject to additional evaluation. It can be used as a quick checklist in the classroom or when lesson-planning different online resources. 

These criteria are all included on the form because of how crucial they are to understand whether a tool should be used. First, the purpose of the resource is essential; does the website's purpose align with what you, as the educator, teach in the classroom? Next, we examine the relevance of the resource. Is it accurate? Is it a credible source? Is the technology accessible and easy to use? Is it current and an enjoyable resource for the students? If we look closely, these questions are very similar to what educators ask students when they look for sources on the internet. Using the same criteria, we decided that PRACTICE would be a simple checklist to remind teachers of the essential components of a good resource.