The Journalistic Six Rubric (2 of 4)

This page is intended for instructors only and should not be published.

This rubric is based on the "Journalistic Six," or the six basic questions journalists are trained to answer when gathering information for a story: who, what, where, when, how, and why.

Students can use questions in the left column below to evaluate sources they find online. Instructors may use or adapt the rubric below to rate students' ability to use the "Journalistic Six."

	Capstone - 3	Average - 2	Benchmark - 1
Who? Who is involved?	The student identifies who is involved by providing details from the source.	The student identifies who is involved but does not provided details from the source.	The student does not identify who is involved.
What? What happened?	The student describes what is happening in the source by providing details.	The student describes what is happening in the source but does not provide details.	The student does not describe what is happening in the source.
Where? Where is it published?	The student identifies where the source/story is published and is able to verify the source.	The student identifies where the source/story is published but does not verify the source.	The student does not identify where the source/story is published and does not describe the validity of the source.
When? When did it happen?	The student clearly identifies when the source is published / when the story takes place by using other sources to verify the date.	The student approximates when the source is published/when the story takes place, but doesn't use other sources to verify the date.	The student does not state when the source was published / when the story takes place.
Why? Why did it happen?	The student identifies why the story happened by providing details from the source.	The student identifies why the story happened, but does not provide details from the source.	The student does not identify why the story happened and does not provide details from the source.
How? How did it happen?	The student describes how the story happened by giving key details from the source.	The student describes how the story happened but does not give key details from the source.	The student does not identify how the story happened and does not give key details from the source.

Click the "Next" button to continue through the "Rubrics for Evaluating Student Work" Module.