[LM_NET] HIT: Creative ways to Teach Internet Research

[Teresa Tartaglione <thisisteresat@GMAIL.COM>]

Thank you all so much for sharing such wonderful information with me!  I
wound up focusing on website domains, search terms, quotation marks, website
reliability and then we played the Google Game (I gave out chocolate to the
winners!).  The kids were really into it, the teacher loved the lesson and I
didn’t feel bored teaching it!  Everybody wins!  I would be happy to share
my power point presentation as well as the other documents other LM-NET
users shared with me—just send me an email at thisisteresat@gmail.com.



Thanks again,



Teresa Tartaglione

Teacher-Librarian

Louis D. Brandeis High School

New York, NY 10024



Original Post:



Hello All:



I teach a 9-12 population where most students are below grade level in their
reading and writing and their comprehension.  I have been asked to teach a
lesson on internet research for a class of mid-level ESL studenst--I am
becoming bored to tears with my internet research lessons!  I am hoping some
of you will be willing to share some creative ideas on how you teach about
reliability, domains, key words, etc. to help me jazz things up a bit.  I
will post a hit if there is interest!



Thanks so much in advance!



Teresa Tartaglione

Teacher-Librarian

Louis D. Brandeis High School

New York, NY 10024



There are some interactive tutorials and "search challenges" on the 21st
century Information Fluency page that might be fun.

http://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/

http://21cif.com/tutorials/micro/

http://21cif.com/index.html



Also the "Google Game" from School Library Journal.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555545.html



Teresa,
I talked to my 8th graders about the different domains and what you can find
there, .com .edu .gov .net etc.
We talked about a ~ meaning it is a personal website and may not be reliable
for information.
I taught them to use Advance search or at least site operators like site:gov
or site: edu added to their search term to find more reputable websites to
use in their research, and help narrow the number of hits.
Then we played the Google Game (find the answer to the question with the
fewest number of hits by combining keyword search terms and limiters) which
you may be familiar with. The only problem I had was finding questions to
use. I finally found that our WorldBookOnlineReferenceCenter had a great
list of questions I could just choose from. It is in their Media Showcase
archives. They also have quizzes available on various topics.
Good luck!



Teresa,

I teach lessons to our 6th grade students based on two books.  "RAD CAB You
Vehicle for Information Evaluation" by Karen Christensson, and "Consider the
Source Finding Reliable Information on the Internet" by Paige Taylor and
Jerri Lejeune.  The RADCAB acronym stands for relevancy, appropriateness,
detail, currency, authority and bias. It was easy to use but kept students
busy and engaged.  I mainly used the format and flow from RADCAB and added
in bits and pieces from the other title.



I love showing them bogus websites, relating websites to Facebook and
myspace and how they can post anything on their own sites, well so can
anyone else.  The google game, that you can google is a fun way to teach
searching.

we have had students create the list for what makes a website reliable -
how to identify, select a "good" website for a SCHOOL assignment
judge/compare two websites (online or printed)
site those sources
google game for learning advanced google strategies (school library
journal may 2008)

To teach Boolean search, I explain Boolean operators/Google advanced search
since they MUST google.  I ask everyone wearing khakis (or whatever) to
stand up in front.  You can use eye color, number of brothers or sisters or
whatever if you wear uniforms.  I then broaden the search with the OR
operator, narrow it with AND or NOT until we get down to one student left
standing in front.  I then have them run through it a few times until they
have it.  They remember this and I see a lot more advanced searching.  I do
throw in domain and key words as well as search by format.



I start the lesson by comparing the number of hits in Google with the number
in a database, telling them I know they don't want to spend one more second
on their assignment than is necessary.  This will cut down on their homework
time.  We also compare directories and databases and search engines, but
nothing inspired on those sections, so please post a hit.  TIA

suggest you check out www.thinkfinity.org and examine some of the many
lessons posted there.  I always find interesting things to do on
the Internet when I search this database.  I also love the idea of exploring
LOC's American Memory databases.  I don't have enough computer access to do
all that I would like to do, but if I did there are many things I would do
using LOC resources.

Have a look in some of the link areas at



http://www.shambles.net/informationliteracy/

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