Keywords: Learning to Focus Internet Research

Materials and Technology

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• Computers with Internet access
  
  
• One classroom computer with a projector for demonstration purposes

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PRINTOUTS

Using Keywords on the Internet student handout

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WEBSITES

• Yahoo! Kids
• How to Search the Internet Effectively
• Tips for Safe Surfing
• Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web

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PREPARATION

1.	This lesson plan is designed to accompany an essay assignment. Before or after this lesson, teach or review procedures for writing an expository or persuasive essay.
2.	Visit Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web and How to Search the Internet Effectively to review information about search engines and using keywords in a search. The latter clearly outlines the basic, most important search skills in an accessible format.
3.	Make copies of the student handout Using Keywords on the Internet, one per student.
4.	Try all of the searches in the student handout yourself, using a variety of keywords in different combinations and in different orders. Note which are more effective and why. Be prepared to model both an effective search and an ineffective search for each of the examples.
5.	Decide what search tool students will use for their Internet research. See Bare Bones 101: A Basic Tutorial on Searching the Web for a comparison of search engines. The specific examples in this lesson are based on using Yahoo! Kids, which is considered to be "kid-friendly." However, if your school network uses filtering software to block inappropriate websites, you may feel comfortable using any major search engine for the lesson. In any case, it is important to recognize that searching the Internet is never 100% safe. Search results from kid-friendly search engines might still link to a commercial site or an advertisement that is inappropriate. Therefore, before beginning the lesson you should review with students some basic guidelines for appropriate use of the Internet. You might want to display the Tips for Safe Surfing website to the class and read through the guidelines provided on the site.
6.	Connect your computer to a projector so students can watch you model the search strategies.

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