Skills+and+Strategies

Students need a variety of skills for searching on the Internet. They need the knowledge that different types of search engines, databases, invisible web resources, and directories exist, and they need to know how to access and use these searching tools. //(Go to Research Portal for access to these.)// This requires them to have a specific vocabulary to understand Internet and Web jargon, and it requires students to have navigation skills on the Internet, such as navigating multi-laered websites and hyperlinks, understanding using multiple open tabs, minimizing and maximizing, moving forward and back, knowing how to copy and paste addresses, just to name a few. Also, students need to be able to brainstorm and question themselves or collaboratively, to decide appropriate places to search, as well as key words, phrases, and questions to use as tags for searching. This also requires them to be cognizant of operators for searching, such as parenthesis, quotations, plus, minus, and Boolean logic operators to refine and narrow searches. What is also needed is a set of habits to make the researcher successful. These include persistence, focus, curiosity, wonder, metacognition, and patience. These habits keep the work from being superficial. In addition to having searching skills on the Internet, students need to be able to evaluate and synthesize the information they find. This requires a whole set of skills, only partially developed by traditional offline research. Students need to have basic, traditional reading skills like ** skimming ** and ** scanning, ** but they also have to be able to move through online pages by ** scrolling **, or when comparing different pieces side by side, they have to understand how to have ** multiple tabs ** open. Once they have found materials and skimmed and scanned through them, they need to ** evaluate ** them for usability. This is a two-fold process. First, is the information useful in terms of evaluating the information to see if it meets the original information need, and second, is the information ** reliable ** or ** credible **. Can the learner validate the information through more than one source, confirming the position, and can the learner determine the author or source of information and whether it is in itself reliable or biased. At this point the learner must also decide if the information he has found will mean he needs to ** revise ** the topic or revise the search queries. Once satisfied to this point with the content and reliability of the research, the student has to do something with the information he is gathering. Here is where Web 2.0 tools will become helpful. First, he will want to make sure he can get back to his source, so he must be able to ** communicate and store web addresses **. This can be effectively done using a copy and paste format for notes, as well as using a tool such as Noodletools.com to prepare a bibliography and take notes. Once he is sure he has accurately stored that information electronically, he must be able to take notes on the information. ** Note-taking **skills are necessary so the child understands how to ** synthesize ** the information into his own language and understanding to avoid plagiarism, as well as how to ** organize ** the information for the purpose of his product. The strategies for teaching these skills have to occur over the course of a child’s education. There can be no expectation that a teacher can do all of this in the course of one research event. However, with that in mind, the strategies to teach and assess these lessons would include a lot of questioning – including ** questions I would be posing ** to move the students forward and to have them think about their thinking, and ** questions for the students to ask themselves ** as they proceed through the process. I will also set up a ** Wallwisher board **for students to post questions they have for me as well as ** reflective thoughts ** they want to share with me, that I can then incorporate into my lessons as we continue. I will ** create a research portal ** using Wikispaces, and I will also ** introduce them to ** the research engines available on ** Noodletools **. I can ** model ** a search for them and ** think aloud ** my way through it, so that they can “see” my thinking in action and hopefully copy some of it. I will also show them how to ** identify patterns and trends ** and get rid of superfluous information. I will have to introduce them to ** note-taking ** on Noodletools, as well as creating a ** bibliography ** there as well. This would again be done through modeling, perhaps student modeling at this point. ** Assessment ** would be ongoing throughout the unit (with the Wallwisher hopefully giving me feedback as well); I would need that formative feedback of course. However, I envision a rubric that students could use for self-reflection throughout the process, and one I would use as a summative tool as well.

|| **  Standards  ** ** (ISTE NETS-S, AASL or MTTLS)  **  ||  **  Online Tools & Resources  **  ||  **  Strategy/Application (with rationale & student assessment information)  **  || ISTE 6 a,b ||  www.noodletools.com  ||  Rationale: Students need to know that different seach engines will return different information, and that certain types of databases, directories, engines, etc… may offer richer results based upon the topic of search. Strategy: Strategy: Introduce students to Noodletools, as this Web 2.0 tool offers information on choosing the best search engines, as well as introduces them to all types of search options. Assessment: Require students to use a variety of search avenues for assignment, with a reflection piece on how the knowledge of and use of those avenues aided in the search process. || Strategy: Always use authentic vocabulary with students. Create a word wall with web vocabulary to reinforce instruction. Assessment: Students will be responsible for using authentic vocabulary in the educational setting and incorporate vocabulary usage in formative assessments and reflection pieces. || Strategy: As part of a lab activity, model and have students mimic a number of these skills while they are watching them presented on the Smart Board. Walk around the room and have students perform navigating features as I randomly ask them to. || Strategy: Introduce students to Noodletools, as this Web 2.0 tool offers information on choosing the best search engines, as well as “Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need” introduces them to all types of search options. || **  Research Skills  **  ||  **  Standards  ** ** (ISTE NETS-S, AASL or MTTLS)  **  ||  **  Online Resources  **  ||  **  Strategy/Application (with rationale & student assessment information)  **  || Scrolling Multiple Tabs ||  ISTE 3 a,b,d  ||   ||  Rationale: In order for students to see if content of a web page will be useful, students need to be able to look for key words and phrases as well as skim paragraphs for main ideas. Students also need to be able to scroll quickly through an article, and sometimes they need to be able to compare information on pages. Strategy:  || 3 b,c 5a ||   ||  Rationale: Students need to be able to determine whether the information is educationally sound. Strategy: Teacher will provide students with a graphic organizer with preselected web sites for students to proceed to, navigating the site to look for author/publisher information. Teacher, if needed, will model one for students where she finds “about us” information and perhaps one where there is no form of authentication. Teacher will also reinforce the principle that students should be able to duplicate authentic information from another credible resource. Assessment: From the sites given on the organizer, students will have to select which sites they believe would be considered authentic. || 4 a,b,c,d 5 a ||   ||  Rationale: Students need to be able to revise search queries, but they also in the researching phase need to have the sophistication to revise topics or even their initial beliefs as evidence begins to show them contrary evidence. || ISTE 3 b,c,d ISTE 6 a,b ||  Noodletools.com Wallwisher.com || Rationale: Once a student has found information that he believes will be useful, he needs to be able to get back to the source at a later time, as well as provide evidence of the source through a bibliography. Strategy: Teacher will model copying and pasting of web addresses, as well as introduce the students to using a tool such as Noodletools.com to prepare a bibliography and take notes. Assessment: Students will copy and paste URLs with comments to a Wallwisher board the teacher sets up for this purpose. Noodletools will then help them create works cited lists, which they will turn in as part of the final project. || ISTE 5 a    ISTE 6 a,b  ||   ||  Rationale: Note-taking skills are necessary so the child understands how to synthesize the information into his own language and understanding to avoid plagiarism, as well as how to organize the information for the purpose of his product. Strategy:  || Notes:
 * ** Description of Searching Skills  **
 * Being knowledgeable of various search engines, databases, invisible web resources, directories AND knowing how to access them ||  ISTE 3 a,b,c
 * Specific vocabulary to understand Web jargon ||  ISTE 2b, 5a  ||   ||  Rationale: Knowing how to access and use searching tools and knowing how to navigate the Internet requires a certain set of vocabulary and Web jargon.
 * Navigation skills on the Internet ||  ISTE 3 a,c  ||   ||  Rationale: Students need to be able to navigate multi-layered websites and hyperlinks, understand how to use multiple open tabs, minimizing and maximizing, moving forward and back, and knowing how to copy and paste web addresses
 * Know where to search and how to search and how to hone searches. ||  ISTE 3a, 4a, 6c  ||  www.noodletools.com  ||  Rationale: Students need to be able to brainstorm and question themselves, or collaboratively, to decide appropriate places to search, as well as key words, phrases, and questions to use as tags for searching, including being cognizant of operators for searching, such as Boolean operators, quotes, parenthesis, plus, minus, etc… to narrow searches.
 * ** Description of   **
 * Skimming Scanning
 * Evaluate information for reliability or credibility ||  ISTE 2a,
 * Revision skills ||  ISTE
 * Ability to communicate and store web addresses ||  ISTE 2 a,b
 * Note-taking skills ||  ISTE 3 b,c,d