I Search a Word
Teacher Page

Goals:

• Students will learn to use databases and search engines to locate information on the Internet.

• Students will learn to properly cite references located on the Internet.

• Students will learn to evaluate the quality of materials located on the Internet.

• Students will write a narrative explaining the process of their research.

• Students will report what they have learned doing the project.

• Students will evaluate their own learning and the value of the project itself.

This project meets 7 of the 8 following National Standards as published by NCRL for English/Language Arts:

1.Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process
2.Demonstrates competence in the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing
3.Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions
4.Gathers and uses information for research purposes
5.Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the reading process
6.Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of literary texts
7.Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies for reading a variety of informational texts

The project also meets the following standards as published by NCRL for Technology:

1.Knows the characteristics and uses of computer hardware and operating systems
2.Knows the characteristics and uses of computer software programs 
5.Understands the nature and operation of systems

Teacher Preparation:

Before presenting this project to students you will need to become familiar with several of the sites students will be visiting.

Search engines are the students' first method of searching for information on the Internet.  The basic rule regarding them is "if at first you don't succeed, try another search engine."  I would suggest you begin with Google, Yahoo, Yahooligans, and Ask Jeeves and then move on to AltaVista and HotBot.

Important Note:  Students new to the Internet will need instruction in using keywords in a search.  They will need to learn to put titles of books in quotation marks ("Bartlett's Quotations") and use authors' names ("Shakespeare, William") in reverse order and also in quotations.   Students may want to use the abstract noun they have chosen as the keyword in the search engine.  Teachers need to emphasize that they are looking for various kinds of resources and not for the abstract nouns at this point in their research.  Once they get to the databases, since they are using single words, they should not have too much trouble at that point.

Students may need some help in finding sites on the Internet. Give them a chance to find them on their own.  Once you gage that they are beginning to get frustrated, lead them to locations on the web.

There is a good general "resources of the web" location:  http://www.dogpile.com

Bible references can be found by using "Books On-Line" as a keyword search at Yahoo, AltaVista, and Excite.  Once they get there they will need to look for the subject, Religion/Christianity, and Bible to get to the point where they can search for their word.  Have your students look for a "searchable Bible."  They will find one.

Bartlett's Quotations can be located at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby

Thesaurus and Dictionary can be located at http://www.m-w.com .

Poetry can be located at two locations:  http://www.lit.kobe-u.ac.jp/~hishika/searchpoem.htm and at http://library.utoronto.ca/htbin/rptitles

Newspapers can be located at: http://www.gt.kth.se/publishing/news.html  This site includes newspapers from around the world currently on the web.

General References, which includes Dictionaries, Maps, Encyclopedias, and many other research sources can be located at: http://www.Langenberg.Com   Be sure your students read the information at the left side of the page.  They can click on dictionaries, maps, etc.

Last updated on
04/20/2003

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