Google Search Strategies

I've been working with my 21st Century Learning students on search strategies.  We started with a hoax site and learned that we can't trust everything on the web.  We decided that we should have some background knowledge using a book or a subscription database because we know how those are created before we head out to the world wide web.  Once we have some background knowledge from a trusted resource, we choose a search engine and work to find the information we want for our research.  We use some of these search strategies:


GFC.Learnfree.org is a great resource that I just learned about.  They have cheat sheets and other kid friendly resources like this on their site: 

I was thrilled to learn about searching for images and sorting them based on their copyright and permissions.  This screen shot shows you how to search for images that you have permission to use.  

















You can also search and sort by reading level to differentiate for your students using these search tools:





















Use some of these simple tools and strategies to help your students become savvy internet users!  

You Might Be a Geeky Teacher If You Like to Use Hoax Sites to Teach Website Evaluation.

In this day and age when anyone with access to the internet can create a website, it is critical that we as educators teach our students how to evaluate web content. There are some great resources available for educating students on this matter, such as RADCAB, CRAP (and CRAP Rubric) Kathy Schrock’s Five W’s of Website Evaluation, Joyce Valenza's CARRDS or the University of Southern Maine’s Checklist for Evaluating Websites.

Along with checklists and articles, you will also find wonderfully funny hoax websites, aimed at testing readers on their ability to evaluate websites. These hoax sites are a great way to bring humor and hands-on evaluation into your classroom, and test your students’ web resource evaluation IQ!

Check out these 11 example hoax sites for use in your own classrooms:

1. All About Explorers

1. Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division

1. California’s Velcro Crop Under Challenge

1. Feline Reactions to Bearded Men

1. Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

1. Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie

1. British Stick Insect Foundation

1. The Jackalope Conspiracy

1. Buy Dehydrated Water

1. Republic of Molossia

1. Dog Island

One of my favorites is always the Dihydrogen Monoxide website, which aims to ban dihydrogen monoxide and talks in detail about its dangers. Only after a few minutes did I catch that dihydrogen monoxide, is after all, H2O!

I am starting the Explorer Unit with my 4th and 5th Graders.  We are launching in edmodo and here is a tutorial for start the unit.  I actually have a substitute and love to use a screencast when I have a sub.  This time I used Screencastomatic.  I also like Screenr.  All About Explorers has lessons, lesson plans and websites with incorrect information.  The students completely fell for using the sites for researching their explorers.  They then have to learn to search the right way and evaluate websites and information sources that they can trust.  In the end, they email the webmaster and ask them to correct the incorrect information based on their research.  It is such an important conversation to have with students.  

Happy Hoax Hunting!