2nd Grade Internet Research: Teacher Prep

Summary

Today, we’ll do some web quests together based on topics your students will be researching.

Our goal is to save links to the best sites we find in “comments” beneath this “blog post” on this website. Next week we will have your students search for specific information within those sites.

Here is a sample research activity for a class session:

Nonfiction Unit Research Process:

• List guiding questions (2nd grade: Where do Bengal Tigers live?)
• Write out key words to search with (Bengal Tigers Habitat; or Bengal Tigers Home)
• Select sites to search from pre-screened sites collected by teachers (either linked from the school website, or within the K-5 custom search engine; advanced exercise can have kids search within the websites below)

Today, teachers will gather approved websites using search engines such as:

• K-5 Custom Search Engine;
• http://www.askforkids.com;
• http://www.kidsclick.org/;
• http://www.kidsites.com/;
• American Library Assoc. (http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm)

Ideas to present during research lesson

• What is the Internet?
• Why do we use the Internet?
• What is a web address?
• What is a web site?
• What is a search engine?
• What are key words?
• What is an ad, and what is the content?
• Who is the author (will accept the title of the site)?

Future activities for teachers:

• Set up a webquest at http://webquest.org
• Join the K-5 custom search engine project and add your own sites
• Collect and store strong websites on a shared PS130 Delicious.com account
• Post sites you like to the school website

Also to discuss in today’s meeting:

Science research (April) Simple slideshow presentations: Google Presentations (Powerpoint online) OR Voicethread Presentations