July 4

Getting Ready for the Research Project

Today’s students will be conducting all of their research online. With all of the state standards that need to be taught, how do you teach them how to do the research? Library Learning Commons has developed quite a few good resources to assist you. The site is divided into 14 sections. Some of the sections are geared toward older students will a base knowledge of research, but with the help of an adult younger students can be successful in developing questions, selecting the types of items to find the research, locate the important information and create a project based on their findings.

The note-taking one is where I have found most useful. Under this section, it is divided into 4 areas-reference, book, journal and website source. Below each of the section is a template found in pdf and Word format that allows for modification.  The template is something that can be adapted to fit the needs of many students of various ages and abilities.

Another section that caught my eye was Developing Questions section. The available attachments are easy to follow and understand. By following the graphic on the document, students of all ages are able to create their own research questions.

This site does seem to be one that will be an additional piece to help your students. It is not one where the kids can work independently on a computer. The teacher will need to select the items that are most beneficial to their class.

 

 

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March 21

Safe Searching

With all of the researching and computer use children are doing in the schools, it seemed appropriate to locate some great child friendly search engines. Below is a list of them that have proven to be safer than some of the more popular ones adults use.

  • Kidsclick The safe little search engine that could! Conduct a safe search and watch it streamline Google safe search results for kids at home and at school.
  • Factmonster A free reference site for students, teachers, and parents.
  • Quintura Kids The first visual and intuitive search engine for children with content filter and safe browsing.
  • Ask Kids Allows users to ask a question in plain English, confirms the question, then takes them to one web site that answers the question.
  • Boolify Drag the puzzle pieces to the window and type a word in each piece. When they are place together it creates the search.

If you have others that you use and would like to share, please send me an email using the “thoughts…” field on the right side of the page. I will add them to this list.

 

Category: Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
January 19

Researching the 21st Century Way

A research project is in order. Back in the day, we would go to the library and gather information from the encyclopedia. We may copy pages and then highlight important information or write notes in the margin. Boy have times changed. Now the young researchers will go to the computer and look up information. The challenging part is that while they are trying to refine their skills of locating the important information, the pages are sprinkled with various distractions. Yet this is a task that today’s students need to learn.

Notable Capture allows you to capture a page, select areas and write notes. This will prove to be a valuable resource on many levels. As children begin research on the internet, they need to know how to read a webpage while ignoring the extra items peppering it. The screen shot below shows a webpage where the different areas have been selected. As they are selected, a comment area is available where you can add a description. (The areas inside the yellow boxes are selected. The gray box below Bald Eagle is the comment box.)  This would be great for a whole group assignment when teaching students how to read a webpage and locate the information or buttons on it.

The free portion of the site allows you to save up to ten pages in your account. The teacher would locate the resources and add the URL. This would create the screenshot. Once the students log in to your account, they would select the webpage of their group and begin working. If you were to group your students in no more than 4 people per group, you could give them items to look for on a webpage and they could add comments to sections that answer the teacher-directed questions. This would teach them how to read a webpage as well as locate information on it. Until your students are old enough to handle this task on their own, it is highly suggested this is done with adult supervision. Enlist the help of the parent volunteers that offer to assist in the classroom.

One of the best features of the site, as you are learning how to use it, is the chat feature in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Clicking on the tab automatically connects you with someone who can answer all of your questions and will lead you around the site.

How can you use this in the classroom:

  • collaborative research
  • evidence of locating information on a webpage
  • shows proof of claiming if a site valid or relevant to a given topic
  • beginning steps of a research project
  • locating main idea/details in an article
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January 18

Word Up!

Wordle is a neat way to display a student’s writing in a different way. It may not be a paragraph or have any punctuation, in fact it may not even have a sentence. It will be filled with many, many words.

What it will be is text presented in an artistic way.  The text can be adjusted by color pallete, layout and font. Once the words are placed in the window, they can be adjusted as many times as you want. The size of the word depends on the use of it. Looking at the Declaration of Independence below, government is the largest word because it has been used the most. The smaller words are used less frequently. If you were to type the words in yourself, you would type one word several more times than other words to make sure it was larger.

Another example that is similar to Wordle is Tagxedo. Tagxedo offers the same features as Wordle. It also allows the creator to select from various shapes, which will enhance the presentation of the text. Once created, if you roll over the words they become hyperlinks. Clicking on them will take you to a website where you will find more information. (This feature is only available while in the site. Once it is saved as an image, you cannot click on the words.) Below is the same text as above, The Declaration of Independence, but presented in a shape.

 

How can you use this in the classroom:

  • create list of traits about a character
  • description of vocabulary word
  • words used in a Science or Social Studies unit
  • synonyms or antonyms
  • historical documents
  • back to school activity
  • book reviews

 

 

 

 

Category: interactive white boards, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies | LEAVE A COMMENT
November 9

Past and Present

Students need to learn about history. What happened on a certain date? Who was involved? What is the significance of the instance? True, this is important to know, but what if your Past and Present lesson took a turn in a new direction….

What if your students learned about what happened on the day they were born? The day their parents, or even grandparents were born? How different was life way back when their elder was a child?

Time Capsule gives the student the opportunity to do this. They can type in a date and find out top headlines, top songs, prices of popular items, current President and Vice President, popular books-toys-shows, award winners and famous people born on this date.

Let’s take this lesson one step further. This could be a start of a great research project. Have the students select a show or toy that they never heard of.  From here, they would could find out the use or premise of it, why it was popular, if someone in their family enjoyed it, etc.

Take a step away from the traditional route of research projects and learn about what once was. Besides this project meeting needs of research and writing, it could also lead to primary interviews of people who once loved those items-as well as be a great beginning to fabulous conversations with the child’s elders.

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