1. Selecting Appropriate Websites The Study of World Communities Session 2 of 8

2. Focusing Questions How can I use social studies keywords to help find appropriate websites for my students to research? Which websites, directories, and free databases can I use to conduct the study?

3. Instruction

4. Framing The Session When we want to choose appropriate websites for our students, these are some questions we might ask ourselves. Which country are we going to study? Which websites have credible information? Which websites will have answers to my students’ questions? Which websites are appropriate for my students to read?

5. Teaching Search Google for information about the types of food they eat in Nigeria. There are too many sites for me to look through. How can I refine my search? I will use different keywords and phrases. I will also place the phrases in quotes so the search engine looks for the whole phrase.  I will use the Advanced Search screen. I will try adding the word children to the list of search terms I will limit the language to English I may choose to limit the domains to.gov,.org, or edu

6. Teaching Other Search Engines… http://Ask.com http://clusty.com http://altavista.com http://yahoo.com http://kartoo.comhttp://kartoo.com –meta search engine http://dogpile.comhttp://dogpile.com – meta search engine http://ujiko.comhttp://ujiko.com – meta search engine http://www.kidsclick.orghttp://www.kidsclick.org – for kids,monitored by librarians

7. Guided Practice Choose another country from your curriculum. Now it is your turn to try. Using the same research topics from Session 1,search and identify as many Web sites as you can for your next country. Copy and paste the links into Microsoft Word. You can add notes next to them to remind you why you chose it. Remember, you are looking for the answers to the questions generated by your students.

8. Work Time

9. Getting Started Take the next 30 minutes to choose one a country and search for websites that will be appropriate for your students.

10. Work Time Participants will choose a search engine to begin to research their country. Refine your search by using different phrases and keywords that relate to the country of study. Use the advanced search feature of the search engine you are using to refine your search. Make sure your students can read the information on the website.

11. Share

12. Today we learned how to use an advanced search and a Boolean search to find appropriate websites for students. What tools did you find helpful during your search? What keywords illicit a manageable number of websites? How will this help you guide your students through the research of their projects? Share

13. What did you do? Share

14. How does this work address the questions that began the session? Answers

15. For more information Office of Instructional Technology oittc@schools.nyc.gov www.nyc.gov/schools