Google Key Word Search Lesson

Joshua Ferguson
7th Grade Computer Lab
November 12, 2009
80 minutes (2 class periods)
Connecting to This lesson will satisfy the following ISTE National Technology
Standards Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers:
What specific goals are 1)Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity
you connecting to? b)engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving
authentic problems using digital tools and resources
2)Design and develop Digital-Age learning experiences and
assessments
a)design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate
digital tools and resources to promote student learning and
creativity
c)customize and personalize learning activities to address students’
diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using
digital tools and resources

Learning Outcomes/ The objective of this lesson plan is that:

Instructional Objectives • The students will be able to effectively search on the
What is your intended internet using keywords.
learning outcome? • The students will be able to apply what they previously
As a result of this lesson have learned about creating new documents and
students will (be able to)… electronically submitting their work, to complete the
assignment.

Assessment • To assess the students’ abilities to successfully complete the

What evidence will you assigned task, I will be walking around the classroom, from
collect related to learning student to student, throughout the class work time ensuring
outcomes to document that the students are focused and engaged in the activity. I
student learning? (i.e. also will be able to answer any questions or to provide
checklist, observational additional support for students who are having difficulties.
notes, rubric to be used, • I will be able to assess the students’ understanding of the
student work, writing computer operations once I have received their work
prompt, journals, other). through email. If the email opens right up, and all of the
required documents are attached, I will know that this
How will you use this student is comfortable with the email portion of the
evidence? assignment.
• If the attached document is organized correctly, with all of
the elements in place, I will be able to assess that this
student is comfortable and proficient with the word
processing area of the lesson.
• If all of the questions are answered, the keywords are
relevant, and the URL addresses lead me to a valid source, I
will be able to assess that this student has had success and is
becoming proficient at searching and researching topics
online.

(See attached Rubric for official assessment tool)

Materials/Technolog • Each student must have a computer available with online

y access to complete the activity. They must also have
What materials/technology previously set-up a student email account to electronically
do you need for teaching submit their final work.
this lesson? • I will need a box of Trivial Pursuit cards to hand out to the
students for the questions for this activity.
• Students will be given a prepared worksheet which outlines
the assignment, offers a sample response, and outlines basic
tips to aid in their Google searches.
References
What resources did you To create and present this lesson plan, I used Google Basic Search
use to plan this lesson? Tips, as a guide and to offer additional support to the students for
(e.g. curriculum guides, their keyword searches.
bibliographic materials,
artifacts, web sites, texts http://tiny.cc/JJxS8
etc.)

Differentiation,
• Most of the students should be comfortable sending emails
Accommodation&
with attachments, and also with creating new documents
Learning Styles with Google Docs. If however they are showing difficulties,
How will you differentiate I am prepared to review previous lessons and model
in order to accommodate examples during my opening, to remind them what to do.
various learning styles or • Students who continue to have difficulties completing the
diverse needs? activity will be encouraged to come to the computer lab
after school for additional instruction.
• Also, students will be encouraged to write down their
answers and URL’s on paper as well as in their document in
the off case that they accidentally erase or misplace their
work.

Core Instruction
• I will hand out to each student a previously prepared
(methodology)
worksheet, which outlines the assignment. Also on the
Might include some or
worksheet are tips and reminders on how to effectively
all:
search the web using keywords and subjects (See attached
How and when will you
worksheet).
explain, model and
demonstrate the content? • The jist of the assignment is that each student is going to be
handed a Trivial Pursuit Card, and they are required to find
Guided Practice: How and all of the answers online. They are to complete their
when will you scaffold searches using keywords and subjects. The answers to the
student learning toward questions, along with the questions are to be recorded
small group and electronically using Google Documents. Their documents
independent practice? are also to include the keywords they used to successfully
complete their search, as well as the URL address of the
What is your strategy for relevant website where they found their correct answers.
monitoring and supporting Once all six questions, answers, keywords, and URLs have
students during guided been completed, the document is to be electronically
practice? submitted to me via email for review.
• Once the students have completed the assignment, they are
welcome to take another card for extra credit, or they are
allowed to work quietly at their computer, viewing
education related sites and content.
Closing
How will you close the • With five minutes left on the first day of the assignment, I
lesson? (e.g. summarize, will instruct the students to begin to wrap up. I realize that I
connect with prior or future must allow time for the students to properly save their
learning, examine context, work and shut down their computers. I will inform the
discuss purpose. students that next class they will be allowed the entire
period to complete the assignment. They are to begin
working on it immediately upon arrival at the next class
meeting.
• At the end of the second day of the assignment, I will
inform the students who have not finished, that they are to
come into the computer lab after school to finish up.
• I will use the last five minutes of the second class period to
summarize and assess what the students have learned. I
will also take this time to answer any questions or concerns
that the students may have regarding the activity. I will be
interested to know what they thought of the activity. Was it
fun? Was it difficult? How would they change it? What
problems did they encounter?
• If there is time left over I hope to be able to ask for
volunteers to share their final projects with their
classmates. I will be interested to hear them explain their
methods of research.
Enrichment/Extension
How will students reinforce or If successful and popular, I hope to use this Trivial Pursuit activity
extend what they learned? to in the future to continue to refine the students’ abilities to
(e.g. homework, independent effectively research and complete work electronically. If they like
practice, other enrichment) it, I think this activity has a format that could be helpful as an in-
class game or a time killer if we are ever ahead of our schedule.
Trivial Pursuit Search Project Worksheet
Find the answers to the six question listed on the Trivial Pursuit card you were handed by
using keyword searches on Google. You are to create a new document in Google
Documents and title it, Trivial Pursuit Search Project. In this document you are to list
the questions and the answers to your six Trivial Pursuit questions. Also, you must list
the keywords you used to find the answers. Finally, you must cut and paste the url
address of the web site that you located the answer at into your document.

*Your final document must be emailed to me as an attachment at

[email protected], by the end of class on Friday.
*You will have two class periods to complete this assignment and I will be
available to answer questions if you are having any difficulties.
*All elements must be present on document to receive full credit.
*Refer to Google Search Basics listed below for helpfult tips on searching.

Sample Full Credit Response

Question: What is the name of the NFL's football team in Chicago, Illinois?
Answer: Chicago Bears
Keywords: NFL, football, chicago
URL address: http://www.chicagobears.com/index.html

Google search basics: Basic search help

Search is simple: just type whatever comes to mind in the search box, hit Enter or click on
the Google Search button, and Google will search the web for pages that are relevant to
your query.
Most of the time you'll find exactly what you were looking for with just a basic query.
However the following tips can help you refine your technique to make the most of your
searches. Throughout the article, we'll use square brackets [ ] to signal queries, so [ black
and white ] is one query, while [ black ] and [ white ] are two.

Some basic facts

• Every word matters. Generally, all the words you put in the query will be used.
There are some exceptions.
• Search is always case insensitive. Searching for [ new york times ] is the same as
searching for [ New York Times ].
• With some exceptions, punctuation is ignored (that is, you can't search for @#$
%^&*()=+[]\ and other special characters).
Guidelines for better search

• Keep it simple. If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name, or as
much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for a particular concept, place,
or product, start with its name. If you're looking for a pizza restaurant, just enter
pizza and the name of your town or your zip code. Most queries do not require
advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good.
• Think how the page you are looking for will be written. A search engine is not
a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web. Use
the words that are most likely to appear on the page. For example, instead of
saying [ my head hurts ], say [ headache ], because that's the term a medical page
will use. The query [ in what country are bats considered an omen of good
luck? ] is very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not
have those words. Instead, use the query [ bats are considered good luck in ]
or even just [ bats good luck ], because that is probably what the right page will
say.
• Describe what you need with as few terms as possible. The goal of each word
in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits
the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main
advantage to starting with fewer keywords is that, if you don't get what you need,
the results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed
to refine your results on the next search. For example, [ weather cancun ] is a
simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer [
weather report for cancun mexico ].
• Choose descriptive words. The more unique the word is the more likely you are to
get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,'
'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed. Keep in mind, however, that even if the
word has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use, it may not
match the pages you need. For example, [ celebrity ringtones ] is more
descriptive and specific than [ celebrity sounds ].
 Collaborative Work Skills : Trivial Pursuit Online
Keyword Search Activity
Teacher Name: Mr. Ferguson

Student Name: ________________________________________

CATEGORY 4 3 2 1
Quality of Work All elements of Either all elements The document did not Final copy of
document are are present and include all required document not
present and accurate. accurate, or the elements and there completed and, or not
Document was document was were issues with the submitted correctly.
organized and was oraganized and organization and
also electronically submitted correctly. submission
submitted correctly. Not both though. electroinically of the
One of the areas is document.
missing.
Focus on the Consistently stays Focuses on the task Focuses on the task Rarely focuses on the
task focused on the task and what needs to and what needs to be task and what needs
and what needs to be be done most of the done some of the to be done. Needs
done. Very self- time. This person time. I must remind constantly to be
directed. Never needs to be this person more than reminded to stay
needs reminders to reminded no more once to stay on-task. focused and on-task.
stay focused or on- than once to stay on-
task. task and focused.

Date Created: Nov 12, 2009 09:51 pm (UTC)