Legitimate Resources for the Classroom

Lately, it seems like a hot topic again in Education blogs and Google Circles to look at finding good resources for student research in the classroom. As a former English teacher, it seems as though I've never left the conversation about finding good articles for the classroom. Whether it is sourcing information or just finding legitimate information for your classroom, it is going to be a never-ending topic as our resources are ever-changing. Although, who doesn't love a good article about a Tree Octopus?

The resource I want to share with you is a tutorial that was adapted out of the University of Wyoming and it is one of the best I've seen for students doing research. The students can go through each piece on their own or you could project it on the board and have them discuss as you show them the tutorial's slides.

Now, not only are "good" resources hard to find, so is making sure that students reference all of their work properly and are not plagiarizing.  In our school system, we have been using EasyBib for years for students to cite their work, but it's important that students do not just auto-cite all of the resources. Instead, they have to make sure that they are putting in all of the relevant information that they can find from the website. And, if you can't find all of the information, maybe you need to re-evaluate the website for it's legitimacy.

Use Better Searches for Better Results- Handout

Use Better Searches for Better Results 

**Adapted from Google Teacher Workshop Materials

“ “ Exact Phrase in Quotes: Search for an exact phrase.

What to type: “one small step for man”

What you’ll get: results that include the exact phrase “one small step for man”

- Excluded Words: Excludes certain words or phrases from your search.

            What to type: bass –fishing

            What you’ll get: results about bass that aren’t related to fishing

OR Multiple Words: Searches for webpages that include either word

            What to type: vacation London OR Paris

            What you’ll get: results with “vacation” and either “London” or “Paris”

… Numerical Ranges: Searches for a range of numbers (works with dates too)

            What to type: Willie Mays 1950… 1960

            What you’ll get: Results about Willie Mays during this time period

site:  Site Specific Search: Searches only particular websites

            What to type: Common core site:edu

            What you’ll get: References to common core found on .edu websites

After going to ‘Google’ and typing your term in the search bar, look on left side bar next to results and click on “Show Search Tools” below the search narrowing links.

Timely information: Click on a time range to determine the parameters of when the information you request was published.

Images Sites: You can search only sites with images to find visual aids for class with information.

Related Searches: Not sure what you could search related to your topic? Click on this to get a list.

Dictionary: Great for vocab and defining difficult terms and getting visual aids immediately.

Nearby: Has someone nearby our location provided information on this topic?

Translated Foreign Pages:  Doing research? Google will search sites in other languages for you too!

After going to ‘Google’ and typing in your term in the search bar, a “gear” will appear on the upper right hand corner of your search results. You can click on this “gear” to get to advanced search and start to look for just PowerPoints, PDFs or different creative commons options as well. Please let me know if you would like to learn more. Happy Searching!