Online Research

Some of my favorite information literacy skills lessons to teach are about online research.  It's an important skill to develop and it's never too early to start.  I cover online research with third, fourth and fifth graders beginning in October because October is Cyber Safety month and it fits nicely in that arena. This year, I broke it up into three different lessons:  1) Surfing the 'Net for Information 2) Evaluating and Citing Your Sources and 3) Note Taking.

 Here are some of the PowerPoints I used for those lessons:

Click HERE to download this PowerPoint freebie.

Click HERE to download this PowerPoint freebie.

Click HERE to download this PowerPoint freebie.

I also handout an information sheet that contains website address and information on evaluating websites to go along with our lessons.  I encourage students to keep these at home near their computer to refer to.    If you download a free copy of the handout by clicking HERE or on the picture above.

To help students practice evaluating websites, we take a look at a couple of different hoax websites and go through the process of evaluating the AUTHOR, AUDIENCE, CONTENT, and CURRENCY.  There are tons of hoax websites out there; some are really hilarious and some are very realistic.  Here are some of my favorites:

All About Explorers   http://allaboutexplorers.com/

Help Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

Dihydrogen Monoxide  http://www.dhmo.org/

Do you have any fun ideas for teaching online research to elementary students?