SEARCHING ONLINE SMARTLY
By Tara Dale
Adapted from Google Lesson
Plans
January, 2016
WE’VE NOTICED THAT YOU GUYS…
o
type entire questions into your search engine, such as Google.
o don’t click on the websites that the search engine suggests.
o only read the little summaries from the suggested websites that
appear.
o give up easily and say, “I can’t find it” or “It’s not online”.
1. What are you guilty of doing when you search online? Document it
on your paper.
WE NEED TO FIX THESE ISSUES. WE NEED TO
TEACH YOU…
o
how to search for answers without typing in the entire question.
o not to give up so easily. Your boss isn’t going to be happy with
you if you tell him all the time, “I can’t find it” or “The answer
isn’t there”. You have to be tenacious…keep trying!!!!
o to read more than just Google’s results page.
o that Google isn’t a source of evidence. It’s only a search engine!
LET ME SHOW YOU WHY USING THE INTERNET IS
SO VERY DIFFICULT…
Let’s pretend that you were creating a test about Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson
book series.
One of the questions you write is “What food does Tyson like best?”
Most people type in the exact question: [What food does tyson like best] The
next slide shows the results.
NOTE 1: Google doesn’t care about capital letters. Case is ignored.
NOTE 2: Google doesn’t care about most punctuation. It’s almost always
ignored. An example of an exception is if you were looking for information
about C++ programming.
2. Make two
observations
about the
bolded words
that Google
provided in the
summaries.
WHAT WENT WRONG?
3. What did we do wrong? Why did Tyson Foods appear?
Remember: we typed [what food does tyson like best].
NOTE 3: When you write a search query, you put it in brackets so people know that is
what you searched. You do NOT put the brackets into the search.
HOW DO YOU PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING?
Are you ready for this? This is going to be a
researchers do.
answer but this is what good
You have to search using words that you would find in the answer, not the words that
you find in the question. You have to kind of know the answer to find the answer! You
have to think backwards.
We told you it was going to be
. It requires a lot of thinking (Mrs. Dale loves
this) and will make you use parts of your brain that you might not be currently using.
FROM GOOGLE HIMSELF…
While watching this video, answer question 4 on your answer packet.
4. Matt doesn’t type [how fast does a cheetah run] into Google. What does he type
to search for his answer?
Click here for the video.
WHAT DID MATT DO DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU?
Most of you type in the entire question. But we saw what crazy and unrelated results that
gives us when we searched for Tyson’s food preferences.
Matt typed in only search terms. Let’s do some vocabulary.
1.
Search Terms – key words that you want the search engine to find; are usually nouns
2.
Queries – the full set of words you type into Google to perform your search
5 and 6. Write these definitions in your answer key. We’ll be using them a lot going forward.
WHAT ELSE DID MATT DO?
In addition to typing in only search terms, his query included words that he would find in the answer.
A website that is describing how fast a cheetah runs won’t use the word ‘fast’. This is why Matt couldn’t type
[how fast does a cheetah run].
A website that describes how fast a cheetah runs will write a sentence like this, “Cheetahs have a running
speed of more than 60 miles per hour.”
Therefore, Matt included the search terms [cheetah], [running], [speed]. He had to turn his question into an
answer. It’s not “how fast does a cheetah run?” but instead “cheetahs have a running speed of”. It’s not a
question, it’s a statement of fact.
7. Explain the difference between “how fast does a cheetah run” and “cheetahs have a running speed of”.
LET’S APPLY WHAT WE LEARNED…
The test question was “What food does Tyson like best?”
There are four steps you can take to change this question into a query.
Step 1: Circle key words that will be your search terms. These are usually nouns.
8. What is step 1 for changing a question into a query? Write the example given.
LET’S APPLY WHAT WE LEARNED…
Step 2: Underline “maybe” words. Offer synonyms or replacement terms.
“Maybe” words are words that may or may not be in the answer even though
they are in the question. Usually it’s best to replace these words with words
that will be in the answer.
9. What is step 2 for changing a question into a query? Write the example given.
LET’S APPLY WHAT WE LEARNED…
Step 3: Add missing words.
When you add missing words, you are making the search more specific.
Remember that Tyson Foods originally came up. What could we add to our
query to ensure Tyson Foods doesn’t appear this time?
10. What is step 3 for changing a question into a query? Write the example given.
LET’S APPLY WHAT WE LEARNED…
Step 4: Ignore unnecessary words and punctuation.
All articles will almost always be unnecessary, such as ‘the’, ‘an’, ‘and’, and ‘a’.
11. What is step 4 for changing a question into a query? Write the example given.
OUR NEW QUERY: [FOOD TYSON FAVORITE PERCY
JACKSON]. AND HERE ARE OUR NEW RESULTS:
12. Make an
observation
about the results
that Google
provides. You
want to focus on
the websites
Google found
and the bolded
words Google
highlighted.
TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Follow the four steps to change this
question into a query:
13. My three-year-old cow has blisters
on its tongue. What is wrong with it?
You have a few minutes and then I’ll
show you the answer on the next slides.
TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 1: Circle key words so they can
be search terms.
13. My three-year-old
cow has blisters on its
tongue. What is wrong
with it?
TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 2: Underline “maybe” words. Add
synonyms.
13. My three-year-old
cow has blisters on its
tongue. What is wrong
sick
with it?
TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 3: Add missing words.
13.
My
three-year-old
Cattle?
cow has blisters on its
tongue. What is wrong
sick
with it?
TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 4: Remove unnecessary words and
punctuation.
Cattle? 13.
My three-year-old
cow has blisters on its
tongue. What is wrong
sick
with it?
TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
What is the query that you would type
into Google?
THE RESULTS
ARE IN!
We’ll have a class
discussion about the
usefulness of these cites
that Google found.
PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Follow the four steps to change this
question into a query:
14. Can people earn money for tossing
pizza dough?
You have a few minutes and then I’ll
show you the answer on the next slides.
PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 1: Circle key words so they can
be search terms.
14. Can people earn
money for tossing pizza
dough?
PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 2: Underline “maybe” words and
write down synonyms.
professionals
14. Can people earn
money for tossing pizza
dough?
PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 3: Add missing words – we couldn’t
think of any for this example.
professionals
14. Can people earn
money for tossing pizza
dough?
PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 4: Remove unnecessary words and
punctuation.
professionals
14. Can people earn
money for tossing pizza
dough?
PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
What is the query that you would type
into Google?
THE RESULTS
ARE IN!
We’ll have a class
discussion about the
usefulness of these cites
that Google found.
PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Follow the four steps to change this
question into a query:
15. I heard there is an empty town in
the San Francisco Bay. What is it
called?
You have a few minutes and then I’ll
show you the answer on the next slides.
PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 1: Circle key words so they can
be search terms.
15. I heard there is an
empty town in the
San Francisco Bay.
What is it called?
PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 2: Underline “maybe” words and
add synonyms.
15. I heard there is an
Ghost town
empty town in the
San Francisco Bay.
What is it called?
PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 3: Add missing words – there
aren’t any that we could think of.
15. I heard there is an
Ghost town
empty town in the
San Francisco Bay.
What is it called?
PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
Step 4: Delete any unnecessary words
and punctuation.
15. I heard there is an
Ghost town
empty town in the
San Francisco Bay.
What is it called?
PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS…
What is the query that you would type
into Google?
THE RESULTS
ARE IN!
We’ll have a class
discussion about the
usefulness of these cites
that Google found.
WE NEED TO FIX THESE ISSUES. WE NEED TO
TEACH YOU…
o
how to search for answers without typing in the entire question.
o not to give up so easily. Your boss isn’t going to be happy with
you if you tell him all the time, “I can’t find it” or “The answer
isn’t there”. You have to be tenacious…keep trying!!!!
o to read more than just Google’s results page.
o that Google isn’t a source of evidence. It’s only a search engine!
WHAT IF YOUR QUERY DOESN’T WORK? YOU NEED
DIFFERENT SEARCH TERMS…DIFFERENT VOCABULARY
WORDS…HERE IS HOW TO DO JUST THAT…
Build a Vocabulary Web – 4 easy steps
1. Place the main search term in the middle of your paper and put a
circle around it.
2. Write down specific examples of your main search term. Place them
around the main search term and put them in their own circle. Draw
a line connecting the main search term to each of the examples.
3. What words do you think of when you look at your examples? Write
those down around the examples. Place them in their own circle and
draw a line connecting the example to the words you jotted down.
4. Add synonyms for all the words you wrote down in your web.
AN EXAMPLE…COMMUNITY HELPERS
Step 1: Place the main search term in the middle of your paper
and put a circle around it.
community helpers
AN EXAMPLE…COMMUNITY HELPERS
Step 2: Write down specific examples of your main search term.
Place them around the main search term and put them in their own
circle. Draw a line connecting the main search term to each of the
examples.
librarians
doctors
community helpers
police
AN EXAMPLE…COMMUNITY HELPERS
Step 3: What words do you think of when you look at your
examples? Write those down around the examples. Place them in
their own circle and draw a line connecting the example to the
words you jotted down.
literacy
healthy
doctors
medicine
librarians
sick
community helpers
Find information
police
safe
law
AN EXAMPLE…COMMUNITY HELPERS
Step 4: Add synonyms for all the words you wrote down in your
web.
reading
literacy
ill
sick
healthy
doctors
medicine
antibiotics
librarians
community helpers
protect
Find information
locate
cops
police
police officers
safe
law
AN EXAMPLE…COMMUNITY HELPERS
Look at all of the words you can add to your query to help you find
the answers you are looking for!!!! But you can’t put all of them in
at the same time! You can’t demand too much.
reading
literacy
ill
sick
healthy
doctors
medicine
antibiotics
community helpers
protect
librarians
Find information
locate
cops
police
police officers
safe
law
PRACTICE WEB #1
16. Using the four steps, make a vocabulary web using ‘immigrant’ as your main
search term. Here’s the first step to get you started:
immigrant
Work on this for a few minutes and then we’ll show what we came up with when we
did it as a group. The four steps are on the next slide…
4 STEPS FOR BUILDING A VOCABULARY WEB
1. Place the main search term in the middle of your paper and put a
circle around it.
2. Write down specific examples of your main search term. Place them
around the main search term and put them in their own circle. Draw
a line connecting the main search term to each of the examples.
3. What words do you think of when you look at your examples? Write
those down around the examples. Place them in their own circle and
draw a line connecting the example to the words you jotted down.
4. Add synonyms for all the words you wrote down in your web.
PRACTICE WEB #1
Here’s what we created but yours will probably be very different and that’s OK as
long as you followed the steps.
famine
starvation
Religious persecution
foreigner
Push factor
disease
illness
epidemic
alien
immigrant
Religious
freedom
occupations
jobs
Pull factor
PRACTICE WEB #2
17. Using the four steps and pages 631-7 in your textbook, make a vocabulary web
using ‘economy’ as your main search term. Here’s the first step to get you started:
economy
Work on this for a few minutes and then we’ll show what we came up with when we
did it as a group. The four steps are on the next slide…
4 STEPS FOR BUILDING A VOCABULARY WEB
1. Place the main search term in the middle of your paper and put a
circle around it.
2. Write down specific examples of your main search term. Place them
around the main search term and put them in their own circle. Draw
a line connecting the main search term to each of the examples.
3. What words do you think of when you look at your examples? Write
those down around the examples. Place them in their own circle and
draw a line connecting the example to the words you jotted down.
4. Add synonyms for all the words you wrote down in your web.
PRACTICE WEB #2
Here’s what we created but yours will probably be very different and that’s OK as
long as you followed the steps.
robber baron
investors
shareholders
John D. Rockefeller
corporations
trust
monopoly
economy
Andrew Carnegie
banks
money
income
salary
financial
institutions
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Here is a question we want you to
research.
How was the United States’ economy
affected by immigration after the Civil
War?
We now know that you wouldn’t simply
type in that question…that would be
BAD because you are going to receive a
lot of hog wash from your Google
search. To prove it to you, we typed the
question directly into Google. Let us
show you what Google found for us.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Here is the first website that Google
gives us when we type in the question:
18. Based on the website summary, this
will not give you the answer you are
looking for. Why did Google choose it?
What was it about our search that made
Google think this would be a great
website for us?
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Here is the second website that Google
gives us when we type in the question:
19. Based on the website summary, this will
not give you the answer you are looking for.
Why did Google choose it? What was it
about our search that made Google think
this would be a great website for us?
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Clearly you need to be more specific.
You need to find fewer ways to
phrase the question. Therefore, you
need to go through the four steps to
change the question into a query.
20. Using the four steps, change this
question into a query: How was the
United States’ economy affected by
immigration after the Civil War?
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
The query you created may not give
you exactly what you need so now
follow the four steps to create a
vocabulary web.
21. Using the four steps, make at least
one vocabulary web so that you have
additional words to use in your query.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:
IMMIGRATION QUESTION
Now use your original query and your
vocabulary web to research the
original question:
22. Write a paragraph answering the
question: How was the United States’
economy affected by immigration after
the Civil War? Be sure your answer
includes text evidence.
WE NEED TO FIX THESE ISSUES. WE NEED TO
TEACH YOU…
o
how to search for answers without typing in the entire question.
o not to give up so easily. Your boss isn’t going to be happy with
you if you tell him all the time, “I can’t find it” or “The answer
isn’t there”. You have to be tenacious…keep trying!!!!
o to read more than just Google’s results page.
o that Google isn’t a source of evidence. It’s only a search engine!
YOU CAN’T JUST READ GOOGLE’S RESULTS PAGE
The summaries available on the results page don’t give you an accurate description of
what the website actually says. Let’s look at some examples.
Our question was “What was the push factor for Russian people in the late 1800s?”
Our query was [Russian immigrants America late 1800s]. Here is what came up:
23. What is missing in this summary that makes you believe this site is a bad source?
YOU CAN’T JUST READ GOOGLE’S RESULTS PAGE
Although it doesn’t appear to have anything about Russian people,
it has the answer we were looking for:
YOU CAN’T JUST READ GOOGLE’S RESULTS PAGE
Here is another example.
Our question was “What was the push factor for Polish people in the late 1800s?” Our
query was [Polish immigrants America late 1800s]. Here is what came up:
24. What about this summary makes you believe this site is a good source?
YOU CAN’T JUST READ GOOGLE’S RESULTS PAGE
According to the summary, this website includes information about Polish people
moving to America in the 1800s. But when you open the site, it doesn’t explain why
Polish people left Poland. This website seemed promising but didn’t have the answers.
YOU CAN’T JUST READ GOOGLE’S RESULTS PAGE
So what do you have to do?
25. Now that you will use precise queries, what assumption can you make about the
websites that Google finds for you?
Answer:
Now that you are using precise queries, nearly every website at least on the first
page that Google suggests should be useful. You should read them in the order
Google provides them, starting with the first one, regardless of what the summary
says.
WE NEED TO FIX THESE ISSUES. WE NEED TO
TEACH YOU…
o
how to search for answers without typing in the entire question.
o not to give up so easily. Your boss isn’t going to be happy with
you if you tell him all the time, “I can’t find it” or “The answer
isn’t there”. You have to be tenacious…keep trying!!!!
o to read more than just Google’s results page.
o that Google isn’t a source of evidence. It’s only a search engine!
GOOGLE IS NOT A SOURCE OF EVIDENCE
Google’s job is to find information for you. It
doesn’t actually write the information, it only
finds it. According to Noodletools.com, “there is
no need to cite Google if all you have done is
use it as a search engine to find other
information.” When you use a search engine, it
finds websites that have your needed
information. It’s these websites that you cite as
evidence, not Google. For example, if our query
is [Will Smith movies], Google gives us this:
GOOGLE IS NOT A SOURCE OF EVIDENCE
We wouldn’t cite Google as the source. Instead,
we would click on www.imdb.com and if the
information is there, that website would be the
source that I would cite as evidence.
www.imdb.com receives the credit because they
are the website that listed all of Will Smith’s
movies, not Google.
GOOGLE IS NOT A SOURCE OF EVIDENCE
26. Explain why Google is not a source for citing text evidence if all you do is use it
as a search engine.
Answer:
Google finds evidence for you. It provides a list of resources (such as PowerPoints,
magazine and newspaper articles, and websites) that contain the information (or
evidence) that you cite. Therefore, instead of citing Google, you cite the resource
that Google found for you.
Do you need to change your citation(s) in question 22? If so, do it now!
WE NEED TO FIX THESE ISSUES. WE TAUGHT
YOU…
o
how to search for answers without typing in the entire question.
o not to give up so easily. Your boss isn’t going to be happy with
you if you tell him all the time, “I can’t find it” or “The answer
isn’t there”. You have to be tenacious…keep trying!!!!
o to read more than just Google’s results page.
o that Google isn’t a source of evidence. It’s only a search engine!