Mechanics of effective searching:
Teacher demonstration (Beginner)
A curriculum for critical thinking and
web research
Skill level: Beginner
School level: Middle school (11–13 years old)
High school (14–18 years old)
Objective:This demonstration showsan initial searchprotocol that the teacher canmodel for the students.
The teacher should select a subject related to students’ project topics to demonstrate search with Bing™. See the example that follows, which is based on a project about the American Revolutionary War.
Demo steps
1.Go to
2.Tell students that, to begin your search, on the Bing home page, you type Revolutionary War in the text box.
3.Point out the number of results found. The number isin the upper-right section of the page. Scroll down the page to show students the variety of sites provided. Go to additional pages to emphasize the variety.
Type a search phrase into the text box, and you get a list (and a total number) of related sites.
4.Talk with students about the challenges of locating specific information needed for a research project when a search provides so many results.
5.To show students how to select sites worth visiting, read through some of the summaries of site information provided in the search results.For additional information, use your mouse tohover over the right side of the site summary. You will see an expanded caption, called a hover preview. Here, Bing takes even more information—usually text from the page—to help you decide whether you want to click that link. This box flyout appears to the right of the search results and gives you even more information about the page.
(See example in Step 12.)See the “Validity” lesson plans to enhance discussions with the students.
6.Emphasize the need for students to narrow their search to a specific element of the project or to their guiding questions.
7.Tell students that one of the main topicsof your Revolutionary War project is important figures andthe people who influenced the war. In the text box, type people of the revolutionary war.
8.Point out the number of results. Mention that, even though a high number of results were found, it is less than the number from the search on the Revolutionary War. Emphasize that this is because the search was focused just on people.
9.Read through some of the site summaries to model for students how to select sites
to visit.
10.Place quotation marks around “people of the Revolutionary War” to enter a third search.
11.Point out the number of results. Tell students that this isbecause the search topic was placed in quotations. The quotation marks ensure that only pages containing those words, in that exact order, will appear as results.
12.To model for students how to select sites to visit, read through some of the summaries of information provided on the sites. The following examples are of sites listedas part of a search on “people of the Revolutionary War,”along with explanations as to their degree of usefulness for the project.
Examples:
A search for text within quotation marks can narrow down the results.
Revolutionary War People
Revolutionary War biography websites
· Cached page
Could be beneficial, since it references Revolutionary War biographies; therefore, the site must contain information on individual people.
American Revolution: Index of People
Abigail Adams. John Adams. Samuel Adams John André. Benedict Arnold. Crispus Attucks. Lord Charles Cornwallis. John Dickinson. Benjamin Franklin. King
library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312848/people.htm
Could be beneficial, since the summary lists various people that are known to have been influential during the Revolutionary War.
Biographies of the American Revolution
A biography of Georgi Zhukov.
Cached page
May not be as beneficial as other sites because it only references one individual.
Revolutionary War
Revolutionary War. Back to themes
schools.qps.org/christma/revolutionary_war.htm· Cached page
May not be as beneficial as other sites because it does not specifically reference information
on people.
American Revolutionary War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) or American War of Independence began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen former British colonies in ...
Combatants before 1778·
War in the north ...·
An international war ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War· Wikipedia on Bing
Since this site is an online encyclopedia, it should contain information on all topics related to the Revolutionary War. However, the information may be more general than specific.
Important PeopleoftheRevolutionaryWar: Smolinski, Diane ...
eCampus.com: Important PeopleoftheRevolutionaryWar: Smolinski, Diane: 9781588102782: $19.95: : In-stock ships in 24 hours
Cached page
Since this summary references a price and shipping information, it probably does not contain information that can be used for research. More likely, it is set up to take book orders.
Revolutionary War Glossary
RETURN TO REVOLUTIONARY WAR MAIN PAGE Glossary agitation. The state of being agitated (upset); the arousal of public interest in a cause or controversial matter.
It appears, based on the summary, that this site is a glossary and may be limited to definitions rather thanincluding extensive information about people. However, the hover preview, shown below, proves otherwise.
Arnold, Benedict (1741-1801). An American military general during the Revolutionary War who, after being passed over for promotion and investigated for wrong-doing, turned traitor. He was poised to turn over West Point to the British, but was discovered sending materials detailing his plans. His service in the British military put him in position ...
Go to the page
This site does, in fact, contain information on people and could be beneficial for this project.
The Key PeopleOfTheRevolutionaryWar | Socyberty
This will be very helpful to many people, it lists all the key peopleoftherevolutionarywar from washington to franklin.
socyberty.com/history/the-key-people-of-the-revolutionary-war· Cached page
Based on the summary, this site should contain information on the topic.
13.After explaining to students how to identify sites that can be beneficial, select a link on the leftside of the page for additional results on the topic. For example, inthis search, you would click People of the American Revolution for additional sites on the topic. You can discuss with students how searches can be phrased in multiple ways. If they conduct a search with limited beneficial results, they may need to rephrase their search in the text box or use a similar search topic provided by Bing.
The left side of a Bing results page shows related searches.
14.Talk with students about how the number of results vary between the three searches. Have students discuss which search will result in a more effective and efficient use of the Bing search engine and how their responses should impact their own searches.
15.Review directions for students’ searches in “Searching – Student worksheet 1: Results of your search.”
To keep students on task, check for progress, and provide feedback, teachers should circulate as students conduct their searches.
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