Use search tools to locate relevant information

General

Students learn how to effectively search for information about a topic. They also learn the different text features and which information might be present in them.

Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5

Learning objective

Students will be able to locate information by using search tools.

Introduction

Have students form pairs or small groups and discuss the given question. Have them not only discuss if there was a time, but also how they went about solving their lack of knowledge about a topic.

Instruction

Discuss with students that we often end up looking for information online. You can choose to also discuss non-digital information sources, such as the library or talking to an expert. Discuss some important words in searching for information or finding information, namely keywords, sidebars, and hyperlinks. Give examples of each and mention that they all are important to improve your searching ability. As a class, determine where the words given belong on the "website" about polar bears. How do they know what each part is called? Discuss with students that these search tools are important because they help you find relevant information on the topic you want to research. Practice with the class by reading the given text and then answering the questions on the text. Then ask students if they can come up with keywords that they could use to find more information about the topic. How do you decide if a keyword is good or not? Remind students that a general keyword will give general information, whereas a specific keyword will give more specific information. Practice with a second text and answer the given questions. Ask students to come up with informative captions for the pictures given. What information is the picture giving? Practice reading a third text. This time the questions focus on the text elements and what they do to help the text. Have students come up with keywords with which to search for interesting whale facts. Use them and write down 5 interesting facts about whales.

Quiz

Students are asked to answer multiple-choice questions in which they answer questions about key concepts taught in the lesson. They are then given true/false questions to answer about specific text features or search options.

Closing

Remind students that they can use all the information given to effectively search for relevant information on a topic they are interested in. This is useful because you don't want to waste time reading through information that you don't need. Have the students select a non-fiction book and a partner. Spin the dial on the interactive whiteboard and then have students find the text feature that matches the number of the spin. Close the lesson by asking students to do some research of their own and to write an article about an animal of their choice. (Option: you can collect all of their pages together to create an online animal encyclopedia for the class).