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?

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 with it? sick

TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS… Step 3: Add missing words. 13. My three-year-old cow has blisters on its tongue. What is wrong with it? sick Cattle?

TIME TO PRACTICE WITH LEARNING PARTNERS… Step 4: Remove unnecessary words and punctuation. 13. My three-year-old cow has blisters on its tongue. What is wrong with it? sick Cattle?

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. 14. Can people earn money for tossing pizza dough? professionals

PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS… Step 3: Add missing words – we couldn’t think of any for this example. 14. Can people earn money for tossing pizza dough? professionals

PRACTICE #2 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS… Step 4: Remove unnecessary words and punctuation. 14. Can people earn money for tossing pizza dough? professionals

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 empty town in the San Francisco Bay. What is it called? Ghost town

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 empty town in the San Francisco Bay. What is it called? Ghost town

PRACTICE #3 WITH LEARNING PARTNERS… Step 4: Delete any unnecessary words and punctuation. 15. I heard there is an empty town in the San Francisco Bay. What is it called? Ghost town

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. community helpers librarians doctors 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. community helpers librarians doctors police healthy medicine sick safe law literacy Find information

AN EXAMPLE…COMMUNITY HELPERS Step 4: Add synonyms for all the words you wrote down in your web. community helpers librarians doctors police healthy medicine sick safe law literacy Find information cops police officers locate reading ill antibiotics protect

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. community helpers librarians doctors police healthy medicine sick safe law literacy Find information cops police officers locate reading ill antibiotics protect

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. immigrant Push factor Pull factor foreigner alien disease Religious persecution starvation famine illness epidemic Religious freedom jobs occupations

PRACTICE WEB #2 17. Using the four steps and pages 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. economy corporations money monopoly income banks John D. Rockefeller shareholders Andrew Carnegie salary investors trust robber baron 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.

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 and if the information is there, that website would be the source that I would cite as evidence. 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!