Now that you are more effective and efficient at searching, it is time to take it to the classroom. You have learned that the Internet has an abundance of information that varies in quality. The question is how to direct your students to the quality while not getting lost in the quantity. Although many of your students may already be familiar with searching, you may need to help fill in the gaps. You will need to help structure student-use of the Internet.

Structuring Student Searches

Instead of asking students to search online, begin the search offline. Use the Information for Today Search Exercise: Choosing the Best Tool. This handout will help students understand when to do a keyword search using a search engine and when to do a topical search using a directory. This exercise can also be revised to meet the needs and level of your students as well as your curriculum.

Another offline search activity from Teach for Tomorrow is the Key Word Search Worksheet. This exercise breaks up the search process into five steps. Steps one through four are done offline. This exercise emphasizes the importance of thinking about what you are looking for (before you search online) and how to communicate that information to the search engine. Again, feel free to revise this exercise to meet the needs of your students.

There are other tools that structure student-use of the Internet to provide better results.

NoodleQuest is designed by a school librarian. Students answer a few online questions about their research project. NoodleTools then suggests how to begin the research thereby answering the frequently asked question, "Where do I start?" Another place to direct students is to "Invisible" Web Databases. Remember that the "Invisible" Web is not often accessible by typical search tools. NoodleTools lists several databases by category. Choose few databases that you can point your students to when doing a search. Finally, NoodleTools offers a third option for structuring student searches. Choose the Best Search for your Information Need asks students to consider what they are looking for. Based on their information need, they are given a search strategy. Students will be amazed at how many different searches are possible.

Search Tutorials

Educate students on how to search. If you are not confident in your own search skills or Internet-use. Offer students a tutorial on searching. Be sure to check out the tutorial first to make sure it is the appropriate level for your students.

• The Oregon School Library Information System (OSLIS) provides a How To for Elementary students. Students can choose form How To: Find Information, Search the Web, Do Research, or Choose Library Resources.
• Joe Barker, the Teaching Library Internet Instruction Program Coordinator at UC Berkeley, created several tutorials to help students improve their information literacy skills. Although the search tutorial, Finding Information on the Internet, is for college students, it can also be valuable to secondary students as well as educators.

Finally, relate online searching to offline searching. Have students consider how searching the library is different from searching the Internet. Teach students how to search in the context of your content and curriculum. Have students find information on what they are learning. However, if the focus and goal of your lesson is the research, then give students a few chosen sites to use that you have already evaluated for quality. For more on quality, try the module Web Site Evaluation.

Searching can take time and if the point of the lesson is on the information and not learning how to search, then be prepared to show students where to go. When planning and searching, it is important to direct students to sites that are safe for them to search and which provide quality information and resources.