Series Common Sense Media: Improving Research Skills with Effective Keywords

ELA.W.6.7

Common core State Standards

  • ELA:  English Language Arts
  • W:  Writing Standards 6รข\x80\x9312
  • 6:  6th Grade
  • 7: 
    Conduct short research projects to answer
    a question, drawing on several sources and
    refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|
ELA.W.6.8

Common core State Standards

  • ELA:  English Language Arts
  • W:  Writing Standards 6-12
  • 6:  6th Grade
  • 8: 
    Gather relevant information from multiple print
    and digital sources; assess the credibility of each
    source; and quote or paraphrase the data and
    conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism
    and providing basic bibliographic information for
    sources.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Improving Research Skills with Effective Keywords

Lesson Objective: Use precise vocabulary to improve Internet searches
Grades 6-8 / ELA / Research
7 MIN
ELA.W.6.7 | ELA.W.6.8

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. How do the three activities appropriately scaffold student understanding of precision and specificity?
  2. In what ways does each activity help students improve their vocabulary use?
  3. How does the use of an internet search increase student interest and engagement?

13 Comments

  • Private message to Michael Burnett
  1. How do the three activities appropriately scaffold student understanding of precision and specificity?
    THe three activities give students an understanding that there are many ways to describe an object (taboo) and that being precise in their searches will help them find the results they need.  The examples of searching for "dog" first and then having to limit the results thru specific items they are looking for gives the students a quick way to understand this concept.  The three steps of activites build upon each other in a way that a student can understand the smaller concepts first and then go deeper.
  2. In what ways does each activity help students improve their vocabulary use?
    The students are developing synonyms and ways to look for similar concepts/ideas.  This builds their vocabulary instantly as they create lists of like-words to search for.
  3. How does the use of an internet search increase student interest and engagement?
    Modern students are very plugged into the internet. By showing them better ways to search and find, not only will their skills as a student be developed, but so will their ability to find things of use or interest to them outside of school.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Kathleen Ritchie
In order to access the lesson plan, you need to create an account with common sense education. (It's free) Once I did that, I was able to access all materials. This is an excellent lesson. I am modifying this to suit the needs of my 7th & 8th graders.
Recommended (2)
  • Private message to Lamika Wilson
Hi Olga, Can you download or email me the Ppt.so that I can create a similar activity for observation? Or can someone help me to locate these materials? I really enjoyed this lesson activities.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Marshall Jones
I look forward to utilizing this in my Language Arts class. The research on the computers, along with discussion and key words are valuable tools.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Diane Bell
I can not access the lesson plan nor the printables that go with it. Love the video though!
Recommended (0)

External Resource Materials

Transcripts

  • KEYWORDS

    GRAPHICS ON SCREEN
    TCH Teaching Channel & Common Sense Media Present
    Group OC
    Good afternoon, Miss Ramos.
    Olga Ramos OC

    KEYWORDS

    GRAPHICS ON SCREEN
    TCH Teaching Channel & Common Sense Media Present
    Group OC
    Good afternoon, Miss Ramos.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Today's lesson is going to be called the key to keywords. My name is Olga Ramos. And I teach at...
    GRAPHICS ON SCREEN
    Olga Ramos Amistad Dual Language School, New York City
    ...Amistad Dual Language School found in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Who can read the board for me? Caitlyn .
    Caitlyn VO/OC
    Identify key word strategies that will give you the best search results.
    Olga Ramos VO/OC
    Very good. So the objective of this lesson is to have the kids become more aware of precise and alternative words that they can use in order to better their searching. So let us review some of the vocabulary. Sydney.
    Sydney VO
    Key words. Most important words related to a subject that you type into a search engine when you are looking for info.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Sound familiar?
    Group VO
    Yes.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Yes. Common core standards we're researching are all about searching and initiating research projects. So this is a good segue into doing that.
    Female Child #1 VO
    Precise, clear and exact.

    Olga Ramos VO/OC
    Hmm. You want something to be precise with precision. Clear and exact. Next. Synonyms. Larissa.
    Larissa VO
    Words with.
    Olga Ramos VO
    With same.
    Larissa VO
    With same.
    Olga Ramos VO
    Or similar.
    Larissa VO
    Or similar meaning.
    Olga Ramos VO
    Very good. I'm going to do kind of an open activity and we're going to kind of play what we would probably know as taboo. I'm going to need three volunteers to come and help us with our activity. Now what they essentially are going to do is that they're going to practice their skills of describing and looking for alternate words and other precise descriptions in order to get their point across. Try to describe it.
    Caitlyn OC
    It's green and gray. It clips things together.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Do you want to call on someone?
    Caitlyn Top OC
    Matty.
    Matty VO
    A stapler?
    Olga Ramos VO/OC
    Correct. A stapler. Very good. Round of applause. Thank you. So now we're going to go a little faster.
    Female Child In Purple Top OC
    You can use it on the computers. It'll help you a lot. It's used mostly on desktops. Lucas.
    Lucas VO
    A mouse?
    Female Child In Purple Top OC
    Yes.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Correct. What were some of the things that you can notice that you guys just did during this game? Before you answer me, talk to each other.
    Male Child Wearing Glasses OC
    I think they're like describing it but without saying it.
    Female Child In White Sweater VO
    Yeah. It was .
    Olga Ramos OC
    What was that?
    Female Child In Pink Top VO
    Precisely.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Very good. Clear and exact. The second activity is called fetch. I'm going to have them sit in pairs. They're going to be working with computers. They're literally going to go and fetch answers for searching activities. This helps because they're already starting to build their skill of synonyms and making precise selections of words and how that can affect their searching. The questions are as follow. What foods are toxic to dogs? What types of dogs are the smartest? What jobs do dogs do for people? And what are some of the smallest and largest dog types? You like our theme, dogs?
    Group VO
    Yes.
    Olga Ramos OC/VO
    Right. Right. What they're essentially going to do in the first one is that they're only going to use one key word. They have to tell us how many results were found on the page. And then they have to look up the first three results. They need to make an educated guess whether they think that they're going to find the answer to their question in those results. Okay, begin.
    Male Child Wearing Glasses OC/VO
    One word in the search engine. That's, that word will like give off lots and lots and lots of topics.
    Female Child In Blue & White Shirt OC
    .
    Male Child Wearing Glasses VO
    Yeah.
    Female Child In Blue & White Shirt OC
    Sure.
    Olga Ramos VO/OC
    The next one allows them to use two key words and they repeat the same thing.
    Female Child In White Sweater OC
    How many key words does it take to find the answer? It took about four.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Noticing that you have to what?
    Caitlyn OC
    Be precise.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Be more precise, right? Very good. Keep going. By the time they get to the last selection which is basically they need to use more key words, they're bound to find their answer. Okay, there we go. How was your experience?
    Female Child Wearing Glasses OC
    The first key word search we put poison to see what would come out as poison but it wasn't like poison for dogs or anything that we were looking for.
    Female Child With Ponytail OC
    We found one of them, one website told us a little bit of what the, the jobs they do.
    Olga Ramos OC
    So using one key word wasn't that great.
    Group VO
    No.

    Olga Ramos OC/VO
    But as you got more precise and maybe some of you started using some synonyms, then all of a sudden you started getting some of the results that you wanted. So then next that was kind of a segue to now doing this challenge I call the "Prepare Challenge." Go. I love how you're working together. You guys are brainstorming. You're picking each other's brains. That's great. Five minutes. We have two hands, two pairs that are finished.
    Male Child In Plaid Shirt OC
    Oh man, right here. This one.
    Female Child in Pink Top OC
    Golden retriever.
    Olga Ramos VO
    Two minutes.
    Female Child In Blue Shirt OC
    The first activity helped a lot because we knew already how to be more precise and how to like find out better the information.
    Caitlyn OC/VO
    You have to be like more specific with the words that you pick because I, me and my partner put dogs but it didn't help us with learning what size they were. So then we put, for the second one, dog sizes and then it helped us more.
    Olga Ramos VO/OC
    The takeaway is I think them seeing the connections on how these things that they're learning, these strategies, these skills, actually affect their real life. The fact that sometimes through the common sense curriculum we're able to do those things. It's wonderful. What did we learn about our key words? .
    Male Child In Plaid Shirt VO
    We learned that when we're going to use key word, we have to be more specific.
    Olga Ramos VO
    Or what? What was that word that we learned today? Everyone.
    Group VO
    Precise.
    Olga Ramos OC
    Precise. Let's go back to our, our goal screen. Who can read that for me very loudly? Crissindy.
    Crissindy VO/OC
    Identifying key word strategies that will give you the best search results.
    Olga Ramos VO
    Did we meet our goal?
    Group VO
    Yes.
    Olga Ramos OC/VO
    We did. Congratulations. Pat yourself on the back. Pat, pat. Pat, pat.
    Group OC
    Whoo. Whoo.
    GRAPHICS ON SCREEN
    TCH Classroom Takeaways:
    #1 Review Goals Throughout Lesson #2 Encourage Immediate Vocabulary Use #3 Have Students Call On Each Other #4 Use A Timer For Lesson Activities
    FADE TO BLACK

School Details

Amistad Dual Language School
4862 Broadway
New York NY 10034
Population: 406

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Teachers

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Olga Ramos