Warning: This resource may contain references to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may have passed away.
Prompts and teacher talk for using a search engine
While demonstrating on an interactive whiteboard, you might start by using the following prompts and teacher talk and implementing each task as you go:
- ‘What search engine will I use? I think I’ll use Google (or substitute your search engine of choice) because I’m most familiar with it.’ Locate the search engine.
- ‘I wonder what I will type into the search engine. Maybe just “The Stolen Generations” for a start.’ Type into the search engine.
- ‘Because I’m looking at something about Australia, I think I’ll click on “pages from Australia”.’ Demonstrate.
- ‘There are so many websites for me to choose from; I don’t really know where to start. I’ll scroll down and quickly scan the first page to find some sites that look most reliable. The domain suffixes might help.’
- Pause here to talk about what makes a site a more reliable source. Distribute copies of a Google search screen printout and ask the students to locate the domain suffixes. Explain the significance of each. Explain that these may provide a guide but sometimes it is still worthwhile to look at other sites as well.
- Continue in a similar fashion, looking at country codes (Australia – au, United Kingdom – uk, Canada – ca and so on) and terms such as abc, sbs, library, museum, wikipedia and archives.
- Demonstrate how image searches might provide additional information and links to other websites.
- Demonstrate how adding another word such as ‘apology’ or ‘timeline’ to the search may provide more specific information.
- In the case of The Stolen Generations timeline search, demonstrate the importance of using multiple sources of information by comparing information from a variety of websites.
- On their copies of printed screens, students mark the websites that they would open first, compare their copies with other students, and justify their choices.
- Return to the interactive whiteboard and perform a search similar to the one used in the printed screens worksheet. Using the think out loud strategy, open a selection of websites suggested by the students as their first choice and demonstrate how to quickly scan a webpage to decide if it suits the purpose. Focus on links, authors and their credentials.
- Discuss how to make notes and keep track of sources used. Demonstrate copying and pasting a url into a document.