Google Lesson Plans

Screen 1 Finding Online Teaching Materials: Google Advanced Search is a Curriculum Juvenile Library online tutorial that covers searching the internet for lesson plans and other educational materials. Google advanced search can be searched by keyword and domain. Unlike databases like Gateway to Educational Materials and California Thinkfinity Resource Center, items in this database have not gone through a screening process.

Screen 2 This is the Google advanced search interface. When searching for teaching materials you should use Google advanced search rather than Google. From the Google search interface clicking "Advanced search" produces the Google advanced search interface.

Screen 3 The reason you use this Google advanced search interface rather than the Google search interface is because Google advance search provides several useful, timesaving search options.

Screen 4 When searching Google advanced search the first thing you need to do is click the "add date, usage rights, numeric range and more" link. Clicking this link produces...

Screen 5 The add date, usage rights, numeric range and more interface which has even more useful, timesaving search options.

Screen 6 The second thing you need to do is to type your topic in the all these words box. In this example, we will assume you are a student teacher searching for lesson plans covering the gold rush. Your topic is gold rush and you would type "gold rush" in the all these words box.

Screen 7 Because we are assuming you are looking for gold rush lesson plans, the third thing you need to do is to type "lesson plans" in the exact wording or phrase box.

Screen 8 The fourth thing you need to do is to change the results per page from ten results to 100 results. The way you do this is by clicking on "ten results" in the box next to results per page then selecting "100 results" from the drop down menu.

Screen 9 The fifth thing you need to do is to indicate you only want to search sites within the education domain. The way you do this is by typing ".edu" in the box next to search within a site or domain. If searches within the education domain do not retrieve the information you need you can always remove this limiter later.

Screen 10 The sixth thing you need to do is to enable safe search. The way you do this is by scrolling down the screen and then selecting "on" which is next to safe search. If searches within safe search enabled do not retrieve the information you need you can always remove this limiter later.

Screen 11 Here you see the Google advanced search interface with all of the information you would enter. This search screen indicates you are looking for lesson plans covering the gold rush that are on web sites within the education domain. It also indicates you want to see 100 items at a time and you want the safe search filter enabled. At this point clicking "advanced search" produces a listing.

Screen 12 This listing of 1,370 items matches your search criteria. You have two options: access 1,370 links or quickly scan through the listing of potentially useful web sites. Let's assume you decide to quickly scan thru the listing. While quickly scanning through a listing you should note the important parts of each item's record. Let's take a look at the important parts of the record for the first item: in the orange oval you see the title of the item, in the green box you see sample text from the web site, and in the pink box you see the web site's address. Based on this information let's assume you decide to take a look at the item. Clicking on the title produces the web site.

Screen 13 This web site includes two items I would like to emphasize. In the yellow box you see that this site has not been updated since October 13, 2000. This could be a problem. In the orange oval you see a link to the great American gold rush. This part of the web site appears to be related to the topic you are looking for. Clicking "The Great American Gold Rush" link produces a listing of links.

Screen 14 This is the listing of links under the heading the great American gold rush. Clicking the "western expansion" link produces the connectingstudents.com web site.

Screen 15 The connectingstudents.com web site has nothing to do with western expansion or the gold rush. In fact, as you can see in the green box at the top, this particular domain is for sale and could be bought by anyone who could post anything they want on the site. Ending up at a site like this after clicking on a western expansion link is probably due to the fact that the western expansion link was on a web site that hasn't been updated since October 13, 2000. The initial description of the western expansion link looked good. However, examination of the web site proved fruitless and it could have been worse. The site is for sale. Anyone could buy the site and post whatever they want, including pornography. If this had happened, you would have clicked on the link labeled western expansion and retrieved pornography. Internet sites are constantly changing. Always check internet sites before students access them. Lets' go back to the listing of items matching your search criteria.

Screen 16 The second item on the list is Verla Kay teacher resource file. Based on sample text from the web site such as lesson plans, gold fever, Seattle outfits the Klondike gold rush, teaching with historic places, and gold rush, one might believe this site would be useful. However, because its web address, located in the green box, is similar to the web address of the useless first item on the list, let's go on to the third item on the list: "resources-history of the U.S. west lesson plans". After examining this record, let's assume you want to take a look at this site. Clicking on the title in the orange oval produces a listing.

Screen 17 This listing of links to web sites includes detailed descriptions of each web site. In the yellow box you see the Nebraska partnership for American history education created the web site. In the green box you see University of Nebraska, Lincoln is associated with Nebraska partnership for American history education. It is always helpful to know the source of information found on the internet. In the pink box you see land of golden dreams, which is the title of a web site. Based on the title and description this web site appears useful. Clicking on the link to the web site (in the orange oval) produces the land of golden dreams web site.

Screen 18 This is the land of golden dreams web site. The information in the yellow box indicates the web site was created by the Huntington. It is always helpful to know the source of information found on the internet. The web site is divided into four major sections. Let's take a look at the section for teachers. Clicking the link "for teachers" in the orange oval produces the section of the land of golden dreams that is for teachers.

Screen 19 This is the section of the land of golden dreams that is for teachers. As you can see, this section has lesson plans and since we are assuming you are a student teacher searching for lesson plans covering the gold rush, let's click on the link that leads to "lesson plans for grades four-five" (in the orange oval).

Screen 20 Now let's select "lesson one, the adventure begins: boys I believe I have found a gold mine".

Screen 21 This is the beginning of the lesson plan. Please remember to credit sources you consulted when creating lesson or unit plans for teacher education courses. You should not claim to have created a lesson or unit plan you found on the internet. Let's go back to land of golden dreams and explore another section of the web site.

Screen 22 Let's click on the link that leads to the "online exhibition section" (in the orange oval).

Screen 23 Here you see a description of the online exhibition and a "begin the adventure" link in the pink box. This link leads you to the beginning of the exhibition.

Screen 24 The beginning of the exhibition includes a picture of a cartoon that appeared in a newspaper during the gold rush. Clicking the picture produces a larger version of the cartoon.

Screen 25 This is the larger version of the cartoon. Let's go back to the land of golden dreams and explore one more section of the web site.

Screen 26 Let's click on the link in the orange oval that leads to the "hey kids" section.

Screen 27 As you can see, the land of golden dreams web site includes interactive activities for students. Online interactive activities can improve lesson plans. The text in the yellow and green boxes provides background information related to the interactive activities. Selecting "Li's story" produces more background information.

Screen 28 The additional background information includes links to proper pronunciations and maps and proposes a question for students to ponder. There is also a "help us decide" link (in the orange oval). Selecting the "help us decide" link produces an interactive component.

Screen 29 This is the interactive component. It prompts students to click and drag items they want Li to take with her on her journey.

Screen 30 After filling Li's basket with supplies students click "continue in order" to complete the activity. We have just taken a look at two very different web sites retrieved by Google advanced search for the topic gold rush. The first site we looked at was not useful. The second site we looked at was useful. When searching Google advanced search, some of the items you retrieve will be useful and some will not be useful. In closing, I'd like to encourage you take a look at other Curriculum Juvenile library online tutorials. If you are looking for screened online teaching materials, you might want to take a look at online tutorials covering the Gateway to Educational Materials and the California Thinkfinity Resource Center.