9.+X+Marks+the+Spot!

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I Love that you added the visual thesaurus! I love that tool and it's so helpful for English language learners. Thanks for the great information! I love the intentionality of the steps! This really helps me to focus in on how I lead my young students through their very beginnings of searching. Students' ability to question validity of information is a huge problem. I love the following link: http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ - about the Northwest tree octopus... an obviously ficticious animal. I've used it to help students think about what they're reading. Thanks! Ginger


 * Slideshare: I love the response to how Google worked?...The word Magic came up a lot!
 * There is so much to be taught in order for students to access and process information. The next grand step is teaching them how to synthesize information into another useable format. I think this has to be the most difficult aspect. Although if taught all the way up...perhaps it could be easier
 * I did not know there was a difference between skimming and scanning.
 * I liked the point that these skills needs to be taught year round at every grade level.
 * It is troubling that students don’t question information that they find. Reminds me of this hippo house ad: **Brandi** **Clark** media type="youtube" key="NBfi8OEz0rA" height="315" width="420"

**Renae's thoughts** - Liked the Pirate on the homepage (I've got to do Voki with some of my students). Many of the intermediate teachers have been asking me to help them with online research, analyzing places and information, etc. I'll admit I went to the Tools and Resources pages first to check them out, before I took in the rest of the wiki. Now that we are having staff meetings again I will be able to share many of the tools you mentioned like Mindomo and [|Bubbl.us] to help them and their students evaluate and keep track of their sources. Your topic, Effective Reading Online, should be a major focus in education today and your PD presentation is an excellent culmination of theory, examples and stories, and tools and resources. I have been wanting to put together something like this for staff at my school and just have not gotten to it - so thank you. //-Hi Renae, please use this wiki freely. This was a very interesting topic that is very applicable, especially in upper elementary and upwards. If we could add one more page to this wiki, what do you think the sub-topic should be? I//

//-Hi Kirsten. Great questions! You asked if not including traditional text organizational cues propagates poor text design and organization. To play devil's advocate, is it possible that a "new" type of online text design and organization might develop? For example, the blue hyperlinked text might become the new resource cited/boldface/diagrams feature, and each page on a site replaces the need for chapter titles? Will our brains evolve to no longer require traditional textual cues in order to organize what we read unline? I am a little skeptical that a new type of "online text organization" will develop due to the fact that so many can add content online without any prior training, but I suppose anything is possible:)// Good points regarding new textual/layout features replacing the old ones. And many kids will pick up on ensuring they include them just through experience, provided they've been introduced to well-designed sites. It will help too of course if we explicitly point these out to students, too. - Cheers, Kirsten
 * Kirsten's thoughts**: I found the eye movement study interesting, and it made me think of Wolf’s concerns. “By drawing a comparison to the traditional formats of non-fiction comprehension strategies we have used in the past to the new format on the screen, students are better able to adapt and understand where they need to go to get the information they seek. ” (from [] ) - this is an important piece to teach, and I wonder if there will be a break-down of textual norms and clues as students not exposed to them start building websites of their own. That is, if students are usually reading from web sites (often, but not necessarily, of poorer quality), that lack “chapter titles, headings, diagrams, and boldface words ”, rather than books which tend to include these clues (thanks to editors), will it get to the point that they simply will not add such resources to their own webpages, propagating poor text design and organization? Will this make the web even more confusing?

Brenda's take-aways - First, I love the pirate theme - very engaging and a great way to model embedding content (which could be dry) in a more motivating topic. I really appreciate the lessons provided. A few years ago I made it my mission in the library to teach all gr. 3-5 classes how to search effectively and analyse not just the results but individual sites. Really, I was modelling it for classroom teachers thinking that they would take over the following year but I don't think it's happening. Your site has reminded me that I need to go back and review this with everyone, every year. Also, loved the list of web tools, especially Bubbl.us Thanks! //-Brenda, you are so right that EVERYONE needs training in website and search result analysis. In my experience, the adults seem to appreciate it even more than the students, when they are taught how to search or how to evaluate the reliability of a website/YouTube video/or podcast.//

Tracy's Thoughts - I found so many treasures on here that I want to use. Thank you for including the lesson plans. I like the tools provided and the strategies. I was very interested in the eye movement study. I found many things on here that I would like to share with staff - for example, the slide share that is actually an ad for sweetsearch had a lot of information on it that I think teachers really need to know. I am glad it noted that students need to begin learning in the primary years and become more effective as they grow. Thank you so much! // -Hi Tracy. I agree that students need to begin learning effective online reading skills, right from the get-go. I think that sometimes educators and parents underestimate younger children. The I.T. specialist for the primary grades at my school has done an amazing job of teaching developmentally appropriate online reading skills to my 4 year old daughter. My daughter often "thinks-aloud" as she navigates the school wiki to find her favorite games. I never would have thought she was capable of this had I not seen it for myself:) //

Niki's Notes - As others have mentioned, I really appreciated the inclusion of mini-lessons. Your wiki is filled with practical information.

When I was reading the slidehare (for SweetSpot) I was considering how many parents and educators don’t really know how to do the same things they were highlighting the students didn’t know how to do (e.g., searching, reading, etc.). Most of us missed learning this in school because of when these tools (including the internet in general) were developed and became more mainstream in education. Many educators are self-taught – which definitely has its pros and cons! The benefits of PD sessions that assist educators with this topic would be two-fold, with increased knowledge for educators and for students. //-Yes, Niki! And if we can also teach parents (who would also have missed this learning in school), students will receive the message from all sides that these types of reading skills are just as important today as is the ability to read and comprehend a printed book.//

Lissa's thoughts: I was struck by the amount of information you have included and how you laid it out in a clear, concise way. The lesson plans accompanying the topics were well done, giving your readers tools to use immediately. While I have taught information literacy previously, you brought up new questions and ideas for me to use when I next teach this, and I think I will use my 5/6's this year as guinea pigs! (or guinea parrots:)) Like Brandi, I did not know there was a difference between skimming and scanning. I also liked how you discussed hyperlinking....we need to talk with students about when to go off on a link and when to stay on the page. I also liked the idea of ensuring you had your questions before you started your search, to help drive your search in a pointed way. //-Lissa, I think you brought up a great point about the importance of teaching students whether to follow a hyperlink or not. I am guessing that this is the major cause of online readers getting "lost online." Would you agree, or do you think there is a different reason for this?//

Carol's comments - Your presentation was very interesting, concise and informative. Thank-you! I discovered a number of treasures including: I once had the pleasure of listening to Will Richardson speak about the WWW and how google works to generate results. I also heard Jamie McKenzie speak along the same lines. Very enticing, inspiring and knowledgeable speakers. Your presentation brought back some of that for me. This is a topic that we, as educators, need to commit to and continue to explore as everything to do with the www evolves so quickly. Thanks again!
 * many, many links to new Web 2.0 tools
 * reiterating the importance of search phrases
 * thanks for the skimming & scanning refresher!!!

Cherie's Comment: Thanks for sharing your wonderfully inspiring presentation. I also liked the pirate theme and the various mini-lessons/tutorials throughout the project. As a group you must have discussed that students read "differently" now then several years ago?…..how are you helping teachers to bridge the gap?…..or are teachers responding as one of your speaking and taking the stand that books should be brought back??? Loved the Hippo video…..need to find a place to use this "lesson". I think many people are becoming less cautious about what they read and view online. The need to keep teaching this lesson to our students. Thanks!

Laurie's Comment: Congratulations on your presentation, I love the theme and the balance between the information and the practical as well as between the amount of text and the multimedia. It has been book marked and as others have shared I want to share with my colleagues. While researching our topic we came across Julie Coiro and was interested in her research as it is so applicable to our students (and teachers) today - so this was a great read for me to see how you synthesized her research so again thank you. Our division has had Bernajean Porter in to talk about H.E.A.T.ing up our instruction and she introduced us to the acronymn of RADCAB which I did not really like so I had been using Alan November's Get R.E.A.L. from his site and book //Web Literacy for Educatiors //for teachers and students. I like the acronynms you introduced (B.U.I.L.T. or S.P.I.D.E.R.) a lot more - easier for kids to remember.