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Internet Assignment Guide
- 1. Setting up an assignment
- 1. Plan each step of the activity with a focus on what your students will learn from it.
- 2. Try the activity yourself so that you can prepare for difficulties that may arise. You may have to restructure the assignment. If you are in the lab with the students, your preparation will also help you to guide the students who need more help and take advantage of the knowledge of those who are better than you at using the Internet. You should walk around the room to keep students on task and to share useful ideas or techniques.
- 3. Unless you are in the lab with the students to be sure that they are using English search engines and that they are not just photocopying one article, the focus of the activity should not be on the search itself but what they have to do with the information that they find. Be sure to emphasize that the information must be in English.
- 2. Possible assignments:
- A. Find information to prepare a debate for speech class. Controversial topics such as freedom of speech, censorship, or gun ownership work well.
Other topics: ____________________________________________________________________
- B. Find information on a topic to discuss in a reading class as the basis for an outside lecture or class trip. For example, students could look up information about Tibet, Buddhist temples, the development of fire departments in the United States, Victorian houses, the Ballentine beer business, or small monkeys before a visit to the Newark museum.
Other places to visit: ___________________________________________________________________
- C. Find information for a writing assignment to teach students how to incorporate this information into their writing without plagiarizing. It is easiest to start with a topic that yields factual information, such as obesity in the United States. Students could also prepare a process essay on a computer topic such as how to get an e-mail account with Hotmail or Yahoo, or they might compare or contrast the services and costs of different airlines.
Other writing assignments: ____________________________________________________________________
- D. Using the find tool, which is usually under edit, have students search for whole words, prefixes, or suffixes for examples of grammar, parts of speech, or uses of vocabulary. Students can print the article and mark it as they search on the computer. It works best with Newsweek or MSN news
Possible grammar or vocabulary to search for: _____________________________________________________
- E. Journals – give opinion of advice given on a Dear Abby or other site. Have each student copy and paste an article into a document and type his or her opinion below it. http://www.uclick.com/client/jef/da/
Other sites to use: _________________________________________________________________
- F. Assign grammar, listening, or reading exercises with results that can be checked or have students record their results.
Sites to use: _________________________________________________________________
- G. Use e-mail for extra credit or bonus work. For example, give students feedback on their writing if they e-mail it to you a few days before it is due. You may set up a private discussion list on Yahoo. You get advertisements, but it is free.
Other uses for e-mail: _________________________________________________________________
- H. Try a website such as Karin’s ESL PartyLand at http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/internet.htm on the Workshop page.
Sites I like: _________________________________________________________________
- 3. Searching the Internet:
- A. Boolean terms:
- i. OR – The results of Tibet OR temples will result in a list of sites that contain either term or both terms.
- ii. AND – The results of Tibet AND temples will be only sites with both terms.
- iii. NOT – Tibet NOT temples will include everything about Tibet except the temples.
- B. Popular search engines:
- C. Help from search engines:
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