1. To become familiar with reference resources available on the Internet.
2. To assess which resources will be useful for your students.
3. To prepare online reference lists for your students and yourself.
If you, like myself, have begun taking graduate classes again recently after some time has elapsed, you know how much the methods used for research have changed in the past 10-15 years. The Internet has become a necessity, not just a luxury used by some enlightened techies!
That is NOT to say that trips to the library to access print and other resources have been rendered obsolete - but knowing what is truly available from your home computer can help you use your time and energy wisely. The variety is enormous, so this activity will allow you some time to begin your exploration, and also to think about how you can use these online references in your classroom. Remember to be sure to balance your approach so that your students learn the uses of both online and print/library reference resources.
InfoSearcher.com has a lot of wonderful resources available online, including a comprehensive list of reference sources. Visit this site and explore at least two reference sources under each category: General References; Biographical References; Dictionary and Word References; Calculation; Statistical Information; Education; and Subject Specific Reference, which includes sites listing such things as music, baseball, movies, states, maps and recipes. Be on the lookout for references that you and your students might be able to use in the coming school year, as well as interesting or unusual resources that you can note for future possible use.
http://www.infosearcher.com/CyberSites01.htm
For a quick warning about the dangers of using the Internet for research see the Washington Post article of July 15, 2002 "Point. Click. Think?"
1. Create a list of reference sites for your students, dividing them into subject areas for easier use. Be sure to annotate them in an appealing way. To make them easily accessible, you might create a website so that students can just click and go from school and home.
2. Create a separate list of reference sites for your own use, being sure to note curricular connections and units of study for which they would be useful.
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Beginning 1 |
Developing 2 |
Accomplished 3 |
Exemplary 4 |
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Reference resource list for student use
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Reference resources not well organized into subject areas; no annotations or very weak annotations | 3-5 reference resources well organized into topic or subject areas; annotations for each resource | 5-10 reference resources well organized into subject areas; appealing, readable annotations for each resource | 5-10 reference resources thoroughly explored and very well organized; appealing, kid-oriented annotations which clearly describe the resources |
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Reference resource list for teacher use, with notes regarding possible curricular connections
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Reference resource list not well organized; weak annotations; no notes for curricular connections | 3-5 reference resources well organized into topic or subject areas; annotations for each resource; some curricular connections noted | 5-10 reference resources well organized into subject areas; useful annotations for each resource; clear plan for integrating into curriculum | 5-10 reference resources thoroughly explored and very well organized; thorough annotations which clearly describe resources; examples of units of study and curricular connections for each resource |
Below are more indexes of reference resource accessible online. You may find more resources here, but will have to take time to search through the variety here. Enjoy!
Refdesk.com - Huge list of reference resources of all kinds, organized by topics, including search boxes for different search engines. http://www.refdesk.com/
LibrarySpot.com - At this website you can find not only reference resources, but listings for specialty libraries. http://www.libraryspot.com/
Yahoo! Reference - From this Yahoo! listing of categories, you can reach lists of references in many topic areas. http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/
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