ALEX Learning Activity

  

Animal Research With Pebble Go (Part 3)

A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Abbey Thomas
System:Dekalb County
School:Ider School
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 3012
Title:
Animal Research With Pebble Go (Part 3)
Digital Tool/Resource:
Pebble Go accessed through Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) - Click on “Elementary School” Click on “Pebble Go” Click on “Animals” then search for your animal.
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

Students will perform keyword searches inside Pebble Go courtesy of the Alabama Virtual Library to locate information about a chosen animal. Students will research that animal and create a one-pager as evidence of learning. Students will record their two favorite facts and draw a picture of their animal using a graphic organizer.

This learning activity was created as a result of the ALEX - Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) Resource Development Summit.

  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Digital Literacy and Computer Science
DLIT (2018)
Grade: 2
12) Conduct basic keyword searches to gather information.

Unpacked Content
Evidence Of Student Attainment:
Students:
  • will determine the right key words to use in a search about a topic.
  • will use the plus (+) sign in searches so that all my words are searched or the minus (-) sign to exclude words from my search.
  • will use quotation marks around words or a phrase so that that exact set of words is searched.
Teacher Vocabulary:
  • search engine
  • quotation marks
Knowledge:
Students know:
  • a search engine searches exactly what you type.
  • a search engine may only produce search results for one or some of your keywords.
  • using a plus (+) sign between words tells the search engine to search for all of the words and using a minus (-) sign before a word will exclude that word from your search.
  • putting quotation marks around a set of words or a phrase tells the search engine to keep those words together in a search.
Skills:
Students are able to:
  • state important key words that pertain to a topic
  • use the plus (+) sign to tell the search engine to search for both words in a resource and use a minus (-) sign before a word to remove it from your search.
  • use quotation marks around a phrase to communicate to the search engine that they want that phrase to be found with the words in that order.
Understanding:
Students understand that:
  • search engines have to be told exactly what to search.
  • a search engine will search each word separately unless it is told it to search for a phrase or multiple words or to exclude words.
Learning Objectives:

Students will use keyword searches to find information and answer research questions about animals.

Students will create an animal one-pager to communicate the information they learned about their animal.

  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
After/Explain/Elaborate
Activity:

  1. The teacher will pass out or ensure that each student has their research from the associated during activity - Animal Research With Pebble Go Part 2.
  2. The teacher will say, “Now that we have gathered information about our animals and recorded our information on our note-taking graphic organizer, it is time to create our animal one-pager.
  3. The teacher will say, "You will use the two facts that you circled on your note-taking organizer and transfer those to your one-pager in your very best handwriting.”
  4. The teacher will say, "After you have finished writing your two facts, you may draw a picture of your animal."
  5. The teacher will direct the students to revisit their animal articles in order to reference the pictures to help them draw a picture of their animal. The teacher will model the steps to access the animal articles through the AVL and Pebble Go. {Pebble Go is accessed through Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) - Click on “Elementary School” Click on “Pebble Go” Click on “Animals” then search for your animal.}
  6. The students will complete the animal one-pager independently. 
  7. The students will share their animal one-pager with the class using a Gallery Walk. A Gallery Walk is completed by having each student's work displayed on their desk or posted around the room. The students will walk around and view their classmates' final products.
  8. The one-pagers can also be printed and shared in the hallway or shared online using a digital platform such as Google Drive or Seesaw.
Assessment Strategies:

The teacher will use the final product as an evaluation tool. The teacher will check for:

  • The students performed an accurate keyword search to find pictures of their animals.
  • The student included at least two facts. 
  • The product was free of grammatical and spelling errors.
  • The student did their best work to make the one-pager neat and legible.

The teacher will assess student understanding of how to locate information through questioning.

  • How did you find the information on your animal?
  • What keywords did you use in the search bar?

Advanced Preparation:

Approximate Duration: 30 minutes

Materials and Resources:

Background/Preparation:

  • The teacher will need to be familiar with navigating through the Animal articles on Pebble Go.
  • The teacher will need to be familiar with using Google Drawings in order to edit and/or print out the animal research graphic organizer.
  • The students will need to be able to transfer information from one source to another. 
  • Acceleration students need to be familiar with Google Drawings.
Variation Tips (optional):

Intervention - These students can work together in a small group with the teacher to complete their one-pager.  

Acceleration - These students can create their one-pager poster digitally using the Animal Research Graphic Organizer in Google Drawings.  They can add their facts to the text boxes and take a picture of their animal drawing to add to the poster. If students have worked with Google Drawings before they should be able to do this independently or as a group together. If they are unfamiliar with Google Drawings the teacher will need to model how to use a text box and the camera function.

Your school librarian could be a great co-teacher for this lesson.

Notes or Recommendations (optional):

This task should be used in conjunction with Animal Research with Pebble Go Part 1 (before activity) and Animal Research with Pebble Go Part 2 (during activity).

This activity also supports DLCS18.2.R6  Produce, review, and revise authentic artifacts that include multimedia using appropriate digital tools. (Extension students only)

  Keywords and Search Tags  
Keywords and Search Tags: animals, research