Three Steps to Web Research

Do you worry that students will quote -- or worse, plagiarize -- from the Internet without thinking about they've read? Don't despair. Web research for grades 3-12 can be as easy 1-2-3.

One!
Narrow the topic.

To help students narrow a broad research topic to a more focused topic with subtopics, invite them to answer the questions at 4Teacher's http://thinktank.4teachers.org.

Two!
Copy and paste text into Word.

Teach students to select only the pertinent areas of a Web site. Be sure to have students follow the same steps to accurately copy Web site addresses (URLs) for citation purposes!

Three!
Use font color and Word's highlighter to emphasize important points.

Encourage students to critically evaluate what they read on the Web. Have them copy and paste text from a Web page to Microsoft Word, and then use a different font color and/or highlighting to add comments or to emphasize important points in the text. Then have them paraphrase what they have read on the Web site.