Use the following 5-day plan to help students conduct this week's Internet inquiry activity on
following your dreams. Remind students to follow classroom rules when using the Internet.
Identify Questions Discuss the lesson focus question: When are you free to follow your dreams? Brainstorm ideas for specific inquiry questions about following dreams. For example, students might want to find out how to start a pet-sitting business, or how to prepare for a career as an astronaut. Have students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to write an inquiry question they want to answer.
Navigate/Search Review how to evaluate Web sites. Remind students to check for the timeliness of the information and the general appearance of the site. Tell students that organizations sometimes pay to have their sites listed among the first ten shown on certain search engines. Remind students to consider these factors as well as the content of the sites when selecting sites to analyze on Day 3.
Analyze Encourage students to explore the Web sites they identified on Day 2. Tell them to scan each site for information that may help to answer their inquiry questions. Have students analyze information for credibility, reliability, and usefulness. Take notes or print out valuable information.
Synthesize Have students synthesize information from Day 3. Remind them that when they synthesize, they combine relevant information and ideas from several sources to find an answer to their inquiry questions.
Communicate Have students share their inquiry results. They can use a word processing program to create a short journal entry about following your dreams.