A Wonderful Google Tip to Help Students Search for Materials Appropriate to Their Reading Levels

May 29, 2014
Today I want to share with you a quick Google search tip that many of our students overlook and which can help them a lot in the enhancement of their reading skills. This tip is about refining search queries using the reading level.

As you know, the strength of Google as a search engine lies in its advanced search  features that provide users with a wide variety of options to help them hone in their search queries and get better search results. These features include filtering searches using specific domaine names, geographic locations, usage rights, update time, and reading level .

Related:  Google Search Tips Poster for Your Class

 Refining searches using reading level is a great way for students to locate reading materials that align with their reading competencies. Google offers  three reading levels that students can use to sort their reading materials: basic reading level, intermediate reading level, and advanced reading level. Next time your students make a search query on Google, make sure they use the reading level appropriate to their reading abilities.

Here is how to refine searches using reading level.

Head over to Google homepage and type in your search query. Next click on "search tools"

Then click on " all results" and select reading level

The three reading levels will be displayed on the top section of the search result page. Each of these reading levels will show a percentage of the reading materials relevant to your search query. Clicking on any of these reading levels will return results with materials appropriate for that  reading level.

 Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook , Google plus, Pinterest .

15 Must Have Google Lessons Plans to Teach Students Effective Search Skills

April , 2014
Google is one of the primary search engines students turn to when doing their research. On the face of it, searching Google seems as simple as typing in a search query and waiting for returned results. In fact,  effective Googling is way trickier than that. To be able to tap into the real potential of Google and  to understand how to get accurate search results, students need to learn different search tips and skills that most of them overlook or at best ignore.

Google search tips section here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning features a wide variety of materials and resources that teachers can use to teach their students about the art of effective Googling. Additionally, Google has also designed a set of 15 wonderful lesson plans ready to be used in class with students. These lesson plans are arranged by level of difficulty and are meant to hone in students search skills and make them better searchers.

Click here to check the entire lesson plan map. Below are the titles of the five lessons Google provides:

• Lesson 1: How can appropriate search terms and queries guide targeted searches?
• Lesson 2: How and why do researchers evaluate search results?
• Lesson 3: How can I narrow my search to get the best results?
• Lesson 4: How and why do researchers evaluate search results?
• Lesson 5: How do I evaluate and decide which credible sources to use for a specific task?

Here is a snapshot of how the first lesson plan looks like:

 Follow us on : Twitter, Facebook , Google plus, Pinterest .