Online Literacy Assignment

Written Component
Aria Bailey
Bellarmine University

Introduction
For my Online Literacy Assignment, I created a lesson to be used with elementary ESL
students in grades two through five to teach them to do basic internet searches to find answers to
their questions. The lesson covered gatekeeper skills as outlined by Laura A. Henry (Henry,
2006) and can serve as a jumping off point to prepare students to conduct their own internet
research. The activity was designed to meet a variety of standards as set forth by the
International Literacy Association (ILA) for teaching professionals, the International Society for
Technology in Education (ISTE), and the Kentucky Educational and Professional Standards
Board. It was also designed with careful consideration of concepts related to Technological
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and Common Core ELA standards.
ILA Standards
The ILA standards addressed in the lesson are as follows:
1.2 Candidates understand the historically shared knowledge of the profession and changes over time in the
perceptions of reading and writing development, processes, and components.
2.2 Candidates use appropriate and varied instructional approaches, including those that develop word recognition,
language comprehension, strategic knowledge, and reading-writing connections.
2.3 Candidates use a wide range of texts (e.g., narrative, expository, and poetry) from traditional print, digital, and
online resources.
4.2 Candidates use a literacy curriculum and engage in instructional practices that positively impact students
knowledge, beliefs, and engagement with the features of diversity.
5.1 Candidates design the physical environment to optimize students use of traditional print, digital, and online
resources in reading and writing instruction.

Historically, reading and writing skills have been taught using ink and paper as the main
tools. In todays changing digital world, it is widely recognized that a new set of literacies must
be taught (Henry, 2006) (International Reading Association, 2009) that enable to students to
engage with digital media which includes not only traditional forms of print, but new forms that
require new skills for self-direction in information seeking.
This lesson focuses on strategies for finding and managing information online. In this
lesson students are given direction on how to conduct a web search using optimal language,
where to look (read) and on web search pages for relevant information. Future lessons would
cover what to do when that information is found.

Students were directed to seek out information on their favorite food. This topic was
chosen because of its relative simplicity and possible tie-in to students native cultures.
The search engine KidRex.org was chosen as the search engine with which to begin
teaching search skills because the results yielded are kid-friendly. There are no ads that clutter
the online environment and inappropriate content is filtered out of search results.
ISTE Standards
The ISTA standards addressed in the lesson are as follows:
1. Creativity and innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative
products and processes using technology.
2. Communication and collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work
collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
3. Research and information fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
4. Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct
research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and
resources.

This lesson lays the foundations for students to be able to engage with technologies and
each other to find answers to their questions and share these answers with others. Students are
asked to work collaboratively to determine what questions they would like answered and to find
the answers online. After finding the answers, they work together to think metacognitively about
the steps they took to do so and develop an anchor chart to aid them in future web searches.
Kentucky Teacher Standards
The Kentucky teacher standards addressed in the lesson are as follows:
6.1 Uses available technology to design and plan instruction.
6.2 Uses available technology to implement instruction that facilitates student learning.
6.3 Integrates student use of available technology into instruction.

A website was created to guide students through this lesson at litr630abailey.weebly.com.

Throughout the lesson, students are required to engage with technology for both note taking and
conducting web searches. Since this is a lesson introducing online search engines, students are
not expected to engage with the website on their own but are instead supported throughout the
lesson by the teacher.
Common Core Standards
The Common Core standards addressed in the lesson are as follows:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.4
Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task,
purpose, and audience.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.6
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.8
Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each
source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.

The lesson is designed to be used with students in grades three through five with varying
levels of support. The end goal of creating an anchor chart and publishing it for use by others is
most closely related to Common Core ELA anchor writing standards four, six, and eight
gathering relevant information from multiple print and digital sources (standard 8) producing and
publishing a piece that is appropriate to the task (standard 4) and using technology to do so
collaboratively (standard 6).
TPACK
Consideration for TPACK was included when choosing which technological tools to use
and which to forego. Many tools were included (bubbl.us, gliffy.com, weebly.com, SmartBoard)
and each was chosen for its specific applicability to the lesson. Bubbl.us and gliffy.com are both
fun tools to use and it is hoped that their use will improve students' motivation. Bubbl.us was
chosen for it's relative ease of use as a note-taking application. Gliffy was chosen for making the
anchor chart because it has tools relevant to the task and is a good way to create a clean simple
visual. Weebly.com serves as an online access point to activity directions and as a receptacle for
the anchor chart students create.
Conclusion
Professionals in the new century will be valued for their ability to access and use
information to solve problems. This lesson seeks to set a foundation for the necessary skills as
outlined by Laura Henry ( (Henry, 2006) and others (i.e., set a purpose for searching, employ
effective search strategies, and analyze search engine results). It is by no means exhaustive but

intentionally simple. Follow-up instruction would reinforce the strategies introduced and teach
new strategies for dealing with information found.

References
Henry, L. A. (2006). SEARCHing for an answer: The critical role of new literacies
while reading on the Internet. International Reading Association, 614-627.
International Reading Association. (2009). New Literacies and 21st Century
Technologies. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.