Part 1: Lesson Description

Lesson Title

Internet Searching with a Career Focus

Abstract

Using the internet to collect information is a key digital literacy skill. This 90-minute lesson teaches adult basic education participants how to use their smartphones or computer to navigate the internet to search for relevant, reliable search results. Participants will be able to demonstrate how this increased digital literacy related to internet searching can help them successfully find relevant job opportunities.

Learner Audience / Primary Users

This lesson plan is designed for instructors working with adults who have limited prior experience using the internet to find information. The lesson approaches internet search using various examples focused on general search needs and employment-related search needs.

Educational Use

• Curriculum / Instruction
• Professional Development

Language

English

Material Type

• Instructional Material
• Student Guide
• Lecture Notes

Keywords

• Designers for Learning
• Adult Education
• Internet Search
• Job Search
• Career Development
• Keyword Search

Time Required for Lesson

90 mins (facilitator can reduce or expand time for lesson as needed)

Targeted Skills

Key skills covered in this lesson include:

• Career
• Life
• Employability
• Digital Literacy

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:

• Demonstrate digital literacy skills needed to use the internet to collect information
• Demonstrate critical thinking skills needed to collect relevant and reputable internet resources
• Demonstrate how to use the internet to create a list of relevant, potential employment opportunities

College & Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) Alignment

• Level: Adult Education
• Grade Level: E
• Subject: English Language Arts
• Strand: Reading Informational Text
•  CCR Anchor 4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including  determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (RI/RL.9-10.4) 

Prior Knowledge

Learners should have a basic understanding of using a smartphone or computer and accessing the internet. They should understand the meaning of synonym or keyword. They should also be able to navigate to a specific website.

Required Resources

The learner should have access to a smartphone or computer (if learner does not, facilitator should pair the student with a participant who does have one in order to complete the exercises). Facilitator should also have a smartphone.

Facilitator should provide writing instruments for students, and have printed course worksheets (4 worksheets total) for each participant. Facilitator should also prepare for the course by printing and reviewing the course facilitator’s guide. Facilitator should bring a smart phone or laptop computer to conduct lesson.

Lesson Author & License

• Lesson Authors: Jaclyn Zdanio, Vikas Relan, Tonya Brookins, Carlyss Lewis

• License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license

Part 2: Lesson

Instructional Strategies and Activities

Course High-Level Outline:

Module 1: Introduction and Overview

Module 2: Discovering Internet Search Strengths and Challenges

• Activity: Discovery-based learning demonstrating entry-level internet search skills

Module 3: Internet Search Tips and Tricks

• Activity: Facilitator-led guided simulation/student follow-along

Module 4: Show What You Know

• Activity: Student self-led activity focused on finding relevant job opportunities

Module 5: Reflection and Conclusion

Key Course Materials:

Notes to Facilitators:

The course outline includes key preparation materials for facilitating the course, including participant and course background information, detailed outline of the overall course, notes for facilitating each section of the course, and a list of essential course materials.

The facilitator’s guide includes detailed instructions for facilitating the course, including key content to teach, prompts for classroom discussion, activity instructions and examples to teach. 

Both documents should be printed and reviewed before facilitating this course.

Module worksheets should be printed (one per participant) before facilitating the course.

Course timing is up to the facilitator. You can choose to facilitate all included examples, focus only on general search examples, only job search examples, or both. Estimated timing for each module is listed below.

Course Outline

Below is a high-level outline of each module included in this course. Print and review both the Course Outline for Facilitators and the Facilitator's Guide (links to download these materials appear above in the "key course materials" section) to read instructions on running each module in this course.

Module 1: Introduction and Overview (10 minutes)

• Facilitator and participant introductions
• Review expectations for courses
• Introduce overall course design

Module 2: Discovering Internet Search Opportunities and Challenges (15 minutes)

• Introduction to module
• Facilitator distributes module 2 worksheet
• Explanation of activity
• Students take 5 minutes to complete the activity outlined in the worksheet, including
• Read the excerpt
• Access indeed.com on their cellular device
• Use information from the excerpt to navigate indeed.com and find relevant job opportunities for the provided resume

• Students report out on their thought process, results and challenges. Facilitator to guide this discussion/debrief. Questions included in this discussion:
• What was your outcome?
• What was your first step and what  process did you follow?
• How successful were you in finding what you started out looking for?
• What challenges did you run into?

Module 3: Discovering Internet Search Opportunities and Challenges (50 minutes)

• Introduction to module
• Facilitator distributes module 3 worksheet
• Facilitator to describe five internet tips:
• Keywords
• Site specific searches
• Multiple search engines
• Relevancy
• Advanced search

• Following each tip, facilitator to model two examples of how to use the tip.
• A general example of how this tip would apply to any internet search
• How this tip could apply when using the internet to find a job opportunities

• Facilitator will use the worksheet and insights from the first activity to engage students in this portion of the instruction.
• Throughout the module, participants will use a provided worksheet to follow along with each tip, listing how they used the tip to complete an internet search.
• Participants will complete each tip using their cellular phones
• Facilitator to debrief tips/activities and answer questions

Module 4: Show What You Know (20 minutes)

• Introduction to module
• Students are provided module 4 worksheet and are given an overview of the activity
  
• Students complete module 4 worksheet, which asks students to record information in two sections (Part 1 and Part 2 below).
• Part 1: Your potential job opportunities
• List 1-3 jobs you have held
• Brainstorm 1-3 skills you have that might be attractive to potential employers
• Brainstorm 1-3 potential locations for a job you might be interested in
• Brainstorm 1-3 potential jobs you might be interested in
• Do you want this job to be full-time, part-time?
• Should it be entry level or advanced?
• What type of salary are you considering?

• Part 2: Your search parameters. Using what you recorded in part 1:
• Using the information you listed, write down at least three keywords you might use in this search
• Write down any special characters you might use and how you would use them to narrow down your search results
• Write down which search engines you will use for this search (use google and at least one job search engine)
• For the job search engine, use information on worksheet #2 to filter your results using the advanced features search (full/part time, entry level/advanced and salary)

• Participants asked to use the information on the worksheet and their cellular devices to complete an internet search for job opportunities that are relevant to them:
• Participants should use both google and then a specific job search website, using the tips provided throughout the workshop
• Participants record 2-5 potential opportunities and are given 10 minutes to complete the activity

• Facilitator will answer students questions during the activity.
  

Module 5: Reflection and Conclusion (5 minutes)

• Facilitator reviews content covered in the course, including any learnings they had from completing the assessments/activities.
• Facilitator solicits any questions.
• Facilitator encourages students to revisit activities completed in the course and distributes worksheet #4 (which is a takeaway job aid that provides additional assistance.

Key Terms and Concepts

Keywords are important words, or more commonly a string of important words, that are displayed within a web page. Searchers, like you, use keywords to find web pages that are relevant to what they are searching for.

Attribution Statements

Internet Search Results  is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This course content is offered by Designers for Learning under a CC Attribution license.
Content in this course can be considered under this license unless otherwise noted.        Page

(Design Guide effective September 23, 2017)