Objectives

Instructional Objective: Students will be able to correctly and independently perform the following actions when reading the Diary of Opal Whiteley: search by character name, search by topic, search by phrase, and save a search.

Prerequisites

Time Required

Materials

Setup

Suggestions

Instructional Sequence

Script

1. Today we are going to learn a special way to move around Opal's diary. It's called searching. Searching lets you look for whatever information you choose.
   
2. Open your browsers and go to the first page of Opal's diary. [Students perform task.] Go down the page, past the boxes with the links. Just below the boxes you will see a long, narrow window with a button next to it that says "Search". Raise your hand if you see it. [Check and assist.] This is called a search window. There is a search window on every page of Opal's diary. You can use it to find out more about what you are reading. Let's give it a try.
   
3. One of the characters in Opal's diary is named Peter Paul Rubens. I want to find out all I can about him.
   
   [Teacher performs the following tasks while leading students through the procedure.]
   
4. Move your mouse so the arrow is over the search window. Click your mouse button once[Students perform tasks.] There should now be a small flashing up-and-down line on the left side of the window. Raise your hand if you see it. [Check and assist.]
   
5. Now let's type in the name, Peter Paul Rubens. Be careful to spell it correctly. [Write the name on the board for students.] Once you have typed the name and checked the spelling, move your mouse so the arrow is over the "Search" button next to the search window. [Students perform task.] Click the button once. [Students perform task.]
   
6. You should now have a window that says, "'Peter Paul Rubens' (39 Hits)". Raise your hand if that's what you have. [Check and assist.] the word "hits" means places you found where Peter Paul Rubens is mentioned in the diary. There are 39 paragraphs in the diary that talk about him. All of those paragraphs are on this page.
   
7. Let's see if we can find out who Peter Paul Rubens is. Look in the first paragraph and find the link that is his name. raise your hand when you find it. [Check and assist.] Click the link. [Students perform task.] You should now have a window with Peter Paul's name at the top. raise your hand if that's what you see. [Check and assist.]
   
8. Let's read and find out who this character is. [Have students read description.]
   
9. We know now that Peter Paul is Opal's pet pig. We can find out more about him. What do you see on the page that will take us to other pages? [Target answer: Links.] There are links in the yellow box to the right of what we just read. let's follow the one that says "More about Opal's pet pig." Click the link. [Students perform task.] You should now be on a page that tells more about Peter Paul Rubens. raise your hand if that's what you see. [Check and assist.]
   
10. Now we are going to have fun using the search window.
    
    
11. Activity: Assign each student a character name from the diary. Have the student use the search function to find out and share the following information:
    
    1. Who or what the character is
       
    2. How many times the character is mentioned in the diary
       
    3. Where Opal go the name for the character.
       
    4. Following are some suggestions for character names to use. The teacher may wish to choose other character names to assign.
       
       Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus (pet wood rat; 71 hits)
       Brave Horatius (Opal's German shepard; 108 hits)
       Isaiah (one of Opal's dogs; 4 hits)
       Lars Porsena of Clusium (pet crow; 45 hits)
       Aphrodite (a pig; mother of Solomon Grundy; 30 hits)
       Felix Mendelssohn (pet mouse; 36 hits)
       William Shakespeare (horse; 37 hits
       Elizabeth Barrett Browning (cow; 27 hits)
       Solomon Grundy (pig; 33 hits)
       Nannerl Mozart (pet mouse; 13 hits)
       Plato (bat; 7 hits)
       Pliny (bat; 8 hits)
       Eleanor of Castile (fir tree; 5 hits)
       Good King Edward I (fir tree; 11 hits)