Listening Skill

Listen for Ideas – Not Just Words

You need to get the whole picture, not just isolated bits and pieces.  Maybe one of the most difficult aspects of listening is the ability to link together pieces of information to reveal the ideas of others.   With proper concentration, letting go of distractions, and focus this becomes easier.

Listening is Not the Same as Hearing

Hearing refers to the sounds that you hear, whereas listening requires more than that: it requires focus.  Listening means paying attention not only to the story, but how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body.  In other words, it means being aware of both verbal and non-verbal messages.

Search Engines

http://infomine.ucr.edu/
http://www.ipl.org/
http://dir.yahoo.com/

how to compile a resource list

You can use this table to help you compile a resource list and later – a bibliography list:

Name of the site	You can usually find this on the home page of the website if it is not on the page you are accessing.
Name of the article	You can also write the web page name here if there is no article name.
Author	Write the author OR contact name of the website OR contact email of the website.
Exact Internet address (URL)	It is recommended that you copy (ctrl + C) and paste (ctrl + V) the web address directly from your browser so as not to make mistakes while copying.
Date article was accessed	Note example above.
Short description of the site/article	This is for your and other teachers' future reference.

search engines

Not only Google – there are many other search engines:  

Got a research paper to write? Want to research using the Internet? Good luck. There's a lot of junk out there — outdated pages, broken links, and inaccurate information. Using Google or Wikipedia may lead you to some results, but you can rarely be sure of accuracy. And what's more, you'll only be searching a fraction of all of the resources available to you.

Google, the largest search database on the planet, has a lot of information. But it's nothing compared to what else is out there. Google can only index the visible web, or searchable web. But the invisible web, or deep web, is estimated to be 500 times bigger than the searchable web. The invisible web comprises databases and results of specialty search engines that the popular search engines simply are not able to index.

In order to start researching like a librarian, you'll need to explore more authoritative resources, many of which are invisible. Note: Although some of the following resources are visible and indexed, they have all been included here because of their authoritative nature.

Deep Web Search Engines

1.     Clusty — A metasearch engine that combines the results of several top search engines.

2.     Intute — A searchable database of trusted sites, reviewed and monitored by subject specialists.

3.     INFOMINE — A virtual library of Internet resources relevant to university students and faculty. Built by librarians from the University of California, California State University, the University of Detroit-Mercy, and Wake Forest University.

4.     Librarians' Internet Index — A search engine listing sites deemed trustworthy by actual human librarians. 

5.     Internet Archive — A database of tens of thousands of movies, live music, audio, texts, that allows you to find old versions of web pages, over 55 billion.

6.     direct search — A list of hundreds of specialty databases and search engines. No longer maintained, but still perhaps the most complete list of the deep web.

Searching the Internet: QUICK TIPS

NOTE: These tips will work with most search engines in their basic search option.

·         Use the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in front of words to force their inclusion and/or exclusion in searches.
EXAMPLE:   +meat  -potatoes
(NO space between the sign and the keyword)
 

·         Use double quotation marks (" ") around phrases to ensure they are searched exactly as is, with the words side by side in the same order.
EXAMPLE:   "bye bye miss american pie"
(Do NOT put quotation marks around a single word.)
 

·         Put your most important keywords first in the string.
EXAMPLE:   dog breed family pet choose
 

·         Type keywords and phrases in lower case to find both lower and upper case versions. Typing capital letters will usually return only an exact match.
EXAMPLE:   president retrieves both president and President
 

·         Use truncation (or stemming) and wildcards (e.g., *) to look for variations in spelling and word form.
EXAMPLE:    librar* returns library, libraries, librarian, etc.
EXAMPLE:    colo*r returns color (American spelling) and colour (British spelling)
 

·         When searching within a document for the location of your keyword(s), use the "find" command on that page.

Adapted from: http://www.sc.edu/beaufort/library/pages/bones/bones.shtml

Last updated by E. Chamberlain,Friday March 30, 2007 , accessed on 29.6.08

The Project’s Map

The Project’s Map

BY: MANAL ABBAS

The project is planned as a 25 sessions’ long project. Nine of the sessions will be lessons, given by the teacher, in order to promote Prerequisite Skills and Knowledge. The rest of the sessions will be dedicated to group work, oral presentations and reflection.

Sessions	The subject and description of the session	Special remarks
1	Introduction: the general characteristics of project work and the criteria for assessing the project are discussed, after the teacher presents it.	The students receive: A letter, introducing  the project The criteria for assessing the project
2	Learning how to write a research question: After the guided activity, the groups’ research questions are approved by the teacher/ revised. The students divide the workload among group’s members.	We present a detailed activity. The students fill: Checklists to evaluate their research questions A table describing a clear division of workload among group’s members
3	Learning how to search  information on the Internet	The activity should be done in the computer lab.
4	Learning how to evaluate the different sources, and choosing At least 4-5 reliable sources for the project. The teacher approves the sources.	The activity should be done in the computer lab.
5	Learning to summarize:	We present a detailed activity
6	Learning how to use Using graphic organizers
7	The structure of the final product and the rules of citing are presented by the teacher.
8+9	Guided practice in speaking and presenting orally.
10-21	Group work on the project: Reading and summarizing the different sources. Writing a draft of the project. Meeting the teacher, who gives her/his remark on the project’s different stages and final draft. Re edit the project according to the teacher’s remarks. Write the final project. Prepare for the oral presentation.
22-23	Oral presentations of the projects by the groups, according to a pre-planned schedule.	Students check their readiness with the oral presentation checklist.
24-25	Feedback is given by the students, both orally, and in an individual reflection form. The teacher gives her remarks and final grade to each student.	The students fill: A reflection form The students receive: The teacher’s remark according to the project’s assessment criteria.

DEVELOPING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Sample Activities:

Activity #1

Teacher:  Manal Abbas

Umbrella topic: Addiction

DEVELOPING A RESEARCH QUESTION

1. Why?

It's absolutely necessary to develop a research question that you're interested in or care about in order to focus your research and your project.

2. How?

CHOOSE A QUESTION THAT IS NEITHER TOO BROAD NOR TOO NARROW.

For example:

If you choose drug addiction (a topic that can be researched), you might ask the following questions:

a. What is the 1994 rate of drug addiction among teenagers in Israel?

b. What can we do to reduce drug addiction in Israel?

c. How education plays a role in reducing drug addiction among teenagers in Israel?

Exercise 1:. Discuss with your partner which question is appropriate to be a research question and why? Use the evaluation form.

3. EVALUATE YOUR OWN RESEARCH QUESTION

8 questions to evaluate the quality of your research questions

Group's evaluation	What I think?	Questions
		1. Does the question deal with a topic or issue that interest me enough to spark my own thoughts and opinions?
		2. Is the question easily and fully researchable?
		3. What type of information do I need to answer the research question?
		4. Is the range of this information reasonable?
		5. Given the type and scope of the information that I need, is my question too broad, too narrow, or o.k.?
		6. What sources will have the type of information that I need to answer the research question (journals, books, internet resources, people to interview)?
		7. Can I access these sources?
		8. Given my answers to the above questions, do I have a good quality research question that I actually will be able to answer by doing research?

Adapted from : http://www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/menus.htm

Checklist to monitor my research questions

Instructor: ________________        Class: ________________

Group members: _______________________________________

Checklist to monitor my research questions

Comments	Yes	No	Questions
			Did I choose a sub-topic for addiction?
			Did I brainstorm with my group on several research questions?
			Did I constrict the number of questions by examining if they are too broad or too narrow?
			Did I conduct with my group  a preliminary search for information relating to the research question?
			Did I improve the research question to give it a clear, direct focus based on the preliminary research?
			Did I Ask my teacher to look over the research questions?

Research Questions:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Teacher's feedback:

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________G_________GGood luck

Manal Abbas_

Six steps to write your research question

Six steps to write your research question

1.   Step 1

Pick a general topic for your paper if you haven't already been assigned one. Your topic should be broad so that you can narrow it down to examine a specific issue relating to it.

2.   Step 2

Write down a list of relevant questions that interest you about the topic. Being interested in what you write about will make writing the paper less tedious. If you're not very familiar with your general topic, do a little reading to get an idea of the issues that relate to it.

3.   Step 3

Narrow down your list of questions to topics that aren't too narrow or general, depending on the length requirement of your paper. You won't be able to find enough information on a question that is too specific, but a very broad topic will yield too much information to work with.

4.   Step 4

Conduct a preliminary search for information relating to your question. Use search engines to get a general overview on how many resources are available to answer your question. If there seems to be a decent amount, search for articles and books on your school's academic database or library catalog to make sure that you have enough sources to work with.

5.   Step 5

Refine your research question to give it a clear, direct focus based on your preliminary research. For example, "How did the U.S. get involved in the Vietnam War?" is better than "What role did the U.S. play in the Vietnam War?" because it is focused on a specific part of a very broad issue. You'll have an easier time writing your paper if your research questions are specific, because you'll use your research question(s) to guide you in writing a thesis for your paper.

6.   Step 6

Ask your teacher or professor to look over your research questions. He or she will be able to help you decide if you're heading in the right direction.

Adapted from: http://www.ehow.com/how_4873808_write-research-question-research-papers.html

Rubrics

Rubrics

Name                                                   Title of Project:__________________________________________________

Components	Points Possible	Points Received	Comments
Cover page, Table of Contents and Introduction.	10
Rational :Research questions  ( 2 or 3 questions)	10
Well organized body which is related to the research questions	10
Conclusion with answers to research questions and personal reflection.	15
Writing: Creative writing (including summarizing, paraphrasing) and visual components (pictures/ graphs etc..)	10
Included the final draft with teachers` remarks. Well revised and edited work	10
A well organized, clear and attractive oral presentation	15
Effort (on tasks in class) and rough draft	10
Well organized, effective and divided group work.	10
Final Grade	100
Bonus points: additional work/ extraordinary work etc..	10