The big idea of the ‘Locating’ phase of the information process is: “Where can I find the information I need?”
The key steps and questions of this phase are:
– What do I already know?
– What do I need to find out?
– What sources can I use?
(NSW Department of Education, 2023a)
Start by filling out the K and W sections of your KWL (Already Know, Want to know, Learned) chart with your group (you will come back and fill out the L section at the end of your research journey). A paper copy will be provided for your group, and there is an editable digital version you can type into in your Google Classroom assignment. Here is a view-only digital version as well.
Be sure to check the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria carefully when writing about what you want to know, along with your own personal questions.
Next, consider where you can find resources that will help you.
You can search “Oliver” (My School Library), which you access through your student portal, for any physical books we have in our school library that may be relevant. For example, by searching: “stolen generation” in quotation marks in the search bar, you can find results for Stolen girl by Trina Saffioti and Norma MacDonald; as well as Kunyi by Kunyi June Anne McInerney (these books will be discussed further in the ‘Selecting’ phase.)
By checking the information to the right of the titles that appear in the search results, you can see whether they can be found in our junior fiction (picture book) section, fiction (picture and chapter book) section, or non-fiction section, as well as where to locate them on the shelf (by author surname, or the Dewey Decimal System number). If there’s a green tick next to the book cover, that means it is available to look at and borrow. If there is a red cross, that means it has already been borrowed out by someone else. As always, if you need assistance finding a book, the teacher-librarians and library monitors are always happy to help!
World Book Online, a database for students, is another excellent place to start looking for more information.
World Book Online can be accessed either through “Oliver” (My School Library) or the direct link here.
Using our school’s username and password, log in to World Book Online, and click on the Student option.
Then, search for key words (e.g. “Stolen Generations”), and click on the article you want. There are tabs at the top of the article page, which you can use to click between ‘Article’ (textual information), ‘Media’ (images, photographs, videos), and ‘Related information’ (links to other relevant topics/articles).
World Book Online is a fantastic tool for students because, as discussed during library lessons each year, you can click on the play button to have the text read to you, translate the text and audio to other languages through the settings, and double-click on individual words to pull up a dictionary definitions.
There is even a ‘Citation’ option in the tools and settings, which helps you reference the article you’re looking at! Make sure to follow the APA guidelines, as taught in class. Examples can be found in the “Referencing” tab of this library research guide, as well as in the next step.
There is also Kiddle, a kid-friendly search engine (like Google for children/students). This will help you limit your search to websites more appropriate for people your age.
You can use it to search for key words from your glossary or related to your topic. The ‘Web’ and ‘Facts’ tabs will be especially helpful for you.
While this search engine is designed for primary school-aged students, you should still remember everything you’ve learned about cyber safety when using it, just in case (e.g. don’t click on any pop-ups or ads, tell a trusted adult/teacher straight away if you end up on a site you want to get away from).
Wikipedia is also a good site/encyclopedia to start with. It helps you get an overall sense of a topic, and is fairly easy to navigate. You may have heard teachers in the past warning you not to use Wikipedia, however, this has been changing in recent years. While it is not perfect, it is overall a generally reliable and trustworthy source of information. It also contains information and articles on an enormous number of topics. This is a great place to start your research, especially while you’re still developing your research skills.
Next is the ‘Selecting’ phase, where you’ll learn about how to evaluate whether or not a source is trustworthy and accurate.