UPDATE: Boolean Search Phrases

Update 9/26 @ 1:06pm -- Just saw a student voluntarially referencing the cheat sheets we created in this workshop!! #teacherwin
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As learners are preparing to jump into the research phase of our next project, we did a workshop on Boolean Search Phrases today. Students, I think understand the big idea behind Boolean Search Phrases and why they should use them, however I think the missing piece was the fact that they don't quite understand what each operator does and why they would use each specific operator. You can read my previous post about the struggle with understanding what I've already taught here. 

Today in class I started by putting one of my research questions on the board (pictured on the right). Then, I created a set of two Boolean Search Phrases, both of which had issues.

I prompted students to take one minute to discuss the phrases with their group. Then we came together, and I asked them what was wrong with the phrases.

The first phrase needed a few adjustments, but the other phrase was not even considered Boolean Search Phrase because it had no Boolean Operators.

I stressed that I have been seeing similar phrases on the test they took last week as well as in their research notes from the last project.

We then corrected the search phrases together and talked about the following reminders:

• Eliminate any small, unnecessary words such as - in, it, as, so, the
• Search phrases MUST have Boolean Operators in them, otherwise it's just a plain phrase and you're not forcing Google to do anything special
• Use quotes carefully!! Anything in quotes means you're telling Google you want those EXACT words in that EXACT order. I also tell the learners they really don't want more than 3-4 words in quotes otherwise they're getting too specific. 
• Boolean Search phrases shouldn't be more than 5-6 words 
• A student suggested looking at the research question and eliminating small, unnecessary words. Others simply make a list of keywords to start their phrase

I also realized that a big problem students were having was that they really didn't understand what the Boolean operators actually DO. Why use AND? Why use "quotation marks"? 

To round out our workshop I asked them to pick one of their research questions, pull out the keywords, and then use operators to turn the keywords into a Boolean Search phrase. I then walked around to discuss each group's search phrase, ask questions, and clarify. 

Once they talked with me, they grabbed a piece of construction paper and listed the research question and Boolean Search Phrase.

Then, I asked them to explain WHY they chose to use the Boolean Operators the way they did. For example, if they put a phrase in quotes, they had to explain why.

I really think this was a huge point of clarification for them. If they can understand, "What are they telling Google to do by using the operators and keywords they choose?" I think they'll be more thoughtful in forming them. 

They jump into full research mode on Monday so we'll see how much of an improvement I see in search phrases.









More examples of their explanations. Now we have a ton of example Boolean Search Phrases along with research questions and explanations of each operator.