Research Skills - Tips for Searching

This rubric provides ideas for how to improve your results by improving how you search online: the goal is to progress to the right along this rubric in each category as you improve the way you search when using any search engine or database.

	Experimenting	Emerging	Developing	Capable	Experienced
Persistence	Student opens the first result.	Student scrolls down the entire first page of the results and opens more than one result.	Student scrolls past the first page and opens more than three results.	Student scrolls past the first two pages of results.	Student persists until multiple relevant and useful resources are found.
Adaptability	Student tries one search term.	Student makes one adjustment to search term.	Student makes adjustments to search term using only one strategy.	Student uses two strategies to change search term.	Student uses more than two search strategies and uses successful results to help find new resources.
Note: Search strategies include synonyms, narrowing and broadening, quotation marks, truncation, adding or deleting words, using subject heading, and/or Boolean logic.
Independence	Student uses results of initial search without consideration of other search strategies.	Student needs prompting from a peer or adult to think of other searching strategies.	Student recognizes their actions change the results but needs assistance from a peer or adult to think of other searching strategies.	Student independently changes their search and retrieves one relevant result.	Student is completely independent and retrieves multiple relevant resources.