Teaching English Language Arts & Literature

Developing a search query can be a challenge. Here are some tips to help.

• Check out a database's Thesaurus to find appropriate keywords for the item for which you are looking. 

• A longer search query helps databases retrieve more specific resources

• Using "OR" between terms will retrieve more results

• Using "AND" between terms will retrieve less results
   
• Use a * (star) truncation symbol, which acts as a wildcard to broaden a search by finding variations of a word's ending, e.g. psych*
   
• Use " " (quotation marks) to tell the database to treat the enclosed words as an exact phrase, e.g. "educational psychology"
   
• Add "Study and teaching" as a search concept to find resources about the educational aspects of studying and teaching a particular subject
• Add grade or level of education (e.g. elementary, secondary) to your search strategy.

For searching in the UofA library catalogue, you can use keywords in an Advanced Search such as in the examples below:

1. General ELAL Lesson Planning:  A search in the library catalogue for books on the subject 

“language art*”
AND
lesson planning OR activity programs

2. Elementary ELAL Activities:  A search of the catalogue for books on the subject

"language art*"
AND
elementary OR primary
AND
study and teaching
AND
"activity program*" OR "lesson plan*"

3. Secondary ELAL Activities:

"language art*" OR drama OR theater OR theatr* OR poetry OR litera*
AND
study and teaching
AND
"activity program*" OR "lesson plan*"
AND
secondary OR "high school" OR "middle school" OR "junior high" OR 7-12

 Use keyword "juvenile" to your catalog search to limit your results to items appropriate for K-12 students.  See the Division I and II pages for more resources and search tips. 

• For finding fiction titles, use the term "Juvenile fiction" combined with keywords that describe the topic of interest. For example:

"juvenile fiction"
AND
friendship

• For finding non-fiction literature, use the term "juvenile literature" keywords that describe the topic of interest. For example:

"juvenile literature"
AND
Alberta

For searching in the UofA library catalogue, you can use key words such as in the examples below to search:

1. ELAL Learning Strategies:

"teaching method*" OR "instructional strategies" OR "learning strategies" OR "effective teaching" OR "learning strategies" OR "problem-based learning"
AND
"language art*"

Finding Information about Teaching Effectiveness

For searching in the UofA library catalogue, you can use keywords describing each of your concepts in an Advanced Search such as in the examples below :

1. Literacy: 

literac* OR "language art*"

2. STEAM:

stem OR steam OR technolog* OR scien* OR math*

3. Grade or Education Level:

elementary OR primary OR secondary OR "high school" OR "junior high" OR "middle school" OR "k-12"

From the library home page, select the Advanced Search. Enter the keywords: (cumulative OR predictable) AND (juvenile fiction OR juvenile literature OR picture books). Run the search only across Library Catalog items to avoid retrieving book reviews.

Be sure to check your course information, or with your instructor, to see if individual titles reflect the characteristics of predictable books.

Song based picture books :   Search the Library Catalogue using the following subject terms

• Children's songs -- Texts OR songs AND music -- Juvenile fictions -- OR Songs -- Juvenile fiction