Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
This course covers the basics of information literacy utilizing the Florida FINDS (Focus, Investigate, Note, Develop, Score) research model. Search strategies, database and website evaluation, note taking and organization, citation formats in MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association), creation of presentation products (including the utilization of various software programs for the production of multimedia), and an understanding of the meta-cognitive reflection process are an integral part of this course.Special Note: This course may be repeated utilizing the grade level appropriate benchmarks.
General Information
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Practice changing sentences from passive to active voice in this interactive tutorial about mythical creatures.
This is Part Two in a two-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first! Click HERE to launch "It's No Myth -- Part One: Distinguishing Between Passive and Active Voice.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to write a great "CER" paragraph that includes a claim, evidence, and reasoning with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the final part of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you’ll read two more passages from the book about Washington’s spies. You’ll also determine the central ideas of the passages, identify key details, and practice writing a summary of a text.
You should complete the previous tutorials in this series before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Three of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, and determine the central idea. Then, you'll review the central ideas from all the passages you've read throughout this series and examine how each central idea helps develop an overarching central idea of all the passages.
Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. In Part Two, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, determine the central idea, and examine how key details help develop the central idea.
Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. By the end of Part One, you should be able to distinguish topics from central ideas and identify central ideas and key details in the text.
Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete the other parts first.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident.
This tutorial is Part Two in a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Then, make sure to complete Part Three! Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this interactive tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident. Phineas Gage, at the age of twenty-six, survived a traumatic brain injury that would not only challenge the scientific understandings of his time but would also provide interesting revelations about the human brain to this day.
In Part One, you’ll begin to identify what makes a particular event significant, such as how a life-altering injury—like what happened to Phineas Gage—can influence an individual.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One and Part Two before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas that Scott learned along the way.
This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparisons she makes between her dream of life in America with the reality of her experience as an immigrant in America.
This tutorial is Part Four of a four-part series. Make sure to complete the previous tutorials before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between being in America but not being seen as American. Analyzing this comparison will help you better understand how her vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after arriving.
This is the second tutorial of a 4-part series. Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Then, make sure to complete the rest of the tutorials in this series:
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between the reality of living in Russia and her vision of what life will be like in America. You'll also identify her use of vivid contrasts to better understand what motivated her to go to America.
This tutorial is Part One. Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources, creating a Works Cited page, and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Help scientists find the most effective vaccine for Zombie Virus vaccine by effectively analyzing and summarizing experimental data. In this interactive tutorial, you'll write a scientific question, a claim, supporting evidence and an explanation of what happened during the experiment.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze multiple texts in which authors disagree about the harmfulness of sugar in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in an informative text about the Revolutionary War in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to create a Found Poem with changing moods in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is part two of a two-part series. In part one, students read “Zero Hour,” a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and examined how he used various literary devices to create changing moods. In part two, students will use words and phrases from “Zero Hour” to create a Found Poem with two of the same moods from Bradbury's story.
Click to view Part One: It's all about Mood: Bradbury's "Zero Hour."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about text structures found in informational texts by reading an article about lotteries in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore allusions and analogies and how authors use figurative language in their writing throughout this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to tailor your writing based on your task, purpose, and audience. In this interactive tutorial, you will review the differences between informative and argumentative writing, and you will also learn the differences between formal and informal writing styles.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice citing evidence and drawing inferences using an informational text about hacking and cyberwarfare in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to define and identify claims being made within a text. To accomplish this interactive tutorial profiles a number of famous Olympians and their incredible achievements. The tutorial will also show you how evidence can be used effectively to support the claim being made. Finally, this tutorial will help you write strong, convincing claims of your own.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Select a character and learn to identify and explain the central idea within a text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze an article about video games to find the central idea of each paragraph and the entire article.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how different authors approach the same topic in different ways by examining several passages that describe how insects have become a common food in certain parts of the world. With this interactive tutorial, you will learn how to analyze an author's approach based on the central idea of the text and the evidence used as support.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and understand the evidence presented within a text about Sacagawea. In this interactive tutorial, you will analyze information within the text, identify and cite textual evidence, and make inferences based on the information provided in the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how writers and speakers create arguments by stating a claim and backing it up with reasons and evidence. In this interactive tutorial, you'll hear speeches from candidates for Student Council President and complete practice exercises.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn the differences between informative and argumentative writing and how to organize your informative writing to make it more effective as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to evaluate argumentative claims based on evidence with this interactive tutorial. You'll also learn about statistics, facts, expert quotations, and anecdotes, and how each kind of evidence can strengthen an argument.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this interactive tutorial, you'll study written arguments and look at four kinds of evidence that can be used to support an argumentative claim: facts, statistics, anecdotes, and expert quotations.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read about dinosaurs like Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex to learn about the text structures of different paragraphs in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to evaluate the soundness of several speakers' arguments as they debate whether or not the driving age should be raised from 16 years old to 18 or even higher with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze the interactions between individuals, ideas, and events in an excerpt from the famous autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Investigate how temperature affects the rate of chemical reactions in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to use evidence from an informational, nonfiction text to support your analysis of what you have read. In this interactive tutorial you make inferences, or draw conclusions, from a passage about Philani Dladla, "The Pavement Bookworm."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.
In this interactive tutorial, you'll engage with a variety of short informational texts to determine an author's point of view and an author's purpose in writing.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Make connections between the key individuals in an informational text about concussions and high school football as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to find the central ideas of informational texts that are all about train travel! "Ride the rails" and learn about topics, central ideas, supporting details, and summaries.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" and gain experience using text evidence in your descriptive writing in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how authors of informational texts "hook" their readers in the introduction with techniques like interesting or unusual information, anecdotes, and quotes. Practice spotting these techniques in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to analyze the ideas, complaints, and language found in the Declaration of Independence, one of the most important documents in the history of the United States with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution line by line, word by word in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how figures of speech like simile, metaphor, and personification are used in the speeches of famous individuals. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine text from speeches by John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text…
This tutorial is about stating a claim in an argumentative essay. The tutorial includes information about grabbers, central ideas, and previewing reasons in a claim.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to identify a speaker’s argument or claim. You will also learn how to evaluate the evidence and reasoning presented in a speech.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to write a strong introduction for an argumentative essay as you complete this interactive tutorial. When you master argumentative writing, you can convince your reader to believe whatever you want them to believe!
Learn how to identify and write strong argumentative claims.
You’ll practice brainstorming and selecting the evidence that best supports an argumentative claim.
You’ll learn how to identify and write great grabbers to hook your reader’s attention and make them want to read your writing,
And finally, you’ll write a complete introduction using all that you’ll learn.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how nonfiction informational texts have a structure, that signal words can serve as your clues to determine that structure, and that parts of a text contribute to the development of the whole text structure with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how scientists use models to simplify and understand the world around us. In this interactive tutorial, you'll also explore the benefits and limitations of scientific models.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to analyze details from a nonfiction informational text about robots to identify and write about the central idea with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and analyze the comparison she makes between her actual work experience in America and her dream of finding work that would bring out the best in her. Analyzing this comparison in this interactive tutorial will help you understand how Anzia's vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after immigrating to America.
This is the third tutorial in a 4-part series. Make sure to complete Part One and Two first.
Then, make sure to complete the final tutorial in this series:
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Text Resource
This web resource provides students with an explanation of the differences between native, nonnative, and invasive plants, along with information on three of Florida's aquatic invasive plants--the water hyacinth, hydrilla, and alligatorweed. Through text questions and activities, students will learn how these plants can impair aquatic and wetland ecosystems and inhibit human uses of Florida waters. Readers will gain a greater understanding of how important it is to monitor and control invasive aquatic plants.
Type: Text Resource
Tutorials
Use this interactive tutorial to explore how to select print resources for a research assignment. The tutorial demonstrates tips on how to evaluate the author, select images, and use text features to gather information prior to writing. To get started, click on the Go to Demo arrow to learn more about these tips, then select the Try It arrow to download a worksheet that will allow you to use these tips on your own project.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice using commas correctly in sentences. For each practice item, you must use commas in a sentence only where appropriate. After every response, you will get immediate feedback.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice using commas correctly in sentences. For each practice item, you must use commas in a sentence only where appropriate. After every response, you will get immediate feedback.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice fixing comma errors in sentences. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to revise a sentence so that it uses commas correctly. After every response, you will get immediate feedback.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice fixing comma errors in sentences. For each practice item, you must correct the comma error in a sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. The site also provides an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked "Comma Tip” that appears with feedback.
Type: Tutorial
Use this interactive tutorial to improve your expository writing skills. This tutorial asks you questions about the qualities of expository writing and provides feedback on your responses. Finally, you will write a short paragraph and judge your own writing using the tutorial's criteria for effective expository writing.
Type: Tutorial
This 40-question exercise will give you practice in determining the main (central) idea of a paragraph. For each practice item, you will read a short paragraph and determine the main idea based on the details provided. If you get a question wrong, the program will remind you of your answer and show you the correct answer.
Type: Tutorial
This interactive exercise will give you practice simplifying sentences with apostrophes. For each practice item, you must simplify a sentence by typing a revision that demonstrates the correct use of an apostrophe. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. If you don’t know which word or words to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This interactive exercise will give you practice simplifying sentences with apostrophes. For each practice item, you must simplify a sentence by typing a revision that demonstrates the correct use of an apostrophe. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. If you don’t know which word or words to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
In this tutorial you will practice using supporting details. Each practice gives you a main idea and three possible details. Your job is to choose the detail that best supports the main idea. Each question gives you feedback on why your answer is correct or incorrect.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This resource helps the user learn the three primary colors that are fundamental to human vision, learn the different colors in the visible spectrum, observe the resulting colors when two colors are added, and learn what white light is. A combination of text and a virtual manipulative allows the user to explore these concepts in multiple ways.
Type: Tutorial
The user will learn the three primary subtractive colors in the visible spectrum, explore the resulting colors when two subtractive colors interact with each other and explore the formation of black color.
Type: Tutorial