Raise your hand if you remember "old school" citing sources for research papers. I'm talking about using a typewriter, correction tape and white out, and formatting with an MLA guide open on the desk! Ah, the good old days.... Kids today have it so easy because they don't have to worry about ANY of that! (If I had a dime for every time I had to re-type a page of my bibliography because I realized I forgot a source that needed to be listed, I'd be on a beach in Fiji right now.)
Google Docs makes it exceptionally easy to create internal citations and a works cited page, all formatted properly! With a few clicks of the mouse, students can copy and paste a web address or enter in publishing information and insert an internal citation and add a works cited page at the end of their document. Seriously. Want to see how? Check out the demo video I share at the end of this post (I created it to be shown to students).
Now, I know some of you are excited about this great little tool in Google Docs -- I'm looking at you, TRS and CJHS teachers! And I bet some of you are smiling to yourselves right now, thinking how grand life is that you don't have to cover this with your kids -- now I'm looking at you, NBG and PP teachers! But I say whoa Nelly, NBG and PP! You don't necessarily need to teach kids about using a standard format for documenting sources used for research, but you SHOULD be helping students to understand that information on websites, in videos, in books, etc. have all been put together by other people and we need to show that we respect their work by letting others know where we learned out information from. So while the citation tool isn't necessarily something you would use with your students, the concept is definitely something they can start to learn!
One thing I did in the past was to assemble a list of Common Core and ISTE standards where documenting resources was embedded (there are not really any standards that explicitly state skills related to documenting sources). You can find that list here, if you're interested or if it will be helpful.
In addition, here's a handy support document you can use with students to help them through the process! Click here to view the document. Click here to make your own copy that you can customize, if you want!
Need help with teaching your students about how to use the citation tool in Google Docs or sharing information with them on the importance of respecting copyright? I've got you covered! Let me know what I can do to help! I love talking about copyright -- I'm that nerd :-)
Demo video of how to use the citation tool in Google Docs (designed to be shown to students):
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