The Reading Teacher Vol. 67 Issue 5 pp. 389–399 DOI:10.1002/TRTR.1223 © 2013 International Reading Association 389 R T INTERNET INQUIRY Fundamental Competencies for Online Comprehension Tara Kingsley ■ Susan Tancock This article describes four important competencies needed for Internet inquiry, what they look like in the classroom, and what scaffolds are needed to guide students to use them independently. F or her Famous American inquiry proj- ect, Aliya (pseudonym) has chosen to study Madame C.J. Walker, the country’s first female African American millionaire. Aliya’s teacher, Mr. Baker, briefly reviews some Internet safety rules to keep in mind and instructs the class to write down some questions to help guide its research in the computer lab. Aliya jots down a few things she would like to know about Ms. Walker, including, “How did she get rich?” and “When was she born?” Once in the computer lab, Aliya opens the browser and types “Madame C.J. Walker” into the Google search bar. Google tells her there are “about 248,000 hits” for this search. Aliya looks at the list of links, and although she is pleased there appears to be lots of information, she is overwhelmed by how much. Aliya really doesn’ t know which links will give her the best information. She needs to get her informa- tion quickly, so she begins to click on the links one by one, copying and pasting information from the sites into a Word document. By the end of the lab time, Aliya has a collection of random bits of information about Ms. Walker, with no idea of which ones are accurate and which are not. Internet Inquiry This scenario with Aliya is typical of the way a student would approach an inquiry project. Aliya lacks effective strategies for narrowing her focus, locating information, evaluating the information for accu- racy, and synthesizing it into a product she can use to effectively share her information with others. With so many new literacy skills needed to find, understand, organize, and communicate research done on the Internet, teachers and students are often left feeling frustrated with Internet inquiry. Internet inquiry involves curiosity, which leads stu- dents to search, scan, and ultimately seek to find an answer to their inquiring minds. At a time when stu- dents need more support with developing higher level Internet inquiry skills, teachers lack the knowledge and comfort levels needed to teach these proficiencies (Dreher & Zelinke, 2010; Stolle, 2008). Schools have not fully transitioned to embracing digital texts and are still primarily print-based, with teachers view- ing technology as merely a supplement to instruction (Hutchison & Reinking, 2011 ). Direct instruction from the teacher is needed for students to acquire these complex, higher level skills; yet, elementary teach- ers often feel inadequately supported when it comes Tara Kingsley is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University Kokomo, USA; e-mail tkingsle@iuk.edu. Susan Tancock is a professor at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA; e-mail stancock@bsu.edu.