STIGroup3

 Heathcote School MaryAnn Kingston Library Media Specialist Jodi Giroux Technology

1. QUESTIONS: Identify: the age/level/type of students you worked with your question(s) of interest and what you are hoping to find out.

• 4th grade students in library and computer sessions engaged in research projects (Colonial America and “Feature Article”). • How do students take notes from print resources? • How do students “find” information electronically? Do they use the same techniques they have learned to use with print resources? • How do students take notes from electronic resources? Do they use the same techniques they have learned to use with print resources?

2. METHODS and FINDINGS: LIBRARY SESSIONS

There were a number of lessons in the library: • Note taking lesson – telephone dialog role play; Skim/scan lesson using “Colonial Schoolmasters” article • Bibliography lesson • Examining periodical style

To introduce note-taking skills to students, the teacher and I delivered a dialogue that I wrote that demonstrated the need for taking notes as opposed to writing complete sentences (see attached “dialog.pdf”). I observed that students were immediately engaged in the task and were easily able to extract keywords from the dialogue. I then handed out a page from a book entitled Going to School in Colonial America by Shelley Swanson Sateren on colonial schoolmasters (see attached “Schoolmasters.pdf”) and talked about skimming and scanning and the difference between the two techniques. We pretended that students were writing a paper contrasting a colonial schoolteacher and their teacher and each one’s respective professional responsibilities. I asked them to skim and/or scan the article and to take notes from the article. I observed that many students were able to take reasonably good notes using bullets or dashes for a first effort. A few had difficulty putting sentences into key words and abbreviated language.

I introduced bibliography by discussing what it is and its importance. I then talked about bibliographic format and mentioned terms such as citation and entry. As a class, we examined a number of books on Colonial America to familiarize students with locating the publisher, the place of publication, and the copyright date. Before students practiced themselves, I handed out the bibliography from the above-mentioned book (see attached “biliography.pdf”) so that students could see an authentic bibliography. Then it was time for students to generate a mock bibliography themselves. Because this was their first attempt, I limited them to “books with one author.” I handed out a worksheet (see attached “worksheet.pdf”) designed for students to move in ever-increasing difficulty from one section to the next. They were to properly create an entry for three different books to make a mock, short bibliography. I observed that few students were able to complete the worksheet accurately. Students had trouble identifying the publisher and place of publication. Remembering which punctuation to use and where proved even troublesome. This lesson was meant only to be an introduction to bibliography, and it is clear that students will need a lot more practice before they can successfully create an accurate one of their own.

Students chose a periodical from among the following titles that were placed on each table: Cobblestone, Odyssey, Faces, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Calliope, National Geographic for Kids. They were told to find an article of their choice, something that appealed to them, and be able to tell their table and/or the class about it. They were given about four minutes to complete this task. Before beginning, we discussed what an article is (as opposed to an advertisement or a quiz). I observed students dutifully reading their articles word by word rather than skimming and scanning. I previously taught them how to skim and scan.

COMPUTER ROOM SESSIONS As the computer teacher, I had the opportunity to observe students engaged in various stages of research.

Initially we asked students to simply identify a few online sources for their research topic. The classroom teacher and I discussed with the students the variety of “tools” listed on the library website and asked when they thought each tool would be useful: • Online encyclopedias • Search engines (google, yahoo, NetTrekker, etc) • Online databases for periodicals Almost all the students indicated that they would start with an open, unfiltered search engine (Google), regardless of their search topic (current, historical event, etc.). We encouraged them to try one encyclopedia, one periodicals database, and one search engine and to simply bookmark any potentially useful source they found.

I observed that: • Most students would have chosen to start with a Google search. • Most students used ineffective or inappropriate search terms i.e., “what you needed to be a doctor in Colonial America”. • When their search results were unsatisfactory, most students tried to modify their search word/phrase, and it didn’t occur to them to try another search tool (i.e., move from Grolier to NetTrekker). • Most students were quick to dismiss a search result if their search word/phrase was not immediately visible in the search list summary/abstract. • Most students seemed to be somewhat discriminating about which websites they had chosen to bookmark.

Next we asked students to explain why they had chosen the sites they had bookmarked. I observed that: • students were likely to choose a “.org” site regardless of it’s relevance • students seemed not question the source/author/bias of the site • students were more likely to choose text-heavy sites over “media-rich” sites as good potential sources of information (simulations, videos, etc.). They seem to think that “information” comes in text form.

Next we discussed how students could “get” information (take notes) from the sites they chose. I observed: • Most students wanted to print (indiscriminately) the entire website they had bookmarked. In the interest of saving paper, we intervened and prohibited this ☺ • Very few students elected to jot notes in their notebooks. • Some students suggested copying/pasting blocks of text into a word-processing document to save.

After students had completed these stages of research, we gathered to discuss and reflect on the experience of using print resources and electronic resources. Students reported: • It’s hard to find the information you need on a website. • It’s easier to use books because books “have the information you need” and it’s “easier to find.” • Sometimes Google will give you a page but then there’s nothing on your topic when you go look at it.

Students didn’t seem to have any strategies for note taking from electronic sources other than printing out the website (turning it into a print resource) then using a highlighter, then copying those sections into notebooks… Students are clearly lacking the strategies to properly identify electronic resources. Even with teacher-selected, appropriate websites, students are lacking the reading strategies to read to find information.

4. REFLECTIONS: If you’ve already collected some data related to your questions, you may wish to think about how this might inform your instruction, choose a “lesson” or “task” for your population to try that might increase their performance or make it more effective, and try it out. Watch what happens, and then briefly describe whether your think your “intervention” worked or if it didn’t, why do think it didn’t and what you might try differently next time? If you didn’t do an intervention, and just have data, just figure out a way to display and share the data you have.

REFLECTIONS FROM THE LIBRARY LESSONS: The skills and strategies necessary to become good “researchers” cannot be taught in two easy lessons. We need a series of lessons spread out over time to prepare students for the kind of authentic research we are asking them to do.

I would like to plan lessons beginning in the 3rd grade to develop awareness of bibliography and note taking skills.

REFLECTIONS FROM THE COMPUTER LESSONS: Together with classroom teachers I prepared a few short lessons to introduce the next few computer sessions, including:

Deconstructing websites such as: • Strategies for “reading” and understanding a list of search results • What does the URL tell you about the author? What does knowing the author tell you? • What does the summary tell you? • Don’t give up on the site just because your search word/phrase doesn’t appear in the summary

Strategies for “reading” a webpage: • structure of WebPages/sites (navigation bars/column, advertising sections • “about us” links for information on authors • anatomy of URL to help identify website and understand sub directories in websites • using the “find on this page” feature to “cheat” at skimming/scanning electronic resources

Strategies for note taking such as: • Bookmarking sites • Copying/pasting/saving relevant sections of text to review later • Reading/typing/reading/typing to take notes on important information

We found that some of these mini-lessons presenting strategies to students did result in more effective research.

5. INTERPRETATIONS:

Our experience shows that as curriculum “specialists” (not classroom teachers) we recognize the need for: • better integration of our lessons with the classroom curriculum • common planning time to develop research projects, so that we can provide the necessary “building-blocks” students will need.

We would like to continue developing our “jump start” lessons that will provide a foundation on which to build. We have the opportunity to review yearlong “curriculum maps” written by each grade level so that we can suggest areas where we can “push in” our “jump start” lessons.