Original Question:
If you have a minute, would you tell me how your school handles teaching research and information literacy skills. Do you have a specific course dedicated to this (with curriculum and so on)? If so, when is it taught, by whom, for how long, etc.? Or do you have a different arrangement, say each year a specific set of skills is taught during a particular project in English class. Or perhaps you do something entirely different altogether. We are trying to figure out the best way to teach research and information literacy skills to our middle and high school students. Currently we do not have a specific plan dedicated to teaching research and informaiton literacy skills. Thank you very much for your input on this!
*********************************
Last year the Instructional Tech and I re-worked an existing computer applications course for freshmen and created Digital Learning and Information Literacy (DLIL). At our school freshmen have two options: 1) take latin and a modern language or 2) take latin and 1 semester of art and 1 semester of computer class (DLIL). This year we have four classes and around 80 students. We are beginning a curriculum review and are talking about ways to include more students from all grade levels.
*********************************
We teach information literacy skills within
various classes depending on the teachers' willingness to collaborate.
We start out the school year teaching library orientation within 7th
grade reading classes. Then we switch to 7th grade English classes to
teach the electronic card catalog. Both classes address accessing,
using, evaluating information. Soon I will teach accessing magazine
articles through online databases and using that information.. We will
do this in health classes. Later in the year we teach the research
process through the 8th grade English classes when they do a unit on the
Holocaust. I hope this answers your question.
***********************************
We have grades 7-12 in our building. We currently teach 7th grade for 40 minutes a day for a semester. The problem I have with it is it ties up our library for 3 periods everyday all year long. Many teachers do not want to come in and collaborate and use the library if it means there are two full classes in there at once and as many as 60 students. Also the library was closed to study hall students the periods I was teaching and there was no coverage to watch study hall students. Recently they did find coverage for those periods I teach so the library can be open. Is it ideal, no? They are aides not certified librarians to help study hall students. Senior come in to do senior term papers so I try to do some teaching before they start but if it is a period I teach 7th grade it is not possible. I also have 8th grade that do term papers and I try to do some preteaching before they start. Same problem. Some periods the English teacher teach I teach also. Other than that it is very unorganized what is taught. Certainly not a good scenario but it is what I am dealt and I do the best I can.
***********************************
Jessica - at elementary our students have a specific class but then at secondary the skills are taught as part of other units. It isn't a perfect system and we are always looking to improve, but it does make it very authentic and the collaboration with teachers is great. The important thing we have found is getting the research skills written into the curriculum such as Social Studies which for us is a great partnership.
***********************************
Middle school is a problem, as our district did not replace the middle school librarian when she retired. I do work with some of the teachers on implementing research and information literacy skills, but it is not a set part of their curriculum.
At the high school, we start in 9th grade, with a research and writing course, which covers Big 6 and information literacy skills. I co-wrote the curriculum with the 9th grade teachers. I also work with 10 th grade social studies and 11th grade science on research skills?and of course, all the grades in language arts.
*****************************************
In 7th and 8th grade all students learn about different types of research
and practice writing a lot of bibliographies in their weekly library skills
class. Then, starting in grade 10 all students complete a formal research
paper in their English classes. In grade 9 only honors English does a
paper. There are also little research projects in all grades 7-12.
*****************************************
I teach information literacy to my 5/6th graders as a special. We meet once a week for 45 mins. I have created my own curriculum and there are many other librarians that have posted their curricula. Some are listed in the archives of the list serve.
******************************************
We have a 7th grade Unified Block class for library. I, as the librarian, teach the class. It is a 9 week class; so I have a group of students for 9 weeks, teach the about the library and how to do research, and then get a new group of students the next 9 weeks and repeat the class.
My topics include: types of books, alphabetical and numerical order, the non-fiction section, parts of books, the card catalog/OPAC, ACCESSPA and NoveList, reference section, SIRS Researcher and SIRS Discoverer, Encyclopedias (print and electronic), almanac, biographies (current biography and biography reference bank), magazines, MasterFILE Premier, Reader?s Guide to Periodical Literature, DartClix and the parts of a URL address, and then they do a culminating 2-page research paper using at least 5 of the sources we have talked about during the 9 weeks.
***************************************************************
I teach in a 7-8 middle school. Previously I used a week in the 8th grade English curriculum to teach research skills (plagiarism, citation, note taking and internet evaluation). This year I asked the teachers to try incorporating it into the first research project, with the history classes. They agreed, and I think I like it. I am seeing better notes than previous years, when there might a gap of a week to a month before they use the skills. The only downside is I pretty much blocked off the library for a solid month to accommodate all the eighth grade classes, to give them enough research time along with my instructional time. In seventh grade, it's more hit or miss, depending on which teacher wants to do what with research. It seems to change each year.
********************************************************************
These skills have been taught on a flexible, as-needed basis previously. I now am in the process of developing Info Literacy courses on Moodle for each grade level. Each course focuses on the skills needed for the types of research required in that year, 9-12th grade. As far as grades, the units are currently worked into other curricular areas (e.g. Computer apps, language arts, etc.) and the scores for these units are combined into the grade for that class. I introduce the units; then, the students must work on them independently by the due dates. When research projects come up, we can then get right to the heart of researching the content... This came about because I always feel pressured to squeeze skills instruction into the blocks of time the content teachers are willing to sacrifice for research. I began with my 9th grade course last year, and am expanding it each year. So far, so good...
**********************************************************************
I have class with a curriculum for grade 6 and one for grade 7.
I have them for 36 days. It is a grade on their report card and everything just like a REAL class :)
I am part of a team - art, Family & consumer, industrial technology, computer skills and information/research skills.
They rotate to a new team member every 36 days. They see 5 teachers by the end of the year.
We have been doing this for 20 years. Language Arts just had too much to teach so the librarian, moi, handles the information and research parts of their standards/curriculum.
I like it because I have some control with the grade issue and I see them everyday for those 36 days. I also know that every 6th grader and every 7th grader is getting the same things, not hit or miss according to several classroom teachers.
What I don't like is the huge work load it creates for me but I feel it is worth it AS LONG AS I still have support staff to handle many of the daily library tasks like book exchanges. I have one full time secretary. It is also a bit tough to jugggle the classroom teachers coming for research but when we renovated we added a closed classroom for my classes and we have an open classroom in the library for research. It is harder to juggle me helping the research classes and teachers have to trade their classes for mine for 6th grade library orientation with the LA classes for library orientation.
My eighth graders are not part of the rotation so I only see them for research which is as it needs to be. They are pretty self sufficiant after 2 years with me.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.