Re: Big Six Skills/Carolyn.Haney

[Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@TENET.EDU>]

> message.  On July 2nd Carolyn wrote about her district using
> Eisenberg/Berkowitz Big Six Skills.  I was considering trying a similar
> activity at the middle school level first with possible expansion to follow.
 I
> would appreciate hearing directly from Carolyn or anyone else who has made use
> of the Big Six Skills or inserviced them to staff.

Jan and the Group,

After veiwing the videocassette explaining the Big Six Skills, I listed
them on a standard 8.5X11" sheet of paper using a large font and word
processor.  I then took the paper over to our administration building where
there is a poster maker.  I made several posters listing the Big Six
Skills -- they look quite professional since I used a word processor for
the original.

As I helped teachers to plan their research units, I asked for the first
few minutes of the first class period.  I put the poster up in front of
the room and first talked about the information explosion and why they
were learning how to research.  Then I went through the Big Six,
pointing to them with my hand and explaining each one individually.  They
work very well in my school because we have emphasized heavily Bloom's Taxonomy
from the time the students began kindergarten  -- so when I showed them
how they were using higher order thinking skills by relating different
steps to Bloom, they understood what I was talking about.

I found the Big Six approach helped students to focus and to avoid
needless waste of time trying to figure out where to start.  As I
finished the introduction to all of the classes who were beginning
research that day, I brought the posters into the library and posted them
in obvious places.  Students who might get sidetracked or forget the
process could remind themselves of what I had told them by tying the
listed skills to what they remembered from class.

By using that approach, we (teachers and I) discovered that students were
much better organized in their approach.  The problems we still haven't
been able to overcome are catching absentees up (we have a large absentee
rate) and getting the students to turn in a QUALITY finished product.

Please share any sucesses you have had -- especially in getting the final
product in -- we still have those (too many) who enjoy the search and
then won't do anything with it.

Betty
                            bhamilt@tenet.edu
Betty Hamilton, LRS             .----.
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