Re: Encyclopedia Lesson Plan

["Kay Salling; Wallace Smith Elementary"]

On Mon, 23 Sep 1996 Lynda Baker wrote:
 >       I am looking for a lesson plan to introduce 4-5th graders to
>encyclopedias.These kids have short attention spans and need lessons that
>are short and exciting.  Thanks for your help.

I have 5 different encyclopedias (including 1 on CD-ROM).  We were studying
Laura Ingalls Wilder's
books last year.  After I showed a video about the encyclopedia, I put one
entire set of encyclopedias
on each table, except the table assigned to use the CD-Rom Grolier.  I gave
each student a card with
a word on it.  I only used 6 cards - Laura Ingalls Wilder, pioneer,
Mississippi River, covered wagon,
transconteniental railroad and Indian Territory.  The students were asked
to look up their word in their
set first, then go to the other tables and look up the word in the other
encyclopedia.  They had to
report back to the class on the number of pages in their article and was
there a picture or map.  They
were to also decide which encyclopedia was the BEST.

It was VERY interesting to watch the students.  Of course, some couldn't
find their word at all, some
found out others were doing the same word and they teamed up.  Some
repeated advice from the
previous week's video and they were all surprised at the differences in the
encyclopedias and all
reached the conclusion that, different encyclopedias were best for
different words and that you should
stop looking, if the first one you tried didn't have the information.
Their peers also reinforced using
the index.  I had a great time.  It will be interesting to see how much
they remember this year!

Kay Salling          sallingk@ten-nash.ten.k12.tn.us
Chattanooga, TN      W.A.Smith Elementary 423-344-1425

"Dad claims that library science is the foundation of all sciences
just as math is the key - and that we will survive or founder,
depending on how well the librarians do their jobs."  Heinlein 1958