ideas for high school freshman orientation

[Amy Kravitz <Hwy18a@AOL.COM>]

To My Friends at LM_NET:

     Earlier in the week, one of my colleagues asked if I could post a
question to this listserv concerning ideas for conducting high school
freshman orientation in the library. I received many good ideas, and others
asked me to share the ideas with them so I will share them with everyone

1. A lot of librarians like to keep orientation as basic, clear, and
straightforward as possible. Many discuss library hours of operation, rules,
fines, etc. One librarian likes to give her students an activity sheet  with
a media center map so that they can walk around the library and answer
questions on the ditto pertaining to different sections of the library.

2.  A specific media specialist encourages her fellow teachers to assign a
research report, so that the students must come in to take advantage of the
library and its resources.

3.A media specialist from Texas likes to have her students participate in a
library scavenger hunt. The students walk around the library and deal with
topics such as completing a sample magazine request form, going to the
shelves and finding books which fall under a call number in question,
answering questions about library rules, etc.

4. An Illinois media specialist likes to familiarize her students with the
library by having them work through specific exercises on worksheets. She
gives each student a worksheet  which highlights using print resources and
the online catalog. This librarian also includes vertical file use problems
on the library worksheet.(to locate a specific vertical file folder and
 write down what the notes field in question says). Later on, the librarian
hands her students a second worksheet which covers utilizing resources which
require understanding of keyword  and subject searching.

5. Another librarian works with her schools' English teachers and devises a
special assignment. Together they make up a list of topics which relate to
current social issues. After the students choose a topic of particular
interest to them, they research it in various library resources eg. TOM,
SIRS, Internet, a non-fiction book, magazine articles, etc. The student tries
to find 3 facts pertinent to his/her topic in each of the various information
resources. By the end of the research period, the students should have enough
information to write (at least)an informative paragraph on the given topic,
as well as a comprehensive bibliography.

6.  One media specialist suggests that you should find a copy of the story
about Arthur(by Marc Brown?, not clear to me). Once you have  the story in
possession,  words in the story are replaced by Dewey Decimal numbers, and
the students go through the library looking to find the numbers which helps
them to solve their puzzle.

7.   Lastly, two librarians have used Microsoft Powerpoint successfully to
introduce their students to the media center. Powerpoint is a special program
which enables one to make slides,  put on fancy visual presentations, etc.
for a group of people. These people use Powerpoint to introduce students to
the rules, hours, services, etc. of the media center.


      Thank you to everyone who responded to my query. I will pass on all of
the good information to my friend. Best wishes to everyone for a successful
academic year!
If anyone needs any clarification on anything,  feel free to e-mail me for
more information.

Amy Kravitz
K-5 Librarian, Old Bridge (N.J.) Twsp. School District
Hwy18a@aol.com

3.

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