HIT: ELEM: Guide words

["A.J. Groome" <ajgro@CONNCOLL.EDU>]

Sorry for the long delay - I was trying to get permission to quote
people's responses.
Here is the HIT for guide word games.

Thank you very much.  I wound up making a playing board with BEFORE, ON
AFTER.  Then the students have one card with guide words and 9-15 cards
they need to sort into the correct pile.  I will make a similar set of
cards for
call number guides next year (when I teach call numbers again).  I won't
be
teaching it for another week due to changes in the schedule.

Thanks again!

A.J. Groome
Instructional Specialist
John Lyman Elementary School
Middlefield CT
ajgro@conncoll.edu

When I didn't get permission to quote the e-mail - I summarized it.

One person made bingo with 2 guide words on each square, then read
a word.  Students covered the guide words if that word would fit.

Another person used file folders with pockets.  The pockets
had guide words written one them.  Students sorted cards
with words into the appropriate pocket

Yet another person used yellow pages (had been my first
inclination).  SHe however was more crative - the students
used the yellow pages to look for party supplies!

One of the games I like to play with 3rd graders, who love it...4th
might
find it tedious...is a guide word guessing game.
I say: we need to look up (for example) "comet". (Make sure the entry
for
comet in your chosen encyclopedia or dictionary has the guide word at
the
top of the page. Also, if you want to teach finding the beginning of the

article in an encyclopedia --- a much needed skill at grade 3 --- choose
an
entry that has several pages. like Comet in World Book or Dog,
Automobile,
etc.
I put a large copy of the word up where everyone can see it.
Also, I have an alphabet behind me that gives them a chance to check
whether we need to go to the right (further in the alphabet) or to the
left
(lower in the alphabet).
I say, First we need the "C" volume....Mark, go to the shelf and get it.

This gets their attention hoping Mark goofs. With World Book he will
find
two "C" volumes.
Then.....
I point out that the second letter is "O".  I'll start with page 1 and
go
through the book, OK?
They agree that we have to skip pages.  So I say: how many shall we
skip?
And I follow their directions.  Or, we start with a chunk...eg: the
middle
of the book... but eventually they are calling out 10 pages forward ...
or
go back 5! etc. and so forth.  Each time I count pages I purposely don't

look at the guide words until I've gotten to the page they specify.
Then
we all look at the guide word and decide if we need to go further left
or
right.  Finally we find the right guide word....what a relief!
Once we get to the guide word comet, if I'm teaching how to find the
beginning of the article, I show them that only when they find the word
in
dark print at the beginning of a paragraph have they come to the
beginning
of the article. This is a crucial skill.
My follow up to this whole class game is to hand out laminated lists of
three titles of articles to look up, each child getting a list for a
different volume of the encylcopedia.  With the list is a form for them
to
sign and fill out that asks for the  title of the article and the page
it
BEGINS on.  Usually I let the kids work in pairs.  I have a master list
with the answers.  When they finish they get checked by me and I collect

the work, and then they can browse for books. A few stragglers will need
my
assistance.
I typed two sets of guide words and 10 words a a paper.  I enlarge the
font
and laminate a page.  I do this for as many letters as I can.  I cut
these
apart and put them in an envelope.  I put the letter each word starts
with
on the outsdie of the envelope.  They are to do each word only once.
Students take an envelope and organize the words under the guide words.
I
check them once.  Then they trade with someone else.  AFter I have
checked
them once, they can check each other.  I tell them to be sure to put two

sets of guide words and 10 entry words back in each envelope before
trading.   I still loose some.  These kids work the half hour
independently.  I use this with 4th grade before using dictionaries and
encyclopedias.

Kay Kliethermes, librarian
Blackburn Elementary School
17302 R. D. Mize Rd.
Independence,MO  64050
kkliethermes@indsep.k12.mo.us


I modified a lesson that I observed in a school once. Using your own
dictionaries, come up with
words that are there. I call the worksheet, "The Mysterious Monkey."
Students have 4-6 boxes
(depending on level) to draw the monkey as he is described in the
sentence (underline the word
you want them to look up). So, the sentence for box one says, "Draw the
monkey in a bassinet."
In the top corner of the box there are lines for the guide words that
they are instructed by
directions to fill in _________________/___________________. So for my
dictionary, they will
fill in bass/batter. I've used, "Draw the monkey playing the bagpipes."
or "Draw the monkey
playing croquet." They enjoy doing this, and the pictures look great.

Carol M. Jones, MLIS
Librarian
South Side Elementary &
Marquette Pre-K Center

I do an activity with third graders to get the concept of guidewords
firmly
implanted in their long term memories.
We make sandwiches (out of paper)
First I equate a sandwich to a dictionary page. When you make a sandwich
you
put on the bread first and last. When you look at the dictionary page,
the
guidewords are the first and last words on the page. When you make your
sandwich, you put lots of stuff inside, just like there is a lot of
words on
a dictionary page.
I make a paper sandwich with representations of balogna, cheese,
mustard...
and then put words on each item. I make several sets of these that would
be
back to back in a dictionary and the kids have to figure out where each
peice of bologna, cheese... goes (between which peices of bread)
Finally, we make our own sandwiches. I make templates, have paper cut a
little bigger than the templates and the kids use the glossaries from
the
spelling books as dictionary pages and use those words to put on their
own
sandwich peices. Then they have to put the items in abc order and make a

sandwich. If they do it correctly, I stick the whole thing into a
sandwich
baggie and they take it home.
It is a little chaotic, but it is fun and the kids love it.

Sharon
Library Lady
SLFlesher@flesher.MV.com
Fisk Elementary
NH

I enlarged an outline of an open book on white paper (and did some
scribbling
and doodling to make it slightly resemble an open encyclopedia) which I
glued
to colored poster board.  I placed one guide word at the top of each
page.
On the left side of the poster board is the word BEFORE;  on the right
side
of the poster board is the word AFTER;  in the center of the open book,
between the two guide words, is the word ON.  On the back of the board
is a
pocket into which are placed a number of cards each of which have one
word or
entry printed (I always throw in a person's name just to remind them to
look
by the last name).  I use two different colors of poster boards and have
the
children compete against another team.  In my library, six students sit
at a
table, so three on one side form a green team that competes against the
purple team at the other side of the table.  At GO, the teams must take
the
cards out of the pocket and decide where to place each card.  The first
side
to believe they have correctly finished is "frozen"--no more changes;
the
other team finishes and checks.  The winner is the one with the most
correct
answers;  in case of a tie, the first one finished wins.  With five
tables,
there are five winners.  The cards and gameboard pages for each color
set are
different.  While the preparation may sound difficult (I had to make 5
of
each color), I made them and laminated them about 12 years ago.  They
are
still in good shape.

Charlyn Trussell/Bryan Elementary/Mission TX

I just now thought of something that is just a kernel of an idea that
might be
fun. I read recently of someone who was teaching dictionary skills using
words
from Harry Potter.
Maybe you could pick a theme, say words from a subject area the children
are
studying, or something more motivating that would be fun. Ask the
students to
make up their own mini reference source by selecting two guide words to
place
at the tops of two pages and then "x" number of entries that would fit
alphabetically between the guide words but would still be withing the
chosen
subject area. It could be a small group project and each group could
present
their pages to the class explaining their reasoning.
I hope it helps.

Cathy Subbiondo
School Library Media (doing student teaching) in Lynbrook, New York

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