Re: Floral Arrangements in History

[Barbara Braxton <barbara@DYNAMITE.COM.AU>]

Hi Everyone,
I'm sorry if the person who sent the original request thought this was
going to be an answer to her query, but I didn't even know floral
arrangements changed, let alone how they have. (Not a big flower person!)

But I do have a suggestion for those of you who are finding that teachers
do set assignments without checking which resources are readily available.
Get the kids to compile a Subject Search Sheet which they hand in with
their assignment to show that although their results may be meagre, the
effort and intentions were there.

A possible format could be

ASSIGNMENT :

DATE DUE:

SEARCHES:
1. _____________  School Library OPAC using the following search terms
________________
2. _____________  Public Library OPAC using the following search terms
__________________
3. _____________ search engine using the following search terms
________________________
4. _____________ search engine using the following search terms
_____________________
5. Other searches:
    Encyclopedia _____________________
   CD ROM ________________________
   Personal contacts __________________
   Yellow Pages _____________________
    Internet Pages ____________________

Each search should be dated, and if assisted by a librarian, parent etc,
could also be signed.

I am also a believer in approaching the teacher directly and presuming him/
her to be an expert in the subject (or at the very least know more about it
than I do) ask them what they consider would be useful search terms to use
or even resources they expect the kids to be able to have access to.  That
way, the responsibility is put back on the teacher without being
condescending or confrontational and it also starts to build a foundation
for a closer working relationship in the future

If the students are much younger you could have a pro forma like this one:

1. I visited the library and searched the catalogue using ____, _____ and
______ as keywords.  There were no relevant print resources available in
our library. I then revised my key words and tried ______, _____ and _____

2. I asked Ms __________ to help me search the Internet.  We used _______
search engine(s) using ________, ______ and _____as keywords.  We did an
advanced search on _________ asking for ______, _____ and _____ but
excluding ________.

3. No sites were identified
    or
    The following sites were identified but they provided no relevant
information
    or
    I learned that __________________________________

4.  My next step will be to ask ______________to ask her colleagues on
LM_NET.

That way the teacher can see that genuine attempts have been made to
satisfy the assignment requirements, and perhaps they need to be a bit more
careful in their choice of topic in the future (especially if they get 30
similar
replies); the student has documented evidence of the steps they tried and
has a hard-copy search plan to follow for the next assignment (which will
hopefully, be more in tune with their needs and interests.) They will also
discover that sometimes searches are fruitless, or they need to be more
precise with their keywords or they have discovered, in context, how to do
an advanced search.  Everyone's a winner!


Cheers
Barbara
.






Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA

T. 02 6205 6162
F. 02 6205 7242
E. barbara@dynamite.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
"Together, we learn from each other."

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