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I feel bad. First I take a long time to post this hit
so many people requested and then I was so excited
about finally being able to get to it that I forgot to
say thank you in the first part. I got some truly
wonderful ideas. I am looking forward to trying many
of them out with the different classes I teach.
Everyone was great to respond so quickly. This is the
best resource. Thanks again for all the fantastic
ideas.
Kaline Goodrich
Hermon Elem. & Middle School Librarian
Hermon, ME
What I'm using is several pages with examples of
books, magazines, web
sites, etc just written out so they can see what they
should do.
I always start this lesson with the sixth grade by
giving them B's,
920's,
encyclopedias and internet sites on Marian Anderson.
In many sources,
there
are different birthdates for her. In one encyclopedia
ther were 2
different
dates. My point is that scholars need to track their
information
carefully
to be sure of accuracy of information. Something wierd
happened with
Marian
Anderson. Last year there was an artilce in the
newsparer interviewing
Marian's neice whi said that Aunt Marian felt it was
rude to ask a lady
her
age and that when asked she lied. Hence the confusion.
We talk about
how a
scholar would find the truth. Then we do the boring
stuff.
I'm new and I haven't tried this yet but the idea just
occurred to me.
It's
a
technique used to teach a variety of things, why not
this!?
Try breaking down the citation into its component
parts and placing
each on
a
different colored paper. The citation can then be
assembled like a
puzzle
giving the students visual and tactile ways of doing
it and hopefully
remembering how to do it correctly. You could do it on
the board in
large
print and each student could select their own pieces
of paper to write
in
their own sources, ie. author, title, place,
publisher, date. The
complexity
of the citation would vary by grade.
I just recently did this lesson with our sixth grades.
My goal wasn't
to
have them know how to do it from memory but to
introduce them to it and
let
them know there is a right way to do onne and that
they will have to do
one
for their project. I had decided too that I would
loose them quick if I
lectured on the way to do it. I broke it down into 2
lessons. First I
made a
sheet with the style and example of all the formats I
wanted them to
learn
(book, magazine, internet, etc.). I made a copy for
each student. I
also
made
a poster of each format, one side had a sample and the
other the word
explanation (Author. Title....) .
I placed 4 non-fiction books and 4 magazines on
each table before
they
came in. In class I gave each student a folder, 2
index cards and copy
of
the
style sheet. We talked about why we do a bibliography
and that I was
going
to
show them how to do one. I showed them the poster of a
book entry and
briefly
talked about the order of information and where to
fine that info in
the
book. Then they had to take one of the books on the
table and an index
card
and write a bibliographic entry on the card for that
book. Then I did
the
same
with a magazine. I collected the folders with the
cards and kept them
until
the next class.
The next class I had an encyclopedia volume and a
copy of a article
from
the internet on the tables. I downloaded 4 internet
articles dealing
with
the
presidential elections because they were doing a
project on the topic.
Then
I
made a copy of each article for each table rather than
do one for each
student. We repeated the lesson only with
encyclopedias and the
internet,
spending more time talking about the internet.
After they completed the index cards for these
items I had them put
the
cards in alphabetical order and then write a
bibliogaphy using the
cards.
The students kept their copy of the style sheet
but I kept their
files
in
the library and had a volunteer staple a copy of the
style sheet inside
each
folder. The students knew it would be there for their
reference
whenever
they
came to the library.
I believe the best way to teach this is to ask about a
research project
they might be doing in social studies, science,
English. Have a ditto
made
up about the different formats; then introduce your
part of the
research
project they're doing with the classroom teacher as
assisting them in
compiling a bibliography for their reports. When
there's a need to
know,
the
children will get the most out of this kind of lesson.
I did a lesson with 5th graders which might work.
I started off by asking them if they stayed to the
very end of the
movie,
even after the closing scene. Then asked what comes at
the end. This
produced
a fairly lively discussion of the credits. Thought not
a direct
analogy, I
compared credits to a bibliography "Giving credit
where credit is due."
Then each child decorated a manila folder which was to
become their own
personal style manual. (It could also be used as a
research, reference
or
projects folder.)
After that I posed another question. I asked the
students if they
participated in organized sports or dance lessons. I
explained that
there
are
specific rules for bibliographies. (They may not make
sense but we have
to
follow them.) I explained how a soccer throw in must
be done in a
certain
way
and that first position in ballet is a very specific
position. (I even
demonstrated right and wrong ways-good for a few
laughs.) Comparing
bibliographic format to sports rules is also helpful
when you make
reference
to the different acceptable formats such as MLA or
APA. (Same as
Canadian
rules football vs. Australian rules football vs.
American football.)
At this point I actually explain what you need to
record for a
biblio-the
who, what, when and where info. We work from
worksheets and real title
pages
and versos that I have copied. We work as a class and
then partner up.
Believe it or not, the whole lesson took an hour and I
never lost their
interest. I did this lesson in addition to their
regular fixed 40
minute
visit to the library. I did it in the classroom with
the teacher
present.
Best way to make the instruction meaningful is to do
it in connection
with
a classroom asignment that requires a bibliography.
One alternative
would
be to have the students select a topic to "research"
but only locate
materials that contain relevant information and make a
bibliography and
not actually do the research. You could set criteria
for number of
sources
to include and types to include.
Hi, I just got finished teaching it to 8th grade. For
6th I would say
go
slow, maybe a book and a magazine to start. Show them
citation format
on
overhead. Have each one practice it with books and
magazines at their
tables.
I find multiple copies of a book and place one on each
table. We do a
bibliographic citation for that book together--they in
groups, me on
the
whiteboard. They seem to get the gist of it after
completing one book,
and
then I point out the difference between citations for
books, magazines,
encyclopedias, and web sites. I have them work in
groups to do
citations on
another book, a magazine article, a web site, and an
encyclopedia
article.
(I have three computers available, so they are able to
use the computer
when
it's their turn. I ask a question that will be
answered from our
school's
home page.) The whole lesson takes about 45 minutes,
and they are busy
the
whole time.
Try manipulative. Write the citation on construction
paper. Cut it
apart
by fields and punctuation. Put the manipulatives in a
paper bag and
have
the students "build" the citation by using the title
page of the book
and a
MLA stylesheet. I prepare about 15 different
manipulative bags and
then
allow the students to work together in pairs to "put
together the
puzzle".
Homework is then given for work on an individual
basis. It seems to be
working.
The best idea I've used with all levels is to make
template slips for
each
kind of citation (book = white, Internet site = pink,
encyc = green,
etc) so
they can fill in the info and then put the slips in
order. Your
template
can provide the punctuation and show an example. I
have usually done
examples on an overhead with everyone filling in the
same ones at
first.
Karin, if you turn it into an annotated bibliography
and introduce it
as NOT A REPORT, you can probably carry them along.
After all,
they will want to show some result of all of their
work. Check
around with the classroom teachers. You might be able
to work it
into a classroom project that is comtemplated. Just be
careful with
some students who will want to write a standard report
no matter
what. These may be the best students who have
developed a
formula and will ignore all instructions until
disaster strikes.
You could create a power point slide show for them.
Have all the bells
and
whistles illustrating the various entries for a book,
an encyclopedia
etc. I
did this with the card catalog.
They can then access it on the computers themselves.(
if you have
enough)
and look at it. Otherwise a large group presentation
would work. Then
they
can possibly find their favorite non-fiction book and
compose an entry.
When I taught this (as an English teacher) to 7th
graders, I had them
all
pretend that they were authors. I handed out forms, 5
to each student.
Each
was labeled,
1. Biography of your favorite person,
2. Autobiography,
3. Fiction Book,
4. Nonfiction Book,
5. Magazine Article on your favorite Topic.
Under each of the headings was a list they had to fill
out
For the Books:
1. Your name:
2. Title of the Book:
3. Publishing Company:
4. Year Book is Published:
5. City where it is published:
(I used the info of my English text as an example of
how to find
publisher,
year, & city, The kids could use that or any book they
had on them, or
make
up their own--most chose to "be creative.")
For the Article,
1. Your Name:
2. Title of your Article:
3: Magazine it was in (I had a box of old magazines
around so to help
them
choose)
4. Volume & Issue Numbers:
5. Date:
(Many just copied information on volume & issue
numbers from the
magazines available, but many also made up their own.)
Then, I collected the forms, and redistributed them
randomly. Then we
worked
on forms (MLA, APA). They like the entire fantasy
aspect of it, and we
all
got a lot of laughs from some of the titles.
Go to NUEVASCHOOL.ORG and scroll to media center and
then research.
They
have the most wonderful Bibliograph work sheet you
fill out and it puts
it
into the right format and you copy and paste. My 6th
loves ait and they
use
it all through middle school. Good luck
Karin M. Gravina
I have graphic organizers that I created and go over
them in detail
with the
kids. I then hand them a format handout and a
checklist of common
errors. I
then ask them to create a bibliography using a book,
magazine article,
and
web site. They have three class periods to find the
sources (they can
be on
anything and not related if they want but research
related sites) and
create
a typed bibliography. I tell them to just go to the
shelves and grab a
book
and give them a minute to do it. I "grade" them
using a very unique
scale
which they find hilarious (PERFECT!-no errors;
perfect-one error;
perfec-two
errors; perfe-three errors, etc). They have to keep
doing the
bibliography
over until they all are PERFECT! Rarely do I get a
child who needs to
correct theirs more than once. I also correct the
bibliographies from
their
teachers and if I find that they are not doing them
correctly we keep
doing
the above assignment over and over. This they hate so
it's a great
motivator.
Kaline: Hello to you in beautiful Maine. I once read
an article in
the
English Journal, I think, about a lesson at a lab
school where the
students had to pick a topic they were interested in
and find a variety
of resources AS THOUGH they were going to do a report
or whatever.
They
had to make a bibliography of these. The whole point
was to learn to
find things and to document them. I think there was a
little bit more
to it, but this is what I remember. This doesn't give
you any catchy
ideas on how to make it fun, but I remember when I
read this that it
made sense to keep the project small and focus on the
mechanics, while
still letting the kids research a topic they liked.
Just tell them it
has to be done and why, show them how, etc. They make
an index card
for
each source. Good luck. I love Maine. -- Jane Hyde
I had some success doing this using funny, made up
sources.
EX:
Wolf, Big Bad. Grandmother Soup for the Quadruped's
Soul.
Forestville:
Riding Hood, 1995.
Dawn
I've been teaching bibliography this year to 3-8. It's
new for me but
what I've been doing is each time they come in (once a
week scheduled)
they write the citation for whatever I'm reading. I
used those primary
sentence strips and wrote each piece =- author, title,
publisher. I
highlighted the punctuation with a pink highlighter. I
check their
papers each week and highlight what they've done
wrong. After 6 weeks -
some are getting it. It's copying accurately. Keeping
in mind the
pattern - author (last name, first name). Title.
Publisher (place:
name,
date). I remind them the PERIOD notes the end of a
fact. That tells the
reader no matter how odd the name or long the title -
the period is the
end of that fact.
Practice - practice- practice. It's not a one lesson
skill -
unfortunately.......
=====
Kaline - all that glitters is not gold
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