LM_NET: Library Media Networking
Hope I haven't overwhelmed people. Good luck to
everyone else you has to do lessons on this subject.
These ideas and the other I sent should really help.
Kaline Goodrich
Hermon Elem. & Middle School Librarian
Hermon, ME
I don't know where to begin... I don't know if it's
possible to make it interesting. I work in a K-8
school and I focus on 4 types: encyclopedia,
book, SIRS Discover (periodical database), and
Internet site. The only way they will be interested
in doing it is if the teacher supports what you're
doing and it seems they will be. So, you're off to
a good start.
This year I am putting a sample citation on pastel
paper (l/2 sheet). I'm going to use one color
for each type. Below will be lines for them to write
their citation. On the back of the l/2 sheet I'm
putting info regarding the variations, such as, two
authors, or no author for some encyclopedias,
etc.
I will also discuss the set up of the Works Cited
page.
Good Luck!
Susan Prylucki, Librarian
Writing a bibliography according to a given style be
it MLA, APA or any
other is a craft skill that should be taught on a
"need to know"
basis. Let's face it! This is a boring but necessary
job that we all
do
only when we MUST. Be honest do you carry around the
details of how to
do
this in your head? Or do you consult the MLA style
book of web site
when
you are ready to write correct citations after you
have done your
research
for a paper?
I suggest you talk with the teachers on the team that
have made the
request
and get them to include you in the entire process of
the research
project. You may even want to discuss the Big 6 with
them. This
doesn't
mean that you can't and/or won't teach the skill but
you should be
doing it
in context. If teachers really insist on my doing
this in a disjointed
manner, I would just develop a simple handout for the
kids to keep as a
reference tool. This would be no more than three
pages long and cover
only
the very basics, none of the exceptions to the rules.
We would do some
whole class and small group examples that fit "the
rules." I would
then
tell the kids the truth that there are many
"exceptions to the rules"
and
show them that you have a style book for reference in
the
library. Reassure them that you will be more than
happy to help them
with
"the exceptions," in library class when they are doing
their research
papers.
Dorothy E. Tissair, M.L.S.
Dear Kaline,
My students have made a living bibliography where
some of the students
are titles of books etc. as well as the punctuation. I
have also timed
them and put team against team. I hand our the signs
at random and the
team must figure out where to put each person on the
team.
MLA cannot be taught well in isolation. At Hurst, I
have made one sheet
per example and ran them off on colored paper. As they
do their
"I-search" paper, the students request the type they
need whether it is
for a book, magazine, Internet etc
I can't explain it but having each source on colored
sheets seems to
help my students. It is so complicated now with all
the sources
available.
Melvina Matherne
Hurst Middle School
P.S. Taking their pictures in the living bibliography
helps to motivate
Dear Kaline:
I read your message on LM_Net regarding teaching MLA
to sixth graders.
I am a teacher of English and not a librarian but I am
going to grad school to become one.
Last year I had to teach MLA as part of a project that
I had asked my students to do.
I spent only one day since I did not have enough time,
but ideally you need three days:
1st day - talking about research, plagiarism, the need
to credit the sources used and basic rules of MLA.(
dos and don'ts)
2nd day - exercises on recognizing bibliographies with
and without mistakes. You have to prepare
handouts. Give good and bad examples of
bibliographies. Make sure the examples cover the list
of the
basic rules you discussed the day before.
After identifying the mistakes and explaining why,
students should be asked to correct the mistakes, by
writing it over without mistakes. Students should be
allowed to use the list of rules.
3rd day - two different exercises can be used: a. You
can give students a list of resources and ask them to
create a bibliography with them. You can change the
place of the title, author, year of publication so
that
students get the skill of putting each element in its
right place.
b. give each student at least three different copies
of books, magazines, articles, etc and ask them to get
the information they need and create the bibliography.
I hope you find this helpful.
Kristina Miruku
Kaline,
Have you tried NoodleBib?
http://www.noodletools.com/
and click on the link to NoodleBib. It might qualify
as a "fun" way to
create bibliographies for your students... I think the
nice thing about
it for younger grades is that it allows the student to
"experiment"
(i.e. what does the citation look like if I remove the
author name, or
add a title, or... etc.)
Enjoy,
Damon Abilock
NoodleTools
I place a magazine, an encyclopedia, and a book on
each table. In
addition,
I give each group a copy of the same exact book to
begin with. I show
an
example of the book we all have in common on the white
board and make
sure
they have the format down (including punctuation!)
before I proceed. I
go
over each of the items besides a book briefly,
including a web site.
Each
student must write his/her own bibliography, but they
work in groups to
finish the assignment. When they have finished the
print items, I have
them
go onto a specific website and include that in their
bibliography. I,
rather than their teachers, grade their papers,
because I am picky
about
the format. I find that many teachers are lax about
spacing,
punctuation,
spelling, etc.
I only teach this skill when the students are working
on a research
paper
where a bibliography is necessary. That makes it a
meaningful lesson
which
they take more seriously than if I taught it in
isolation.
Becky Mosbacher
K:
Do you have power point? I created a powerpoint
presentation that had
4
citations on it. I put them up there and asked the
students to find 3
things that are similar about the citations and 1
thing that sets each
one
apart. I gave them 1 minute (8th graders) and then
started taking
guesses.
The students would notice things I was not looking
for, like there is
always
a copyright date. I would say "that's true, but
that's not what I'm
looking
for." I was patient and let them study it and they
usually picked up
everything I was wanting them to pick up (alphabetical
order,
punctuation is
important, Titles of books, mags, newspapers are
underlined and the 1
thing
different: magazines are cited different from books,
which are
different
from newspapers, which are different....). I had
tootsie rolls in my
pocket
and anyone that guessed correctly, I threw them a
tootsie roll.
I slap this powerpoint up whenever I have classes that
have to do a
bib.
With bibliographies, repetition is so important.
Tricia Melgaard, LMS
Kaline;
I was thinking of doing this really exciting subject
too. (yawn) I was
planning on giving out some books, etc. to the tables,
after discussing
the
location of the info needed, and having them find the
needed info. They
can
then write it on a slip of paper. (have the parts
listed in column form
in
the order needed for the bib.) from there it shouldn't
be too hard to
transfer it into the needed form with the punctuation.
I don't know how this will work but it is what I'm
formulating in my
mind.
If you get any good ideas and can pass them on, I'd
appreciate it. Good
luck!!!
Doug Alichwer
Rather than teach it as a separate part, incorporate
it into the
locating and evaluating sources and notetaking
activities. If the
scoring rubric includes gathering the info then, it is
a simple
procedure to plug the bits together in the right order
for the final
bib. In our pathfinder (5th grade exit project) we
assess the sources
with a 'rough draft' bib.
If you have to teach it in isolation: I did a sample
bib of each
source
type (book, mag, internet, etc) using made up
resources. Chelsea
Clinton
had an article on taking care of cats, internet site
with interview of
man in the moon, book on how spitwads are made, etc.
I then had kids
make a bib using made-up resources. Activity was
fairly engaging, has
kids had to make sure they had all the parts, but
could try for humor.
Freely, I.P was a popular author among the boys, the
girls often had
books entitled 'why boys are stupid'.
There are some automated tools out there, but I'm not
sure if we would
wind up spending more time teaching the program rather
than the process
and purpose. Then, what happens when the program isn't
available?
Robert Eiffert
Hi, I did this last year too. I took the bibs for
each of these types
and printed them out in 24 font. I cut them up into
the basic parts -
title, author etc. Divided the kids into groups and
gave them a sheet
with each bib in the proper form. Each group had to
study their bib,
put it in the right order and then present it to the
entire group.
Then
they put their bibs back in the envelope. I handed
them out to
different groups (so no one had the one they had
before.) We then
raced
to see who could get theirs together the fastest and
correct. The
winning group got jolly rancher candy. We enjoyed it
and the kids had
fun. Good luck.
We had it placed in the student handbook. They have
it with them
always.
Then we just reinforce the procedure for replacing
each piece of
information
with the information you have at hand. Our biggest
problem is they
follow
it literally, they put book, magazine or encyclopedia
before their
entry.
We are trying to break them of that. You can do that
with a handout
that
goes in their notebooks.
Jean
Kaline,
For our younger students we make up a form that ask
for the
information
we want them to have. Full bibliographic information
is required for
3rd and above, but not for 2nd. We also use the same
form for all
classes. After the information is gathered, some
teachers leave as is
for the bibliography, other want a more formal
formate. Model creating
one.
Books:
Author:
Title:
Publisher:
Copyright date:
This can just be strung in a sentence in the order
listed. To help
with
punctuation, you can use another form that just plugs
in the
information
with the blanks and puctuation already in it.
Debra Balsam
I teach the concept of bibliography by explaining that
a reader of your
paper may want to find more info on your topic, or a
piece of your
topic.
Or what if you forget to write down a piece of the
info, or want to
check
spelling of a person's name? I have let the kids use
noodlebibs to
actually
get the form right, because I don't think the
important part is where
the
commas go, but what the info is. What do you need to
know to get back
to
the place you read the ideas? You can do that
reconstruction orally in
class. Then a template will allow them to fill in the
blanks. You
could
even make a treasure hunt to have another student find
the passage,
chapter,
article.
Hope these thoughts are useful. Dorcas Hand
=====
Kaline - all that glitters is not gold
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