Here is the 2nd grade Reference hit as promised - I just cut and pasted from
many e-mails. One thing I think I'll have to do tomorrow (it's PO day) is
order a World Book Discovery (and justify getting rid of an older World
Book)... One thing I should mention - 2 weeks ago in consultation with
teachers, I stopped letting our kids hit the computers for research, and
made them use actual books. "But that's too hard!" they wailed. One 4th
grader actually turned around and went back to class instead of working in
the library! Research skills using reference materials is on the state
standardized tests, and students need to understand how to search before
they have much luck searching the Internet or CD encyclopedias anyway.
I can't wait to try several of these with 3rd graders next week.
Thanks again,
Jennifer Burke LMS
Centennial Place Elementary School
Atlanta, GA
--------------------
Pair up the kids-- match a good reader w/a poor one, or two more or less
average ones. I gave them a list of questions-- easy questions, w/the
answers usually found in the first paragraph. Each pair of kids got a
different encyclopedia and when finished writing the answer to the question,
which I or my aid checked, the kids got a new encyclopedia and a new
question. They were wildly enthusiastic with this project, working about 20
minutes of the period, leaving the last l0 minutes to get books to check
out.
---------
I usually just let them browse through a simple encyclopedia like World
Book's Student Encyclopedia, for the first lesson. They work in pairs and
look for a fabulous fact to share. When they share their fact, they tell the
volume number and letters. Next lesson, we look for dinosaurs for a dinosaur
report. They write three notes. I insert skills on the fly--guide words,
see, see alsos, etc
----------
Make sure that the encyclopedia is one aimed for that grade level (I like
the World book's Student Discovery one ... nice short articles). Then I have
the teachers team the kids for me ... so that they are working with a
partner to look something up. I usually use the countries (my yearly themes
are usually geography based, and we focus on a different continent each
month, so there is always something I can tie in.) We look something up (the
population, area, etc) and then chart it and do some comparisons.
---------
I made up a card for each volume of the encyclopedia (World Book). The
answer was always in the first couple of sentences of the entry and called
for a very short answer:
What is a hake? What was a harquebus? Name one color hawthorn flowers could
be. What animal does a hedgehog look like?
I later expanded the lessons to finding birth and death dates, population,
etc., and still later using the black headings in longer articles to find
information quickly (Guess what! You don't have to read this whole article
about Rutherford B. Hayes to find out where he went to college. Read the
heavy black headings until you find one that says something like 'education'
and then start reading!), but all this is probably too much for all but the
brightest 2nd graders.
--------
I start out very simple with encyclopedia. I start with the World Book. I
hand each student a subject on a card. I then have them by table go to the
shelf and select the correct volume. After finding the volume I have then
return to their seat and locate their subject. Some students can do this
quickly and others take a long time. I encourage helping others at your
table, but not doing it for them. They mark the subject with the paper and
then are encouraged to look through the encyclopedia and find out what is
there. I go around to the tables and check the subject they marked to see if
they located the correct page. After being assured that everyone has located
their subject I allow students to share anything they found interesting or
worth sharing. Some are usually very excited by something they found. This
of course makes others excited. I end by having them reshelve the volume
they are using. The next class period is usually book exchange. Before
students exchange their books I tell them that after they have exchanged
their book, or if they forgot their book, they can look at the
encyclopedias. Many choose to do this. The next class period I have done
several ways. I usually locate an article I know they kids are interested in
(sports, animals, etc) I make a copy of the article so I have enough for
each student. I also make transparencies or a powerpoint to teach with of
the same article. I then go through the article and have the students follow
along and answer questions. I point out the special features. Sometimes I
get more accomplished than other time. Depending on this I may need to do
this for several lessons. Once this part of the lesson is created and
copied it can be used year after year, this is why it does not break
copyright. I usually put an ownership stamp on the copied article too. The
next is to pick something you can find enough articles on for each student
to be doing their own simple research. I usually use states or countries. I
assign one to each student or group of 2 if you have students who need
assistance or if you don't have enough volumes. I make up a simple research
paper and have the student complete it. I usually do one on the overhead for
our state and then do not assign that to any students.
---------
One activity I used to do for research was a whole class K-W-L activity to
brainstorm. I would do it in the classroom on large chart paper. From the
"W" list of what they wanted to know, we created three or four broad
categories, such as animal homes, appearance, food, and defenses.
Then, we would fold 11x17 construction paper in three or four sections with
a category in each. The teacher would send the groups in rotation. I would
pull relevant books, easy encyclopedias, etc. for when groups came and help
children find a few facts or bits of info for each category and then they
could draw illustrations to complete the blocks.
----------
Another research activity I did with second/third graders doing inventions
was to have them draw an invention in the center of a piece of construction
paper with the date. When they came to do research (again, in small
groups), I would help them find facts about the invention that they wrote
along the margins of the paper. I suggested to the teacher that the
children hang them along the walls of the room in chronological order as a
timeline.
---------
First of all, I wait until spring of second grade; I only use the Student
Discovery Encyclopedia (World Book)-I now have the 2000 and 2002 ed. I
present a mini lesson on what an encyclopedia is (info on people, places,
things and events-with some prodding they usually get all except events), we
discuss the meaning of volume, guide words. Then each pair of kids is handed
an index card with a letter. They must go to the shelf, find the volume and
browse. They then fill out a simple worksheet asking for subject, volume,
page and two facts about their subject.
---------
The scavenger hunt works well if kids really understand alphabetical order.
I used 3X5 cards and put one question on each card. I did one or two
questions from each volume. I picked short paragraph length articles that
were easy to find using the guide words. The question asked for something
real obvious - factual in first sentence or related to picture caption. The
kids, or partners, started with a question (spread out class through all
volumes). I created a generic answer sheet that had them identify the vol.
they used the page they found the entry on and a word or phrase answering
the question. When finished they took one of the cards not in use and
continued for as long as we had time. This way it didn't matter which
question they did in which order. Just needed a question for which the
appropriate volume was available. This built on guide words from dictionary
background but added reading (and recognizing) answer to the question once
they found the entry. Kids liked it and could work at own pace. You could
pull the struggling ones together and do same process with a more directed
approach while others worked more independently.
---------
One of the first things I did before teaching encyclopedias to second grade
was to order a set of "first" encyclopedias by Heinneman. (sp) The second
thing I did was to pass them out and give students 10 minutes to look
through them BEFORE trying to teach them anything. THAT I feel was the key
to my lesson success. Making them sit there try to learn when those
beautiful pictures and maps are staring them in the face just seemed too
much their eager little minds and hands. Hope this helps.
---------
Take a piece of paper and make a vertical line down the middle of it and a
horizontal line across the middle of the paper, dividing the paper into 4
sections. They chose a topic they wanted to know more about. In each box
she'd asked them to write a question about the topic. They would come to the
library to find those answers.
-----------
When we did it as a whole class, I chose the topic "zebra" and the class as
a whole chose questions they wanted to answers to. I picked and chose the
four questions to put in the boxes, knowing what was in the Golden Book
Encyclopedia entry about "zebras." I xeroxed the page with the article, so
each child had a copy of the page. I made a transparency of the page as
well. I read the article and as kids heard answers to the questions, they
would raise their hands. Parents and the teacher would help them write the
answers down. I also talked about topics, guidewords and what an
encyclopedia did. We did it in 30 minutes and as a guided lesson, everyone
doing the same thing it went very well.
-----------
During the library class I had World Book Encyclopedia volumes and Golden
Book Encyclopedia out so kids could look at them during book checkout time.
---------
To teach the concept before actually pulling out books, I bring in a bunch
of everyday items in a big plastic tub. These include different kinds of
balls, marbles, ball bearings (anything spherical); table ware such as
spoons, forks, etc.; magnets, or any other object which kids use every day.
You also have other smaller plastic buckets and you sort everything into the
smaller containers. Everything is now in the smaller tubs and we talk about
how to find the "gold marble" (which is small and there is only one: or any
other unique spherical object you wish). Discuss how things are organized:
by use, by size, by shape, by color etc... But how do we find a gold marble
if that is what we are looking for? Now that everything is sorted, it is
MUCH easier to find quickly.
-----------
I too, start encyclopedia skills with 2nd grade. I have to do it after they
have mastered finding things in a dictionary. I go through each volume of
our World Book and select a person that the children may know--like Tiger
Woods or Abraham Lincoln--that also has a brief entry. After we look for
someone together using the key words, we learn about the dates associated
with that person, that World Book usually tells what that person is best
known for in the first sentence. We wind up talking about "see also"--that
was the hardest part for them, believe it or not. I assign each student a
VERY brief biography. It's just a sheet where they list basic info--year of
birth, year of death, place of birth, best known for, and are there any
cross references (see alsos) and what they are.
--------
I put up trivia questions on a bulletin board and give a small candy prize
to those who answer it first. Some of my 2nd graders were already pretty
competent users of the encyclopedia through this. I will help them find the
answer if they are willing to learn--I won't do it for them! The older kids,
I just point in the right direction. (They get VERY competitive over trivia
questions)
If they can do dictionaries (alpha, guide words, difference between word and
definition, etc) maybe the problem is the longer articles and thus less to
guide the alpha or the possibly harder level of reading of the article.
--------
Admittedly, most of my elem experience (7yrs) was in a building with a high
title population, but I didn't have many second graders that could
consistently handle 2nd or 3rd letter alpha (we did chapter book alpha with
only first letter to make it easy; just like picture books.)
--------
Would having olders (4th, 5th) help one-on-one (or 2) work better? They
could show how they learned, and read aloud the article if need be.
---------
I used online (Grolier NBK) as intro with 3rd grade. Mostly eliminated
alpha, but required accurate spelling and learning difference between full
text and title or subject search.
---------
I introduce encyclopedias the first time in kindergarten and first grader by
just letting the children look at the encyclopedia and share one interesting
thing with the class.
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