A game that I've played with middle school students involved answering reference
questions---one team using print resources and one team using the Internet.
The week-long activities before the game include showing the students how to use
things like the encyclopedia, almanacs, dictionaries, and any specialized materials
in our reference section. We talk about the table of contents, index, glossary,
guide words, etc. Then after they've had the chance to do some drills using the
various print resources, we finally break into teams and I allow the students to
answer questions using one source or the other. If they use the Internet, they
must also verify the source (authenticity, accuracy). Those using the print
resources don't need to do this---but it usually takes a little longer to figure
out which source to use.
The questions start easy and then become more difficult---including some
retrospective information that may be more difficult to locate online but easier to
locate in reference books such as almanacs or encyclopedias. To make it even more
exciting, I've also used a timer to see which group can answer the question in the
fastest time.
The interesting thing has been that after using the print resources during a week,
my print searchers usually always win the contests.
Shonda Brisco, MLIS
Trinity Valley MS / US Librarian
Trinity Valley School
Fort Worth, TX 76132
817-321-0100 ext. 410
briscos@trinityvalleyschool.org
"Those who have the highest expectations for the web in terms of student research,
are those who work
with it, and students, the least." -- LM_NET librarian
________________________________
From: School Library Media & Network Communications on behalf of Darlene Yasick
Sent: Tue 1/25/2005 7:51 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] Humor: or maybe not
Last week I started reading a little of Harry Potter to my seven yr old grandson. I
hadn't gotten too far when he asked me "Grandma is this true?" I said no it was
just a made up story. He said "oh then it's fiction!" (Wow) I then asked him what
the other kind of books are and he told me that true books were called non-fiction.
( No he didn't learn it from the librarian- they don't have one- but from a very
special teacher)
This week I am doing a library orientation/introduction to research with our ninth
graders. What we thought might take a day or two at most ( the library orientation
part)has stretched out to a full week as they struggle with what seems to be easy
tasks-find a book on the shelf-tell what books from a list can't be checked out,
find and use an online dictionary from a preselected site. Anyway, the first day I
asked the inevitable fiction/non-fiction question. In one class the only one that
tried to answer had it wrong. I mentioned this to Paul, that he knew something that
some high school kids didn't know. Last Friday he had the day off and wanted to
know if he could come to school with me. Why? So he could meet that girl and tell
her the difference between fiction and non-fiction!
I can't decide why these kids are struggling so but it seems to be a combination of
lack of skills, not following directions, not reading directions and expecting to
have the answer leap off the page or screen and scream "write me down" Another
example:
we sent the kids to a specific site and asked the "how far is it from Hopkins to
Philadelphia"
After being told that all answers were on the selected site, one pair typed "how
far is it" into Google. This takes you to a tourist site from Bali. There is a
place there to type in two cities and mileage comes back. Unfortunately the Bali
tourist site thinks it is 500 some miles while Rand McNally says it is over 700
miles. So next week when we talk about web evaluation we'll discuss how these two
young ladies are now stranded somewhere near the Pennsylvania border with no gas
money! But of course this is the tech savvy generation.
Funny in a way but also sad.
Darlene Yasick
Media Specialist
Hopkins (MI) High School
lib027yas@global.net
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