I taught a class at the HS level for a year and I would strongly encourage
you to teach citations. I found that our students didn't even understand
how to cite a book-- much less anything beyond that! And with database
information it gets really complicated! We now have a subscription to
Noodletools (it's very inexpensive-- and very helpful! And it has a
"notecard" feature)-- but most students still don't understand what is
required. The more practice the better! I would also teach summarization
and paraphrasing-- have them practice a lot.
Library curriculums include "presentation skills" too so teach them
different presentation tools on a topic of their choice.... (podcasting,
glogster, GoogleDocs etc, even good PowerPoint skills (find the video of
the guy who has analysed all of Steve Job's presentations for Apple and make
sure the kids touch on his five points when they do theirs.
Could you do book trailers with them? I also teach a library skills class to
8th grade but, my class is only 23 days. It used to be only 15 days so I
need more material to cover with them and decided to try a book trailer
project.They must always have a book to read in their LA classes for SSR so
there were no excuses about not having a book. It took most kids at least a
week to do. There are a lot of HITS on LM_NET if you need help. I taught
myself and then the students how to make them solely from info on LM_NET.
Is it time to teacher them ways to show what they have learned w/ web 2.0? I
bet they would love doing research and then making animoto to share it or
glogster etc.
What about having them create book trailers? They can get research skills by
citing their images and/or music, and you can get promotional tools for
books in your library. I've had my student aides do them since I have to
grade them and it's worked fairly well.
Probably not enough for 10 weeks worth, but how about bringing in a few
print sources and have the kids evaluate them, using the same standards you
have already taught them for evaluating web sites. You could also bring in a
few print reference sources (almanac, dictionary, etc.) and have two kids
find specific information. One starts with a computer turned on, but the
student not logged in. The other starts with the book. Both are given the
same search problem, and you see who gets the correct answer first. You can
probably do this with each student getting a turn at both a book and the
computer. By the time you have done this 22 times, and recorded which is
quicker each time, the class ought to have the idea that for a quick look-up
of a fact the print source is usually quicker. That is a novel idea for many
kids.
Another idea would be to have the class look up the same news story
(national or international news) on various web sites and compare the
coverage. Some of them will notice that the story is identical
(word-for-word) on several sites. You can then spend some time on why that
is, before you let them in on the secret of the Associated Press. If you get
Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report in the library, bring in the
same week's issue and compare the cover stories.
A fun activity for bias is to have two kids "race" across the room. After
the race, you write the headline "___ comes in second; ___ next-to-last"
with the winner in the second slot. Ask them how the headline sounds. Much
fun!
Does it have to be Library "skills" (in my mind, this means "how to use a
library"). Or can it be appreciation of what's in the library- that is,
literature appreciation? Getting the kids interested in books, reading,
etc. For instance, we've done a Newbery lesson, where we displayed about a
dozen Newbery books. I read an interesting passage from each book and had
the students guess which book the passage came from. It was fun and they
tried some books they might not have tried on their own. You could do it
with any type book. Or you could do an author study (or several). Look
into the author's life- see what made him write what he did or the way he
did. What his/her life experiences were. Maybe the students would find
some inspiration for their writing. Or you could look at How to Read
Real-Life Documents (whether it be a menu or a graph or a bus schedule or a
nutritional label or a recipe or a weather map, etc.) Or do biographies-
what made that person so unique. Could involve books and internet research.
Or they could do book reviews and post them on your library website in some
way. (There should be something in the Archives about how to do this).
I have an 8th grade son so I'm familiar with the animal! How lucky you are
to have these students for 10 more weeks. How lucky THEY are!
Just my thoughts. Hope it helps.
Move on to 2.0. Have them make booktrailers, wikis, blogs, etc. There are
wonderful applications to introduce them to. For example introduce them to
free rice and have them test their vocabulary and print out their results
after so long. Have them look up some information on why reading improves
their vocabulary as well as over all achievement levels. Introduce them to
delicious.com (you can find the free rice site their as well as so many
other wonderful ideas.
What about putting all of their skills to use with a report or project? If
you add presenting it, that would add an extra session or 2 after they
complete their assignment.
I think I would start to focus on how to use what they have learned so far.
Perhaps a research project using all the skills they have mastered. How
about dividing the class into groups - then let one student from each group
( they could take turns so all in the group would have the experience) go to
the library to use a print resource to find some information or topic to
bring back to the group. Then use the databases, etc. to fill in and
complete the project. Maybe they could include some illustrations, posters,
etc. and do a display.
Sample topics: history of the area, famous person from the area, special
holiday.
One project I did with a class was to research what was needed to plan
and enjoy a birthday party. I used the Chinese New Year to kick off the
whole thing. They had to research the history of birthdays and celebrations
of birthdays using (back then we only had print resources) encyclopedias,
dictionaries, almanacs. Then they used things like telephone books to find
info on where to purchase food, decorations, invitations, entertainment,
gifts. I had them ask permission from parents to call and explain to the
people they contacted that they were doing a school project and needed
information on prices ( I sent home letters to all parents explaining the
project and had it signed by the Principal as well as the teachers
involved). However, today a lot of that can be done online but I would still
have them use print resources for some of it, for the experience. They
designed posters, invitations, etc. It was a lot of fun. I had worksheets
done up with spaces for all the info to be organized and I used that for
part of the grading. The reports they wrote on the celebration of
birthdays was also part of their English grade (The English teacher was
happy to find aanother writing project). The art teacher liked the
invitations and posters. Altogether it took almost half the semester as I
didn't see them every day. But they really enjoyed it and at the end, I
brought in cupcakes and we celebrated birthdays.
Could you devote the ten weeks to sorely needed Media Literacy? They
can evaluate all types of media in print and electronic by asking one
question about a subject and seeing how different types of media treats
the topic. This gets them to observe bias in an authentic learning
challenge and they become more aware as consumers of media that
manipulation can be subtle as well as overt.
You can customize the topics to be current, historical, controversial,
or they could choose one that interests them.
It ends up being research as well as developing essential critical
thinking skills about media they will be encountering all their lives.
Creating booktalks, book trailers, book reviews?
Take what you have already taught with db's etc and make them do a
research paper. Show them web 2.0 tools on how to outline and ask
language arts if they can collaborate on the writing portion. If not,
grade it the best you can.
google earth or is there a project they are doing in any of their subject
classes that they can then apply the skills they have learned in skills
class? this is a good opportunity to collaborate with the teachers. I
would ask the LA or Social studies or science teacher if they have any
projects for which the kids could use their "skills" time to work on the
projects. It seems like you taught them the skills, now they can apply
them. I think this would be a better use than just trying to find stuff to
fill ten weeks.
have you done any lessons on using google docs, delicious.com, blogging or
making/using a wiki? you could always cover copyright and plagarism as
well. just some ideas.......
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