Project Duration: (2) 40-minute class periods
Dates: November 16, 2009 and November 23, 2009
Grade Level: 2nd grade
Participants
• Tamela Chambers (student teacher-librarian)
• Mrs. Quinn (teacher-librarian)
• (2) 2nd grade classes
Mark Sheridan Elementary School
Chicago, IL
Rationale
A firm understanding of alphabetical order is the foundation upon which students become independent seekers and users of information. Libraries (public, school and academic) use alphabetical order to classify fiction and non-fiction materials. Many of the information resources found in libraries (dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, etc) contain information that is arranged in alphabetical order. The skills needed to successfully "locate,organize and use information to answer questions, solve problems and communicate ideas" are taught during the early elementary years and will extend into adulthood as students begin engaging in self-initiated and teacher directed research tasks. Their success in finding the information/resources needed will depend heavily upon their ability to recall alphabetical order.
Contribution to Community/Media Center
I created a worksheet for the teacher-librarian to access and use to recreate the lesson. In addition, I created shelf labels and shelf markers aimed at helping students self select materials for recreational reading. Samples of students' work was used to create a bulletin board over the Easy Fiction section as a reminder of shelf order.
Contribution to Students
A firm understanding of alphabetical order is essential for students to be able to successfully select and navigate materials found in the library. Once the students understand alphabetical order they will be able to use and develop those skills throughout their education to locate and select information.
Information Literacy Skills
Learning Outcome:
• Students will understand alphabetical order to the second letter
• Students will be able to locate easy fiction books in the library
Project Design Reflection
This idea for this project was sparked from a conversation with the cooperating teacher-librarian, Ms. Maureen Quinn, about the skills being taught in the library as well as in the classroom. We both agreed that ABC order was the foundation upon which other information literacy skills (locating information on the shelves, finding information in reference books, etc.) are built and I decided to teach this skill as a supplement to the students' exposure to ABC order in the classroom. I believe in "real world" applications of the concepts taught inside the classroom and wanted students to have "hands-on" experience locating information in the library. As such, the lesson was designed to include a "hands-on" component aimed at not only building off the knowledge learned in the library, but as a way to connect the lesson (paper spine labels and construction paper as representations of books and shelves) to actual use of the library (choosing books and eventually locating information in reference materials).
Implementation
The first lesson was conducted during regular library instruction Monday, November 16, 2009 and Tuesday, November 17, 2009. The students listened to the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and we reviewed the basic parts of a book (front cover, back cover, spine). In addition we reviewed ABC order and I explained to the students that the books in the picture book area of the library are arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. The students were then distributed worksheets in which they were to "assist" the librarian by putting the books on the shelf in order. This lesson was conducted with two second grade classes totaling approximately 59 students.
Approximately 90% of the students understood the correct order of the books and labeled the spines accordingly. The students experiencing difficulty with the concept were instructed to circle the first letter of the 3 letters indicating the author's last name to "see" the order. If they experienced difficulty remembering order, they were instructed to write the alphabet at the bottom of the page. Since the majority of the students turned in correct worksheets I decided to scaffold them to see if they would be able to correctly organize spine labels (containing the first 3 letters of an author's name) by the second letter.
The second lesson was conducted during regular library instruction Monday, November 23, 2009 and Tuesday, November 24, 2009. I began the lesson by reviewing what we learned the previous week before explaining the objective for the day's activity. I distributed pre-cut, "mock" spine labels and construction paper to the students. The mock spine labels contained the first three letters of authors' last names--all beginning with the letter "C". The second letter was underlined as a clue to facilitate student thinking. I explained to the students that we would be playing a game to see how fast they could shelve the books in the allotted time (2 minutes). I set a timer and the students began arranging the "books" on the shelf.
Please wait...