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InquiryGuide 2: Student Information Scientist

 

Introduction

Most media specialists work with children and young adults across grade levels and watch them evolve as student information scientists. Some teachers don't realize the important teaching role that media specialists can play in helping meet student learning standards. It’s your job to develop learning experiences that reflect your abilities as a dynamic teacher by connecting information and content area standards as well as collaborating with classroom teachers.

Be a Trail Blazer

Like a Trail Blazer, your job is to explore and experience new worlds of understanding. In this section, you'll be examining topics related to life-long learning, inquiry, and literacy. Each reading will provide the tools you need to complete the Trail Blazer activities. Note that the specific textbook readings are listed within the webpages. I've also listed them on the course calendar for quick reference.

Read Student Inquirers, Professional Information Scientists, Expert vs Novice Information Scientists, Student Information Scientists.
Read BLUE BOOK: p. 170-183

Read Understanding Learners: Brain-based (Compatible) Learning, Constructivism, Creative and Inventive Thinking, Critical Thinking, Gender, Metacognition, Motivation, Meaningfulness, Multiple Intelligences, Self-Regulation.
Read BLUE BOOK: p. 334-339, 349-353, 363-368, 381-386, 431-436

Read Trace Student Maturation By Topic: Audience Analysis, Authority, Classics, Experts, Future Applications, Journal, Linking, Key Terms, Original Data, Question, Rating, Useful Patterns.

Optional Reading - Read Inquiry Learning through Librarian -Teacher Partnerships by Harada & Yoshina

Trail Blazer 5: Understanding Learners (3 Points)
[Complete ONE of the following options]

5.1: Critical and Creative Thinking - Many people advocate combining critical thinking and creative thinking activities. In other words, for a given standard build activities that promote critical thinking and also promote creative thinking. Select a step in the Big 6 model and a subject area standard. Review the critical thinking and creative thinking pages. Then, discuss an inquiry project, a lesson, or series of mini-lesson ideas that could include both critical thinking and creative thinking elements. What are the benefits and/or drawbacks of this approach?

5.2: Motivating Minds - How do you get students excited about a dull topic? How do you get both girls and boys interested in reading? Select a topic that students might traditionally view as BORING. You might even find a boring lesson online to use for discussion. Envision a transformed, inquiry-based approach that engages all learners. Brainstorm ways to address EACH of the following issues: brain-based learning, gender, motivation, meaningfulness, and multiple intelligences.

5.3: Comic View - Sometimes a visual is the easiest way to explain an idea. Read the examples at the Exploratorium page. Then, read about Planning Using the Comic Format. Create your own using this layout. You can download a trial of Comic Life or build it in other software such as Publisher. Be sure to export your project as a JPG, HTML, PDF for other format that everyone will be able to read.

5.4: Linkages - Explore three examples (Digital History, Jamal, Great Seal) of how concept maps can be used to visualize linkages, resources, and processes in a project. Design your own linkages map and description (1) from your own teaching experience, (2) from your own inquiry experience, OR (3) based on work by a child. Your visual should be the focal point for your assignment, however you must also include the narrative describing the process and professional literature that helps interpret this experience. Include both the visual concept map(s) (as an attachment) and the interpretation.

Project 2: Maturing Information Scientists

Design inquiry-based learning experiences for TWO DIFFERENT grade levels of children or young adults. A learning experience is much more than simply a lecture and worksheet. You should provide a real-world connection that students will find interesting and meaningful.

All projects will be posted at the Virtual Inquiry Wikispace rather than in Oncourse.

Go to Demonstration Projects to see student projects from previous semesters. Notice that these examples were created BEFORE the wiki assignment.

Project Task

Your project should also focus on some aspect of information inquiry that will promote information fluency. In other words, you must develop a single lesson or activity that will help nurture a particular area of information fluency. If you need ideas, go to Thinkfinity. Don't copy a lesson, but it's okay to adapt an idea.

The most difficult part of this project is developing TWO sets of experiences at DIFFERENT grade levels. In other words, how are the needs of a first grader different from the needs of a fourth grader when it comes to evaluating the quality of information sources? How is the depth of questioning different for a third grader and a sixth grader? How is a lesson for a high school freshman English class different from the needs of a senior level social studies class when it comes to recording oral histories? How are the expectations for formatting citations in a reseach paper different for fourth graders and eighth graders?

Your task is to provide a quick overview of two units to provide context of your lesson, a single lesson or a couple mini-lessons, and an analysis of how your approach is different based on the grade level and evolving information skills of the students.

Your job is to provide an overview of TWO lessons for TWO different grade levels. These lessons should focus on both a content area and an information standard. In addition, your lessons should teach learners a specific essential information concept or skill. These lessons should include good examples, non-examples, activities, and assessments. If appropriate, they may be self-contained and self-paced. In other words, they could be used with a small group or as needed to differentiate for learning styles or special needs. For example, while some students may understand the concept of cause and effect, others might need the mini-lesson. While some students may not have difficult narrowing their topic, others may need lots of examples and practice.

Your unit should address standard(s) from the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (AASL, 2007, PDF) as well as at least one content area standard (i.e. Indiana Academic Standards). Try to choose a content-area topic far removed from the topic for the first project. For example, if you chose a social issues topic from your personal inquiry project you might choose science lessons for this project. Your two units can focus on the same subject or different topics.

Rather than a traditional paper, your project will be shared on a wiki at the Virtual Inquiry Wikispace.

Required Elements

The following 4 elements should be integrated into your wiki page.

Inquiry Skill. Describe a specific information inquiry skill(s) and how the student information scientist evolves from novice to expert. How is this skill(s) reflected in the standards? You may also wish to focus on a subject area skill in addition to the information skill. Cite Callison or other readings as you describe the specific skills or levels of maturation.

Overview. Provide a brief overview to the 2 grade levels, 2 units, and 2 lessons you've created. Be sure to state the specific information skill you are teaching.

Teaching materials. Include 1 lesson for each grade level that teaches a single concept related to a step in an information process model OR one information skill. BE SURE that your lesson places emphasis on modeling, scaffolding, and/or meta-cognition. In other words, how are you facilitating the inquiry process? What specific activities will the teacher perform that will guide students through the lesson and help students move to a higher level of understanding? It's not enough to just have students complete activities. The teacher must establish an environment that helps students learn and apply new skills, not just "do research."

Student materials. Include materials that guide learners through the experience (i.e., electronic versions of directions, help sheets, handouts, worksheets, checklists, rubrics)

Lesson Comparison. Provide a written discussion of the differences in maturation and depth from one grade level to the other. Discuss how the specific skills you have emphasized in your lessons evolve over time. How are you moving students from one level to the next level in their understanding? Justify your approach. How is the scaffolding that you provide students different at each of the two grade levels? Why? How are the expectations different? Why? How are the roles of the student information scientist and instructional specialist different at teach level? Why? Use specific examples from your lessons in your comparison. Also, cite the specific information standards you addressed in each unit and how they differ between grades.

The following 2 activities should be completed in the week following your assignment posting.

Feedback to Peer in Wiki. Examine the work of your peers. Go to a peer page. Click the DISCUSSION TAB and add a comment providing specific feedback, examples, website resources, books, citations, or other ideas for your classmate. Be sure to provide your name (first name is fine) so I can tell who wrote the comment.

Substantial Wiki Addition. Examine the work of your peers. Go to a DIFFERENT peer page than you used for your feedback. Click the EDIT THIS PAGE option. Scroll to the bottom of the page and add a example for a DIFFERENT GRADE LEVEL that shows a different level of maturation.

Project Submission

Sharing is an important part of learning. Your project will be shared with your classmates.

All projects will be submitted to the Virtual Inquiry Wikispace. There are THREE WAYS to add your content to the class wiki. Choose whichever best fits your needs.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

You can choose to place all your materials at the wiki using the IMAGE tool to upload pictures as well as documents (i.e., Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoint, etc). Or, you may wish to upload materials to your web space (personal, university, or Google Pages). The make links to your wiki page.

Be sure to complete the substantial addition requirement of the project on a peer's page.

Ideas

If you're still unclear about the expectations, maybe a couple of examples would help. Keep in mind that you must develop your own materials for this project. Use the following projects for inspiration. Notice that in each case, the media specialist is developing learning experiences that will build student skills from year to year.

Idea 1: You're working with a middle school history teacher on a World War II unit. Your lesson deals with visual literacy and interpreting World War II posters. You use the NARA Digital Classroom website for ideas. You're also working with a high school teacher on a unit focusing on the role of photography in the Civil War. How is your approach different with the high school level students? What additional depth in visual literacy skills will be addressed at the high school level?

Idea 2: You're working with freshman English teachers on helping students avoid plagiarism in projects involving local political issues. At the same time you're working with a high school junior level psychology class on a unit related to ethics. Your focused lesson deals with copyright issues and separating fact from opinion related to swapping MP3 music. You use a Computer Ethics WebQuest to see how they made use of roles. How will the freshman English class experiences help lay the foundation for the psychology project a couple years later?

Idea 3: You're working with a second grade teacher on a science and literacy unit related to insects. Use An Insect's Perspective as an example. Notice the use of student pages and a teacher page. The sixth graders also do a unit on insects. How will you ensure that sixth graders don't just review the materials from second grade, but truly refine and enhance their science and information literacy skills? How are your expectations and assignments different at the sixth grade level?

Evaluation

The following checklist will be used to evaluate your project. - 20 Points Possible

Project Posting Requirement

Substantial Addition Requirement

Conclusion

An exciting lesson can bring learning alive for children. Let's create a warehouse of effective teaching and learning materials. Spend some time exploring the lessons that others have created.

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