Information Literacy Plan Rachel Temple-Roberts Georgia Southern University Fall 2011 Pathfinder: http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?

id=232262

Action Example Template

GRADE: 4 TEACHER(S): Ms. Thomas and Ms. Roberts CONTENT TOPIC: Colonial America STANDARDS FOR THE 21 -CENTURY LEARNER GOALS Standard: 1-Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge Skills Indicator(s): 1.1.2 Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning Benchmark(s): Articulate what is known about a topic Dispositions Indicator(s): 2.2.4 Demonstrate personal productivity by completing products to express learning. Responsibilities Indicator(s): 1.3.4 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within the learning community. Self-Assessment Strategies Indicator(s): 1.4.4 Seek appropriate help when needed. CONNECTION TO LOCAL OR STATE STANDARDS SOC.4.SS4H3.b} Describe colonial life in America as experienced by various people, including large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves, and Native Americans OVERVIEW: Ms. Thomass 4th grade class is a typical heterogeneous class. They are completing a study of Colonial America. The class will be extending their understanding of life in colonial times. Most of the reading and resources that the class has used during this unit have been from the social studies text book. While the standards have been covered it is important that these students have the opportunity to explore these standards from another vantage point and to practice research skills. The lesson is designed to stretch the understanding and critical thinking skills of the students as well as increase the interest level of the students in this subject. FINAL PRODUCT: Students will create a KWL chart about the lives of one of the following people types of people during colonial times: large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves, and Native Americans. LIBRARY LESSON(S): The students will use the pathfinder to search for information to complete a KWL chart that reflects what they have learned about life in colonial times for a particular type of person (large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves, and Native Americans). Students will receive instruction on how to use the pathfinder and how to navigate the websites to locate information and answers to specific questions on their KWL charts. ASSESSMENT Product: KWL charts will be assessed to show proof of understanding. A rubric will be used to assess the participation of the student as well as the product. Students will use the same rubric to self-assess their product and participation.
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 Process: Will be assessed by teachers through observation and individual discussion with students as needed during the process. Student self-questioning: Did I move though the websites thoughtfully? Did I search for information and read carefully? What information can I infer from what I am reading, seeing and listening to about life in Colonial America? What did I learn about how different colonial people live? How did I use web resources to help me gain information? Did I use my time productively? INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN Resources students will use: Pathfinder: http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=232262 Rubric Web sites KWL chart Instruction/activities O Direct instruction: The class will complete the Know and Want to know portions of a KWL chart on the Smart board regarding what we as a class know about Colonial American life, and what we want to know. This portion of the lesson will be taught collaboratively with the classroom teacher focusing on the recall of information from the unit. The teacher will then review the concept that people with different societal roles experience life differently. The students will then review the list of possible types of people (landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves, and Native Americans) that they can research to complete their own KWL chart. o Modeling and guided practice: The SLMS will introduce the students to the concept of a pathfinder. On a Smart board the SLMS will show students how to navigate the pathfinder to locate information. The SLMS will model finding information and applying it to the KWL chart on the Smart board. o Independent practice: Students will then be given the opportunity to fill out their own KWL chart about a specific type of person in colonial times. The student will then be allowed to move through the pathfinder sites on laptops to locate information and complete their charts. The SLMS and the classroom teacher will observe students as they complete the tasks and will assist and support students as needed through the research process. o Sharing and reflecting: Once students have had the opportunity to complete their KWL charts they will share what they have learned about colonial life. The class will discuss the different ways people lived during this era and compare and contrast the lives of the people. Students will then discuss what they learned about using websites to locate information and how much they enjoyed or did not enjoy finding information this way. The SLMS and the classroom teacher will jointly

discuss the rubric. Students will self-evaluate their work and participation in the project using the same rubric that the instructors will use later.

Reflection: I have been collaborating for several years as a gifted teacher, but I found moving into the role of collaborative SLMS to be intimidating. My school does have a SLMS, but she has mostly focused on getting kids to check out books so my students have not really thought of the SLMS as a person that functions in a similar role of a teacher. Ms. Thomas was thrilled to collaborate on a social studies lesson. She is a wonderful science teacher, but finds teaching social studies to be challenging at times. She and I have collaborative planning twice a week, so it was easy for us to work together on this project. Because we have collaboratively taught for so many years this project in many ways felt like an extension of our normal routine. The main problem that we found was that we had a very difficult time find the space in the day for the lesson. We planned to teach the lesson several different times only to have it be put off due to scheduling problems. The students were very receptive to the lesson and for the most part pretty well behaved and engaged. The students were very excited to have access to the laptops and this made for a overly chatty class. Fortunately, once the kids figured out what we were doing they were really excited. They were a little slow to get going on the group KWL chart and we had to prompt the students some before they really took over the discussion. They were excited about the pathfinder and seemed to find my modeling of its use to be frustrating because they just wanted to be left alone on the laptops. Many of them likely wished they had paid more attention during the modeling portion of the lesson because many students struggled to locate information once they were left to locate it on their own. For many of the students this was the first time they had ever done any research like this so I guess it is to be expected that it was a challenge for some of the students. As we moved around the room it became clear that most people choose to do their KWL chart on slaves, Native Americans or women. Many of the students commented that they liked seeing the color pictures of colonial life and that the pictures alone helped them to understand the time period better. I really wish that we had divided the lesson into two days because I think that they students could have done more with their work if they had more time. I think that we will repeat a similar lesson later in the year, but try to teach the lesson over a longer span of time perhaps stretching it even over a full week much like a performance task. The most interesting thing to me was the self-evaluation that the students did. Many of the students were very hard on their own work and were quite aware of their short comings. This was something else that we hope to use again to guide students to do higher quality work.

I asked the students to write a ticket out the door stating their reaction to the lesson. All but two of the students had positive things to say about the lesson style. Some excerpts from the comments were very exciting, I had fun doing it, learned interesting facts, it is fun to research, fun to use the computer and it showed me what they did back then. I was really encouraged to see that so many students were really excited by the lesson and that it gave them a different perspective. The negative feedback that I did receive was from two of the most capable students in the class who both basically said that they thought that it was too difficult to research, and that it was easier to just read the information from a book. This reaction really saddened me because I felt that these students were much more able to fully understand all of the information they had access to than their classmates but had not applied themselves.

Name: KWL Chart Rubric Student Self-Evaluation Category Great!! (4) Student gave great detail about what they knew and wished to learn Student made effort to answer questions and gave great detail in the recording of the information that they gathered. Student was on task and did not have to redirected to complete work Student showed interest and participated fully in discussions. Good (3) Student gave some information about what they knew and wished to learn but lacked detail Student made some effort to answer questions and limited detail in the recording of the information that they gathered Student was mostly on task and only had to be redirected fewer than 2 times Student showed interest and participated occasionally in discussions. Fair (2) Student gave limited information about what they knew and wished to learn Student made minimal effort to answer questions and gave no details in the recording of the information that they gathered Student was somewhat on task and had to be redirected fewer than 4 times Student was not disruptive and was somewhat attentive but did not participate in discussions. Insufficient (1) Student gave very little to no information about what they knew or wished to learn about the topic Student gave very little to no information about what they learned about the topic

Ideas

Information gathered

Use of time

Student was not on task and was redirected more than 4 times. Student was disruptive and did not participate in discussions.

Class participation

Name: KWL Chart Rubric Teacher Evaluation Category Great!! (4) Student gave great detail about what they knew and wished to learn Student made effort to answer questions and gave great detail in the recording of the information that they gathered Student was on task and did not have to redirected to complete work Student showed interest and participated fully in discussions. Good (3) Student gave some information about what they knew and wished to learn but lacked detail Student made some effort to answer questions and limited detail in the recording of the information that they gathered Student was mostly on task and only had to be redirected fewer than 2 times Student showed interest and participated occasionally in discussions. Fair (2) Student gave limited information about what they knew and wished to learn Student made minimal effort to answer questions and gave no details in the recording of the information that they gathered Student was somewhat on task and had to be redirected fewer than 4 times Student was not disruptive and was somewhat attentive but did not participate in discussions. Insufficient (1) Student gave very little to no information about what they knew or wished to learn about the topic Student gave very little to no information about what they learned about the topic

Ideas

Information gathered

Use of time

Student was not on task and was redirected more than 4 times. Student was disruptive and did not participate in discussions.

Class participation

KWL Chart
What I Know What I Want to What I Learned Know