Just Google It - Continued

I had to do a follow up post to my last post because I think it is important to share what has happened since gaining approval to run sessions with the students as Miss A's school.

The school had organised library visits for the year 2/3, 3/4 and 5/6 classes.  However, the weather had other ideas and due to the extreme conditions, I said that I could visit the classes at the school rather than have the students walk to the library in the horizontal rain and wind.

At these visits, I had the students divide into their project questions/topics.  I provided each group some butchers paper and different covered felt pens (textas).  I then asked the students to label the paper with their project topic and write all the words and questions they could think of when it came to their topic.  E.g. for those doing shipwrecks they put ship, boat, rocks, storm, where did the boat/ship come from?, what was the boat/ship carrying?, where was the ship/boat going? etc.

I then handed out a kids guide to Dewey Decimal Classification that I had modified to be more Australian.

We went through how the Dewey Decimal Classification worked using a comparision with supermarket shopping and how all the fruit and vegetables are together and all the meat is together and all the bread is together, etc.

I then asked them to look at their words on their butchers paper and go through the Dewey Decimal Classification handout and write down any Dewey Decimal numbers that they thought matched their words.

By this time, I had run out of time with them - I only had half an hour with each class.  But the end product was butchers paper full of keywords and possible Dewey Decimal numbers they could go to when visiting the library.

Luckily for me, the teachers arranged for library visits once the weather had cleared.

During the library visit, I gave a quick tour of the library.  We then sat down and I asked what parts of a book they could look at to find out if the book would have anything about their topic.  The students were really cluey about this and all could answer - the blurb at the back, the contents page and the index.

I had put aside books to do with their topics and made sure they couldn't be loaned to allow all students equal access to the resources.  We all know what can happen if you have one student or parent of a student who is quick of the mark and borrows all the books about a particular topic resulting in the other students having access to nothing.

The students were then allowed to look through the books and photocopy (for free) any pages they thought that would help then with their projects - with a limit of 10 pages!

All in all it has been a success.  The teachers were really impressed and have already talked to me about making this a regular thing.

The principal even put a small article in the school newsletter talking about the partnership with the school and local library and how wonderful it was for the students to learn about how they can access learning resources from a place within their community outside of school.

Now all I have to do is continue working on the other 6 primary schools and 2 high schools in our region - which I have been hammering away at since I started in this job 5 years ago.

Just Google It

Last week, Miss A came home with her first project.  Miss A is in year 2 this year but has been put in a year 2/3 class so instead of continuing stage 1 work (Kindy-2), she is now doing stage 2 work (yrs 3-4).  I'm in mixed minds about this but I'm not focusing on this in today's blog post.

Back to the project.  So this is the project:

During each Term this year you will be given an outline for a project to work on at home.  The projects will be linked to that Term's theme in HSIE.  While not compulsory, we hope you will take these opportunities to further develop valuable skills in research and presentation.

Our theme in Term 1 is early Australian history: sea exploration, reasons for colonisation, and first settlement.

For this Term's project you should choose one of the following:

• A biography of a convict.  This can be any convict who became well-known, e.g. Francis Greenway, James Ruse, John Cadman.  If you know you have a convict as an ancestor, you can do your project on him or her.
• A famous shipwreck, e.g. Batavia, Vergulde Draeck, Zuytdorp or Trial (there are two - one in WA and another at South West Rocks)
• This year is the bicentenary of the crossing of the Blue Mountains by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson in 1813.  Explain why it took 35 years to find a way over the mountains west of Sydney, and why it was so important for the colony of NSW.

And it goes on to explain how the project is to be presented.

Imagine my shock when Miss A told me that the teacher (not her teacher) explaining the project told them to use Google.  I asked - did they mention books, the school library, the public library??  She said no.

So like any good mother, I visited her teacher and mentioned that I wasn't very happy that the students were told to use Google and I'd happily offer the students a session on how to find information in the public library - which is just down the road from the school.

This week I'm providing "how to find information" sessions for the year 2/3's, 3/4's and 5/6's from my daughter's school.

Now I don't dismiss having students use Google to find information.  But I do get disappointed when there is no explanation on how to define what they should be looking for, no discussion of keywords, no discussion of how to evaluate the information found, and no discussion of the other research tools and resources that could be used.

I also find it disappointing that the school librarian is not insisting on offering "how to find information" sessions to the students.  

I understand that there can be many reasons why this doesn't happen - lack of funds, lack of support by the teachers, lack of time etc etc.  But what if I my daughter was not at this school? Who else would jump in and ask that the students be given the opportunity to be taught these skills?  Especially since the project states that it is allowing the students to further develop their research skills - well how about giving them research skills to develop instead of giving a project without the basic support to get them started?

Even if the school had not agreed to allow the students to come to the library, Miss A would still be provided with a lesson in finding information from me - but what about the other students?

And I'm trying very hard not to think about the other schools in our area that are also not providing their students with the basic start in finding information.

What are your thoughts on this?