CI 553 Reflections - Week 2

Thoughts on the Standards & Education
As I make my way through our text, Achieving Educational Standards Using the Big6, I am struck by how relevant this information is for me and my students. Information Literacy is the overall umbrella under which nearly all of the authentic tasks in school can be defined. (Some things, like Metal Shop or Woods or Art or Music, don't fit as nicely into this category.) However, when we think about the "core" subjects, like English, History, Government, Science, and Math, it seems that the tasks Doug Johnson described as "low probability of plagiarism (LPP)" (qtd. in Murray, 2008, p.39) are the tasks that really engage students. Let's face it, an assignment like "Read Chapt. 13 and answer questions 1-8" isn't as engaging as something the students are actually interested in that is relevant to their lives. This brings up interesting questions about knowledge and learning: What is more important, to ask students questions that require them to think, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, or to teach them content that has great cultural value, like Plato, Shakespeare, Darwin, Newman, Pythagoras? Is there a way to do both at once?

As per standard one, and the idea that teachers (and pre-service teachers) need to "define and articulate the need for information" (Dynamic Schedule), I thought Murray's idea of Backward Design was a great one, especially for longer, more involved projects. It seems essential that we start with the desired results of the task and work backwards to determine instruction (p.36).

The Real Deal: A Junior Research Project and the Big6
When my junior classes do our research project, I have found that getting students to ask what Murray calls "the essential questions" (p.37) can be quite time consuming, but worth the effort. It usually takes me 3-4 days of independent conferences to get the point where my students are ready to begin their research. Chapter 4 had some great tools that I will definitely use: fat questions vs. skinny question (p. 38), the research question rubric (p. 40), and the assignment graphic organizer (p. 41). This last graphic organizer really sets the stage for using the Big6.

When I started looking more closely, I realized that Montana's Library Media standards directly correlate to the Big6, which is another great reason to use the Big6 as a teaching tool. For example. LM standard one - "Students identify the task and determine the resources needed" is simply a restate of the Big6 skills one & two - task definition and information seeking strategies!

Using Ready Reference, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
Though it was a bit frustrating, I appreciated the Self-Check Questions that came along with these notes. I was introduced to some new sources that are a fount of information and I will definitely use the Library of Congress, CIA Factbook, Bigyellow and Infoplease with my students and personally. Again in Chapter 5 of the text, I liked many of the provided graphic organizers about searching subject directories and evaluating web pages. These will be useful to research information for my social justice unit, as well as author lives and history, and speech and research topics.

Photo Credits: These images are available through a Creative Commons License. Thanks to Flickr users Oberazzi and Wok for use of their images.

CI 553 Reflections - Week 1

The Standards
I think that it is important that all teachers know about and incorporate information literacy and library media standards in their classroom. Students come to us as consumers of media - they have (and frequently use) computers, TVs, cell phones, the internet, magazines, video games, ipods, ipads and a plethora of other technology that is designed to get information to consumers... FAST! It is absolutely essential that we, as educators, teach students to be discriminating consumers of media and information. The information literacy/library media standards are designed to ensure that our students become critical thinkers who can ask authentic questions with skills to plan strategies for inquiry, locate information and communicate their new-found knowledge to others.
the state of Montana.

As classroom teachers, we often require students to do research. The library media standards provide the framework for those research skills, and ensure that educators across subject areas and grade levels are teaching and requiring the same things from the students. The IL/LM standards offer us a way to ensure the vertical and horizontal alignment of research skills within the state of Montana.

The Big6
I was so excited to come across the Big6. This is definitely something that I will put to use in my classroom. As an English teacher, we do a lot of researching in my class. My juniors give informative and persuasive speeches, as well do a more formal Inquiry Based Research Project. To be honest, I have always been at a loss when it comes to teaching the research skills. The Big6 seems so simple and straight forward, I can't wait to try it! Next year, I am thinking that we will do several smaller research papers, rather than one huge one. This will allow students to research topics related to the things we are studying in class, and share their findings. Ultimately, I think this is a more relevant and realistic way to conduct research than just some big project that is not really linked to any of the issues we have been studying. I think that I will introduce the ideas right at the beginning of the year. This will give me a basis for reference throughout our time together and establish the fact that I want to students to provide resources and references to back up their ideas.
Poster Credit: The "Big6™" is copyright © (1987) Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. As long as credit is given, they have many free items to share! For more information, visit: www.big6.com

The Future
With the upcoming election in the fall, there is the chance that we will see a significant change in our elected officials. Regardless of this possibility, I believe the standards based movement will continue. Recently, Montana has done so much work to revise our standards, I think that there would be an uproar if we abandoned it now. Additionally, pre-service teachers are being taught that they must teach to the standards, and it is OPI's job to see that these standards are revised and updated so there is the possibility of horizontal alignment across the state. I know that we aren't there yet, but the writing ad publishing the standards is a necessary first step. Additionally, with the advent of the National Common Core Standards, the standards movement has taken a front and center position within the educational world as well as the media.

Smith River

Amazingly, Eric pulled another permit for the Smith River this year. We are so excited to canoe and hang out for 5 days on the river with Eric's sister Denise, and our friends The Nadeaus.

Last year when we ran the river it was flowing about 300cfs. Right now, because of all the rain, it is over 900cfs! We'll see what happens with the flows in the next week or so...it might be a rowdy trip.

Here are some pics from last year's trip.

A personal blog...

Welcome to my newly designed personal blog. I am excited about starting a new project (as if I don't have enough going on!) Feel free to check out my other blog that I have been using in my classroom. You can find it here.

Next year, I plan to use blogging more and more with my students. I think it is a fantastic way to get students engaged in learning.