Library, Marblehead Village School, 1 hour

My observation today was a much anticipated lesson in analysis of multiple similar primary source documents.  These five published runaway slave advertisements from the years 1736 to 1738.  Naturally, my focus during this observation was on inquiry based learning.  Once again, Mrs. Soghomonian had her objectives clearly defined and posted.  (As an observer, I appreciate the fact that they are always posted in the same area and format for consistency.)  While Mrs. Soghomonian explained that she hoped to have the students continue their foray with primary source documents she used the projection system to model for the children how to access this lesson on the Village Library website under Fifth Grade Resources.  It is titled Runaway Slave Advertisements and it is located near the bottom of the page.  (These advertisements are to links located on The Geography of Slavery Project.  It is found at The Virginia Center for Digital History (VCDH) which is an independent center within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia.)   

The Geography of Slavery Project Homepage

In addition to the richness that primary source documents provided in the lesson, Mrs. Soghomonian liked using the documents to provide exposure to new vocabulary.  Words like “fretted, stature, countenance and yawl” were some of the terms that children needed to understand.  She felt that within this lesson of discovery, there was a mini lesson in using contextual clues to understand the meaning of these new words.  

Advertisement in The Geography of Slavery Project

By working in teams of two, the children used the provided structured worksheet that she generated to organize the clues the found in each advertisement.  In the end, Mrs. Soghomonian wanted each team to use those clues to answer the question, “Did the slave get away?” with a follow up question of, “What evidence is there from the advertisement makes you think that?”  She circulated among the students as they were working asking them questions about what they were reading, providing updates to the amount of time remaining and answering questions that the advertisements generated.  I really enjoyed seeing the children ponder over the meaning of the words and decipher them.  

 Runaway Slaves Primary Source Worksheet

Once the worksheet was completed, the teams began the task of determining who made it to freedom and who was captured along with relevant information that led them to their assessment.  (The children were told that they would be discussing their findings during next week’s class.)  Mrs. Soghomonian shared that she always finds it interesting what the children will use as a clue and how they will interpret it in terms of each slave’s success at achieving freedom.  One student was very quick to tell me that a slave in one of the advertisements was most certainly caught since, as she stated, “Who could miss a man with a big R branded on his cheek?  It is easy to hide the problem on his leg, but not his face.”  Some quiet discussion even occurred between groups in close proximity as they realized that they held opposing viewpoints on the freedom of each slave.  It was as if these children had stepped back in time and actually were history detectives. 

Higher level bloom skills were definitely being utilized in this lesson and all the students were actively engaged.  The children were also getting practice navigating to the Village Library website to access various lessons and sources.  This continued exposure to the site will remind students that this site is a great “go to” site which provides other resources across the curriculum.

Library, Marblehead Village School, 1.5 hours

My observation on 2/4/13 was a lesson continuation of my post from 1/29/13.  Technology literacy was part of the focus of the 4^th grade class that I observed today.  Mrs. Soghomonian ran through the objectives of today’s lesson and reviewed what was done last week in the computer lab.  She informed the class that they would definitely be completing the assignment this week.  She established the goals of today’s lesson immediately which were to finish typing a hand written 8 sentence document, provide header information and generate a title.  Once done with the body of the document, the children had to make sure that the title was centered, the body of the document was left justified, the first paragraph was indented and that spell check was used.  The children were reminded to use their computer “tool box.”  In an effort to maximize computer lab time she was brief.  The final means of assessment was the printed out document that was generated.

Similar to last week, the children needed login identification numbers given to them and some assistance retrieving their document.  While this seems to be a constant across this grade level, it is a skill that the children have only formally learned this year and the LMS gives them an opportunity to practice this.  In comparing the 4^th grade classes to the 5^th grade ones, I have noticed that by the time the 5^th graders go in the computer lab, there is significantly less assistance needed for students to log on.  This is a wonderful indicator that growth of basic computer skills and maneuverability overall with an additional year is occurring as a result.

The other part of my focus was on parental support of the library program.  In the course of my time observing Mrs. Soghomonian, I saw three different parent volunteers provide support.  Each parent came in during their child’s class and alleviated some of the clerical aspects of the position.  While Mrs. Soghomonian was teaching, they were able to check in all of the books and shelve the books that were returned along with any other books that were not able to be shelved from a previous class.  Unlike in the younger grades, where sometimes multiple parent volunteers in the same class often use this volunteer position to assist only their children and interact with another parent, these parents did not interact with their children at all in some instances or minimally in others.  They each worked independently and did not cause distractions of any kind.  Having these parents there provided support for the LMS to also be able to assist children that were looking for a particular book rather than have to check out the books.

The LMS later shared that she was grateful to have the parents provide this clerical assistance.  In turn, the parent that I spoke with is impressed with the skills that their child is learning and she is eager to support Mrs. Soghomonian and the LMS program at the school.  Mrs. Soghomonian is very appreciative of her parent volunteers and as a result the PTO has been generous with the library program as well.  By welcoming parents into the media center, Mrs. Soghomonian allows the parents to see firsthand the value and necessity of the program.  The positive publicity of the program and goodwill provided by these volunteer opportunities is invaluable. 

Library, Marblehead Village School, 1.25 hours

“Promoting a love and appreciation for reading and good literature.
Creating capable and critical users of information and technology.”

That is the mission statement listed on the VillageSchool Library website immediately above Mrs. Soghomonian’s name.  This mission statement was the basis of today’s observation of a 4^th grade class.

Village School Library Website

            As always the lesson criteria were listed clearly on the easel for the students to see upon entering the library.  They were as follows:

·         “Just because it is out there doesn’t mean it’s true.”

·         What about Wikipedia?

·         The clue is in the URL.

After a brief follow up from the previous lesson on creating Microsoft Word documents to see what the students retained and to query if any students had used this skill at home, Mrs. Soghomonian asked them what types of resources the students used for their recent research project.  Out of a class of 21 children an informal poll revealed the following source usage:

·         Database – 2 children

·         Books – 6 children

·         Google – 16 children

·         Wikipedia – 10 children

Children stated that they liked Wikipedia because it has “good info” and “it is always there when you need it.”  I was surprised at the overwhelming 76% of resources that were from Google and Wikipedia.  The lingering question is, “What is the validity of the information that the students used?”  This was a nice way for the librarian to delve into a discussion about why Google and Wikipedia are not always the best.  She reminded the students that they need to always be good “information detectives.”  Mrs. Soghomonian decided to search on “Inuit.”  She showed how the first two Google results of the 9,540,000 results had nothing to do with the Inuit.  The third result was for Wikipedia.  The librarian took a moment to refresh their memories of the questions that you need to ask when evaluating a website:

·         Who wrote it?

·         When was it written?

·         What special features does it have?

·         Can I read it and understand it?

Focusing back on Wikipedia, she made it crystal clear that each and everyone in that class could go on the site and alter it, therefore becoming an author.  To further give the children tools to find a site author, Mrs. Soghomonian used the Wikipedia left side bar tab “About Wikipedia.”  Here it states that Wikipedia is written collaboratively by largely anonymous internet volunteers who write without pay.  (Each of the underlined words was discussed to ensure that the students fully understood what they were reading.)  In this case, there was no idea who wrote the site and if that person(s) had any authority about the Inuit.  The children were able to correctly state where in a book you find this information.  Making the connection from print resources to internet resources was a nice way for them to recall the previous skills that they were taught to find out about an author from a print resource that the children were using.

           

            The children brainstormed possible motives for someone to include incorrect information on a Wikipedia page such as an attempt at humor, to be mean, or that the person might not know the information was false.  While Wikipedia volunteers do go on and check information, you just never know if what you are looking for is accurate….so BEWARE and be a good detective!  The librarian told them that no matter the site, the students should always look for the “about” and “disclaimer” tabs often at the bottom of the home page.  The most eye opening moment came when the librarian clicked on the disclaimer tab.  Even Wikipedia makes no guarantee of the accuracy of its information.

Wikipedia Disclaimer

            After seeing the potential high probability of inaccurate information that they were using for their projects, Mrs. Soghomonian again polled the class to generate other databases that would be great sources of information.  Some students volunteered World Book, Kids Info Bits & Culturegrams.  While the librarian did agree that these 3 sources might not be as easy to use as Google, the information is checked and you can use it without reservation.

           

            Finally, she reminded them about the clue in the URL.  The Uniform Resource Locator gives the website’s address on the internet.  I was amazed that they children were only familiar with “.com” & “.net” URLs.  After a listing and definition for “.K12, .org, .edu, .gov, .ca and .uk” she asked them which ones would most likely have the most information for research purposes.  The top there were “.org, .edu and .gov” of the list generated.

            This philosophy of being a detective is not a new realization.  Behind the librarians book check out area on a large poster is the following:

           

An Information Detective Wants to Know:

1.      Who wrote it? Why?

a.       Are they qualified?

b.      How I heard of them?

c.       Clue in the URL?

2.      When was it published?

3.      How is the information organized?

4.      How do I locate information?

5.      What special features help me to understand?

6.      Is the information useful?

a.       Does it make sense?

I was eager to see how Mrs. Soghomonian would approach this important skill.  Since I just took a class involving website evaluation prior to this one, I found she did a great job of making the criteria age appropriate without going into too many details to bog the children down.  Just being aware of what is out there and where a good place to search is will set them up to be good researchers.  She hit home the fact that anyone can make a website and that the information that the search yields on Google is not always the best.  In case the students forget all the criteria that Mrs. Soghomonian taught them and is posted in the library, the same information can be found on her Glog that is linked to her library page.  It is definitely worth taking the time to review.  When it comes to a research paper, can you really afford not to evaluate the information you will be using?

Mrs. Soghomonian’s Glog on Website Evaluation