Comparisons

=From Novice to Expert=

As learners, our skills in information inquiry evolve over time. Early learners are not expected, nor should the be, to dig as deep and be as self-sufficient as high school seniors or even college students. Similar to the scaffolding of our state standards, our information inquiry skills need to be scaffolded. With novice inquirers, Controlled or Guided Inquiry experiences are best. Within the structured activities and inquiry questions, novice inquirers learn new skills at their level (Callison, 99). These skills are practiced in later inquiries, and honed over time as students become more familiar with the inquiry process and skills needed. Through their experiences, they "meet" new resources, learn new approaches to inquiry, and begin to apply what they have learned to furture inquiries, formal and informal. While a novice may stumble through link after link on Google growing more frustrated every minute, an expert will seek out specific databases and organizations known for their reliable information and expertise. This development of skills is on a continuum and is not developed at the same rate by everyone.

Looking at the lessons presented here, both grade levels focus on the same skills, but at different levels. Since third graders have had little experience with formal inquiry, they come with less prior knowledge and skills. Even so, within the third grade group, a wide variety of information skills exists. I see this every day in their book selection (just grab and go, thoughtful consideration, or specific requests). By this point, some students have already been encouraged to explore topics of interests on their own. These students may have stronger inquiry skills than others. But as a whole, third grade students come with limited knowledge of the variety of resources that exist, few Internet search strategies, and limited experiences with formal inquiry. As eighth graders, the inquiry skills are still varied, but generally farther along the continuum. Through a diverse set of experiences, both informal and formal inquiries, students have begun to grasp where to seek information. They have a better understanding of what reliable means, but still don't always seek out these sources first.

=Lesson Comparison=

Three key aspects stand out to me as I look at the differences between the grade level lessons. Both grade levels get support and guidance from their teachers, but in varying degrees. The following areas demonstrate the planned difference between the grade levels, based on the level of inquiry skills.

Resource Exploration
At both grade levels, student explore and discuss various resources available. The third grade lesson is designed to expose students to a variety of resources, some of which they have never seen or heard of before. Looking at the expected skills for second graders in //Standards for the 21st-Century Learner In Action,// third grade students should know the "basic organizational structure of book...understand that the library has an organizational scheme...[and] select and use appropriate sources...to answer questions" (20). Having interacted with many second and third graders, I would hold these assumptions to be true in general. The resource lesson for third grade uses stations with pre-selected resources and a handout to guide them through determining if a resource will help for a specific topic. By focusing on finding resources on animals, the third graders will not be overwhelmed with determining the complete purpose of each resource, rather they can evaluate each resource based solely on the topic being sought. To help students explore the resources, the stations are equipped with hint sheets and the SLMS and teachers will also be available to model how to explore a source (using the index, finding the right volume, etc). While it is expected that third graders would already have these skills, the lack of practice with certain resources may make this expectation a bit faulty.

In contrast to the structured resource exploration for third grade, the eighth grade students first work together to use their combined prior knowledge of resources to brainstorm and categorize said resources - not focused on any particular topic at this point. With their varied experiences throughout upper elementary and junior high, they have explored a variety of topics for different subject areas, become more familiar with resources and their purposes, and searched the Internet and electronic databases for information. Bringing these experiences (and the skills they have developed though these experiences) gives them the opportunity to think more abstractly, and dig deeper into their knowledge of resources. While stations are not set up for the eighth graders, the students are free to get up and move about the room, checking out every nook and cranny to discover resources that may not have come to mind right away. The SLMS and teacher are still available to assist, but offer more encouragement and less modeling than with more novice inquirers.

Looking once again to //Standards for the 21st-Century Learner In Action,// eighth grade students should understand the "special sections in the library...[be able to] evaluate sources based on criteria...[and] select a variety of credible source in differenct formats relevant to research needs" (21). This was seen in many cases. A student researching pie knew seeking out recipe books and experts, such as the FACS teacher, would be appropriate for her topic. Another student knew interviewing his father, an Air Force Reservist, about the Air Force was an appropriate source for his project focused on that branch of the military.

Topic Selection
Both grade levels are given some freedom in topic selection, but the third grade has the limit of researching an animal. This helps keep the novice inquirers from being overwhelmed with all the possible topics they could research, helps them meet specific state standards in science, but affords them the opportunity to select a topic of interest to them within the limits. While some students at this age made have strong tendencies toward specific animals, exposing them to other animals gives them the opportunity to expand their horizons and apply their prior knowledge of animals to a "new" creature.

For eighth graders, having the opportunity to choose their own topic is a great freedom, yet can still be overwhelming for many of them. By having a guided brainstorming session, we stretch the students thoughts beyond the immediate ideas. If this guidance was not given, some students would still create a laundry list of topics they would like to explore, but the majority of students would have short lists of similar topics. The categories gave many students the desired extra support needed to keep them thinking about a variety of topics that they see day to day as well as newer topics they have learned about formally (in school) or informally through games, movies, or life experiences. Unlike the third grade students who may think in general terms (such as frog) while searching until discovering a related term such as American bullfrog), eighth graders are able to create a list or related terms and topics that will benefit them from the beginning of the searching. They are also familiar with using a thesaurus, seeking related terms in encyclopedias, and using search engines' suggested terms to enhance their searches (Callison, 88). These are skills that the third graders will develop as they gain more experience with inquiry.

Internet Searching
While pathfinders can be created for all grade levels, the nature of the topics guided my choices. Since all the third graders are researching animals, creating a mini-electronic pathfinder for them was feasible. This enables the students to access age and topic appropriate, authoritative websites, without wondering around the Internet with their novice searching skills. Each link provided is accompanied by instructions for navigating the site. Some links are marked with stars as starting points, since they are the easiest to navigate and the closest to grade-level vocabulary. Additional sources are also included that have more challenging vocabulary, since some students are ready for these more challenging resources as well. With animals, most third graders will think of a general animal name such as frog. But through exploring the various print and electronic sources available, they may discover more specific species they would like to focus upon. Not only is the pathfinder beneficial for time-management, it also exposes students to authoritative resources. Their limited experiences have not prepared them to accurately assess the source of information. How many times have we heard a young student spouting out "facts" that s/he heard from an adult, assumes to be true, but are not?

Creating a pathfinder for the eighth grade unit was not feasible. The topics were too varied to develop topic specific pathfinders, but students were still introduced to or reminded about the resources accessible through the school library media center web site. As students sought resources for their top four topics, both the SLMS and the teacher assisted with suggesting other resources to try, often through questioning. Sometimes a simple question such as "What organizations would help you learn more about the moon?" quickly moved students past a mental block and onto another resource, in this case NASA. Using reliable resources was a theme throughout our unit, but one some students still preferred to evade when it came to the Internet. Numerous times I found myself asking students who wrote the article (it doesn't say), what they know about the sponsor (nothing beyond the name), and how they know it is an expert (I don't). These conversations were effective, although only temporarily at times, unfortunately. Other times, students would turn to Inspire and //sudden// discover that they could find a lot of **reliable** information on their topics! Many students demonstrated their searching skills by quickly finding resources, using not only their initial topic/term, but also utilizing their related terms to narrow or expand their search. The difference in information skills among students was noticable with some resources, such as some students automatically flipping to the index or table of contents, while others randomly flip through the print source, hoping to find information. Students also used the //Facts on File Research Guide// to look up topic specific resources (sometimes with a brief tutorial from the SLMS or teacher), in addition to brainstorming other possible resources with their classmates and teacher/SLMS.

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