This allows students a chance to learn their “library wings” and learn to navigate the information skies by completing six tasks (six units of study) in library skills classes. The Pilot’s Log is a page folded into a booklet that lists each of the six skills students must master. As we go through the year and complete each unit, students can stamp their pilot’s log to show successful mastery of the skills. I am using this with my fourth graders, and they absolutely love it. I’m still teaching the same things I did before, but they are very excited about earning the stamps on their log so they can earn their “library wings” and attend the party they will earn. I got this idea from the book Stretchy Library Lessons: More Library Skills by Pat Miller, pages 26-32, ISBN 1-932146-42-3. I just changed a couple of the units to fit with what I teach. This is my first year to try it. One challenge I'm encountering: in the past, if a student was absent during a library skills lesson, I never had them make it up. With the Pilot’s Log, I will have to have a “make-up day” to let those kids make up the missed lessons. For our party, I’m planning to have a little ceremony and have some paper or sticker “wings” to pin/stick on each student. Then I thought I’d dress as a flight attendant, offer them a small beverage and snack, and watch a short movie (just like on a plane).
PARTY NOTE (added 6/13/08): We had our Pilot's Party in May, and it was a huge success! I couldn't believe how excited the kids were about the whole Pilot's Log concept. I'm definitely doing it again next year! I started by calling each student's name and handing them their completed Pilot's Logs which I had signed and dated, and gave them some paper "wings" I made with clip art in Microsoft Word along with the text "I earned my Library Wings and can navigate the information skies." I cut out the wings and text and made a loop of masking tape on the back of each one so I could tape them to the kids' shirts. I had a box of prize books, and I let each student choose a book to keep. Next we had cups of lemonade and goldfish crackers for snacks. I showed a couple of short movies (I used Pixar short movies, like "Mater's Ghost Light" from the Cars movie -- yes, we have a movie license to cover the showing of movies for a reward!) and that was it. I let them know I was very proud of them for all their hard work. The kids definitely worked harder this year because of the Pilot's Logs, even though the lessons I taught were basically the same as before. They were really motivated and excited about library skills -- yea!
The units I used. . . Stage One: Can distinguish between fiction, nonfiction, picture book, biography, and reference books and knows their location in the library. Stage Two: Can correctly use a dictionary for a variety of purposes. Stage Three: Can use reference books to solve problems and find information. Stage Four: Can use the OPAC to find library materials through title, author, subject, and series searches. Stage Five: Can select the correct Dewey category (hundreds group) for a book based on its content. Stage Six: Can locate a book on the shelf by its call number.
submitted by: Amy Brownlee, K-12 LMS
brownleea@usd376.com
Sterling USD #376
Reference Mystery
Grades: 5-8
This mystery is an extremely fun way to have kids practice identifying an information need and using print and online reference sources. The mystery is from the article "The Mystery of the Bloody Beagle" by Sharron Cohen from the Oct. 2007 issue of Library Sparks magazine, pages 17-21 (I love this magazine, by the way—it’s awesome!). It's kind of a spooky mystery, so it was a great pre-Halloween activity for my class.
There are four “suspects” in the mystery, so I divided my class of 5th graders into four teams and had each team investigate the story of one suspect. This next part is key: first, I required them to read the suspect information aloud together and identify the information need by underlining the facts that needed to be looked up in a reference source (I let them know that they were NOT to use Google). I found if I was not firm about requiring that, I had kids blindly browsing through encyclopedias with no real clue what they were looking for. I had each team complete a profile on their suspect and then had everyone share the information with the entire group. Then I let each team confer and see if they could solve the mystery. It was lots of fun, and it was excellent practice in identifying the information need and using reference sources. We spent two 40-minute class periods on this.
submitted by: Amy Brownlee, K-12 LMS
brownleea@usd376.com
Sterling USD #376
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