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Course Project: Lesson Plan - Example |
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Joan Insight, Library Media Specialist
insight@imsa.edu
Jim Teacher, English Teacher
Inquiry High School, Chicago Public Schools
Lesson Plan Title: How do I find the information I need for a speech in English II?
Lesson Plan Elements:
Introduction:
This project is based on a need identified by the School Library Media Specialist and the teachers at Inquiry High School. How do you develop or build student skills in efficiently locating reliable electronic sources? Evaluation skills needed to be addressed as a part of performing searches using keywords, nyms, spelling, and Booleans. We want our students to use evaluation techniques while viewing the product of their searches. We want our students to search efficiently, by forming solid queries.
Learners:
All students are in 10th grade English classes. The classes are of mixed ability, with mainstreamed, AP and special needs students mixed throughout the group. We are a rural district that covers 197 sq. miles and three communities of which our town with a 2,100 population of is the largest. It is a rural farm area with little industry and a lot of low-income housing. The students are grades 9-12. We have 1058 students in the district. In the beginning of the 2002/2003 school year technology surveys, it was indicated by 193 parents in the district that they did not have a computer in the home. Some still do not have telephone service due to financial considerations.
Special Needs Accommodations:
Assistive technology is required for a vision impaired student. Once we acquired a JAWs Screen Reader, he quickly became skilled and independent using the technology. It took nearly a year of concerted effort to get this student the the technology and training he needed. We also sought gifted students to act as mentors for students with special needs. This allows more access to technology and literacy challenged students, and provides the computer skilled and information literate student's reinforcement of their abilities. We also have a well trained Instructional Aide who assists with computer and information literacy skills. We created well balanced partnerships for several students with little or no computer backgrounds. Finally, additional time was arranged for special needs students to work in small groups with the resource teacher on this task.
Standards:
National Education Technology Standards for Students <http://cnets.iste.org/students/index.shtml>
NETS-S #1: Basic operations and concepts. Students demonstrate a sound understanding
of the operation of technological systems. Students are proficient in the
use of technology.
NETS-S #3: Technology productivity tools. Students use technology tools to
enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
NETS-S #5: Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information
from a variety of sources. Students use technology tools to process data
and report results.
Information Power <http://www.ala.org/aasl/ip_nine.html>.
Category I: Information Literacy
Standard 1: The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently
and effectively.
Standard 2: The student who is information literate evaluates information critically
and competently.
Standard 3: The student who is information literate uses information accurately
and creatively.
Goals and Objectives:
Goals:
1. To introduce students to Internet searching using strong query formation.
2. To introduce students to the basics of website evaluation.
3. To introduce students to online citation systems.
Objectives:
1. Students will search for information using a more than one search engines,
subject directories, or databases.
2. Students will be able to develop key words to use in Internet searches.
3. Students will be able to form queries using nyms and Boolean operators.
4. Students will cite internet information using MLA format.
5. Students will understand the concept of plagiarism.
Learning Activities:
Before Searching the Internet:
(1) Students will use the IMSA Online Learning Modules: What is a Query? &
Using Keywords Effectively
(2) Students will develop keywords (synonyms) for
their speech topics
(3) Students will write several sample queries and be able
to explain what sort of information they hope to retrieve.
Before Evaluating the Web sites:
(1) Students will use the IMSA Online Learning Modules: Author & Publisher
(2) Students will discuss as a class what they think makes a good media resource
after they have viewed the evaluation web sites.
(3) To make real world connections, students will be asked to watch the news
and/or other television programming to evaluate the authority, reliability,
validity, accuracy, reputable, bias, etc.
(4) Students will develop their own web evaluation rubric as a class.
During Evaluation of Web sites:
(1) Students will utilize the web evaluation checklist
(2) The students will evaluate the websites they have found on their topic.
(3) Students will cite the web sites they have found using an online citation
system & MLA format.
(4) Students will use the web site(s) they found as good web sites with valid,
authoritative information to help answer their thesis question.
(5) For each site referenced, the student will explain what evidence they
have for believing it to be a credible source of information.
After Using the Computer:
(1) Students will complete the outline, notes, or note cards for
their speech.
(2) Students will share their websites and their evaluations as part of their
speech and discuss validity, reliability and accuracy of the web sites.
(3) Students will include their reference source in the form of an MLA citation.
(4) Students will rate their websites with a numeric rating scale and be
able to explain their reasoning.
Problems and Solutions or Workarounds:
If time is limited, students can write reviews as a reflection of what the student went into the assignment with and what they came away with in terms of using the Internet to search and evaluation information as well as addressing the following questions:
Method(s) of Evaluation:
Colorado Department of Education, The Steps to the Research Cycle [Online]. : 3 March 1999 [cited 24 November 2002]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.cde.state.co.us/litstandards/appendixb.htm
Summary: This is a research cycle rubric used to evaluate how the researcher performs at each stage of the research cycle as set up by Oak Harbor School District.
Presentation Evaluation Form
Mr. Teacher
Student _________________________________ Class _______________________
Presentation
Focus/Eye Contact
1 2 3 4 5 6
Support
1 2 3 4 5 6
Organization
1 2 3 4 5 6
Conventions/Clarity of voice
1 2 3 4 5 6
Integration/Overall impression of the speech
1 2 3 4 5 6
Score (=total of the above /30 pts. Possible x 2)
Outline; Notes; Note cards--are these present, and/or organized?
1 2 3 4 5
Score (=total of the above /5 pts. Possible x 3)
Research/Sources--are these reliable? Number of sources? How have they been
used? Has the student included an evaluation of them (Based on the class-determined
evaluation criteria)?
1 2 3 4 5
Score (=total of the above /5 pts. Possible x 3)
Comments:
Resources:
People: Most of the teachers at our school could use this plan, or easily adapt it for use in their curriculum areas. Anytime a research task was assigned, this plan could be used. We did have several parent volunteers work with us when we taught this plan. The public library librarian was interested in working with us, but was unable to actually come to school. We like to do more to coordinate with all library services in the area.
Technology: (What technology is needed to support your work?)
Materials Needed:
Non-digital Material:
Teacher constructed Instructional Handouts - Citing Resources and Setting
Up A Speech
Note cards
Warriner, John E. English Composition and Project. Fourth Course. Benchmark
edition. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. ISBN 0-15-311734-6
Concluding Reflection:
I ran into a few problems along the way that made the different class periods
I was teaching with the English partner unequal. I found that the
Google Toolbar and the bookmarks for other web resources were not installed
on all of the computers. Next time I'll check this in advance. The setup of
the room off the SLMC was not conducive to the demonstrations
needed due to the size of the class and the room size and the number of
computers in that room. I'd like to develop a classroom demo that I could
carry into any class.
In the final "debriefing" session with my partner teacher, he stated
in the future he felt he would allow more time for implementation of this
lesson plan. This was more of a unit plan than a lesson plan. Next time we'll
give it a few weeks instead of a few days. What he felt would help even more
is to start teaching these skills at the elementary level. Our district has
a
5th
grade
research
paper
and he
felt 4th grade was not too early to begin with information literacy skills.
He felt
it was too much to try to "spring" on them as 10th graders. They
needed a lot of prerequisites that would be time consuming before they
reached high school like vocabulary/terminology used in searching (I showed
them
Boolean and talked about Boolean, and gave them a search engine features
chart from
Search Engine Showdown.) The possibility of using self paced online learning
modules like those developed by IMSA is helpful. The stopwords, nyms, keywords,
truncation and then evaluation was a lot to
be covered
and have
students
practice
the
skills
in the two week period used for research for the speeches. The IMSA Online
Modules would have been very useful if we'd gotten them in time. We found
the students started falling back on just using Google and writing their
sentence
in to
perform their search. They were totally frustrated again when they fell
back on their old habits and put the sentence in one of the new search
engines
we
discussed and looked at during the lessons. Bad habits are difficult to break.
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