Using Reference Resources

As a library media specialist, for this assignment I will teach fourth graders how to use the library’s digital encyclopedias to locate information.  

• To foster positive transfer of learning and help students understand the organization of encyclopedias as alphabetical by subject, I will review with the students their prior skills of locating words in a dictionary and demonstrate a dictionary search. Students will practice looking up their subject term in the dictionary to find a definition for it and possibly gather additional keywords they can use to research the topic in an encyclopedia.
• For a near transfer of learning, students will practice using the library’s print encyclopedias to locate information about their topic of choice. They can use their subject term as well as any additional keywords gleaned from looking up their subject in the dictionary to search the print encyclopedias. However, some students may have to share print volumes depending on their subjects, which will help me later on to emphasize the differences between print and digital encyclopedias.
• For a far transfer of learning, students will search for their subject using the library card catalog, a skill with which they are already very familiar. This searching will help them locate different print resources related to their topic, not all of which may be relevant, accurate, and/or currently available at the library. Students will have to make the connection that the encyclopedia not only is a specific kind of resource that provides relevant, accurate information about a variety of subjects, but also the online encyclopedia is available to multiple people in different settings at the same time.
• To prevent negative transfer of learning, students will perform online searches via Google of their subject keywords. I will highlight the differences between the various search results (some scholarly and accurate, some advertisements and/or inaccurate information, etc) to emphasize that using online encyclopedias is not the same as performing online searches.