In the five-minute excerpt from the video "Choosing the Right Information," two children find a turtle standed in the road as they are riding their bikes home from school. I would expect most kids to either take it to the other side of the road or take it home to keep as a pet. Instead, these two industrious kids set out to find out what kind of turtle it is and where it should be released. They make a list of questions they need to answer in order to help the turtle, then set out to do research by phone, by library, and by internet. These kids are practicing skills of lifelong learning by using what they already know about turtles to guide their research, and by utilizing many different resources to get answers. They are organized, and willing to follow the path when the answer to one question leads to a new question. The kids are becoming information literate by exploring so many avenues of information...they will then be able to decide which resources were most helpful, and can use the experience to better evaulate the usefulness of available sources when solving future problems.
“Choosing the Right Information”, Pt. 3 of Know It All Series by GPN / Univ. of NB
http://gpn.unl.edu/static_catalog/675_000.html
posted by Michelle @ 7:31 PM
4 Comments:
One of the best points in this video was the level of excitement of discovery the students shared during this experience. They were engaged in the process of finding good and accurate information to aid in the rescue of this turtle. There was no stopping them. Imagine incorporating this excitement into your classroom lessons. How do you think this could be done?
If you want your students to be excited about learning, you must be excited as a teacher. For example, I love to fish, and usually go to a private pond where there is very little traffic to disturb nature. I could come into class one day and say, "You'll never believe what I found this weekend!" I could tell them about going fishing, and walking around the edge of the pond, and finding all these small, round, leathery things on the ground. I'd tell them I picked some up to study them, thought about what they could possibly be, and talk them through my thought process as I considered all the animals that probably live near the pond. I could tell them that I thought it might be a turtle egg shell, so I took one of them home and began to look online for pictures of turtle eggs. "I was so involved in searching for answers, that I forgot to stop to eat dinner!" By modeling how I thought about the problem, used what I knew to guide my research, then used different resources to gather more information, I can show the students how to think critically and find answers, and at the same time show them that it's exciting to discover new things and solve the mysteries that might surround them.
I wrote the following last week and was having trouble getting it accepted (I kept getting a message that "anonymous posts are not accepted," even though I was entering my login information.) Anyway, reading what you added to Dr. Coffman's comment, I believe we are thinking alike on this. We need to get students excited to the point where they are curious and confident enough to seek out the information.
I like how you describe Allie and Tyler as industrious. One must, of course, remember that this is a made for video production. The reality, I fear, is that less than 1% of children would actually undertake such research, much less be concerned about its accuracy and validity. However, as a modeling tool it may be productive in compelling students to undertake research were they to find themselves in a similar situation. The video might indeed be considered a case of what Stager would term "providing demonstrable expertise." (Stager, 2006) More compelling still, though, might be to bring students out into nature and let them formulate inquiries which could then be brought back to the library or computer lab for actual research.
References:
Stager. G. (2006). Lifelong Learning: Picking up lessons for schools in three-quarter time. District Administration. Retrieved online January 29, 2006 from http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=924
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