Mission Possible

As part of a project-based learning, I was invited to help 2nd graders research historical figures that showed good citizenship.  This is an important TEK in Texas Social Studies.  So I wanted to tie the lesson of learning about historical figures with a library skill aligned with AASL standards (American Association of School Libraries).

Find the lesson here: Historical Figures Teach Good Citizenship

For the lesson, students would be diving into a short (45 min.) research lesson, learning how to find biographies about specific historical figures in an online database, closely reading the short biography with a partner and drawing a conclusion of what character trait that person showed and giving evidence.

  

This was an undertaking, but well worth the time it took me to prepare the lesson and the effort both the teacher and myself had to give for the students to be successful.

Students were amazingly able to figure out the gist of what these historical people did and how it related to the good citizenship traits.  I won't lie, there was guidance... pointing to a specific paragraph, or showing read-aloud features, or trouble-shooting technology, but the kids really got the idea.

Each pair were able to complete a card, share what they learned with the group and conclude that learning about "old people" can help us learn to be good citizens.  The cards left over were sent back to the classroom to be added to a literacy center and blank cards were sent as well.  Students were encouraged to use the blank cards to add people they knew to the circle map in the classroom.  Of course evidence of the good character trait has to be included!

1st Grade Presidential Research

As the librarian I often find my lessons have to be short; 30 minutes.  I try hard to connect what I teach with what is happening in the classroom.  This past week, after celebrating President's Day, the 1st grade teachers were reading biographies about presidents.  I took the opportunity during their library lesson to teach a bit of research skills and how to find biographies.

The lesson sequence went as follows...
     1.  Introduced lesson with connecting to President's Day and what they were reading in the classroom.
     2.  I read to them a short biography about Abraham Lincoln.  (There was a picture of the penny included in this book.)
     3.  After reading, I went back to the picture of the penny and told them when I read this book it made me think of how when I look at money there are faces of important men on each one.
     4.  I showed them a picture of money on a PowerPoint.  There were both the bills and on the second slide the coins.

     5.  We talked about how most people think all these men are past presidents. People assume that just because their faces are on money, they must be a past president.  I tell them two of these men were not a president.
     6.  I then step them through the process of how to locate a biography in a student encyclopedia set.  I took a picture of the actual page and had it on the PowerPoint as well.  We practiced scanning for the word president, then stopped and read the sentence we found it in.  We then added that person's name to the chart.  We did 3 of these people together.  I was sure to choose one of the men that was not a president, so they could see they had to scan the whole article.

     7.  At this point, I divided the class into two groups.  One group went with the teacher to show them the biography section and explain how to locate books in this section.  I provided the teacher with sentence strips of names of people I knew I had books on, a dry erase board and marker.  The second group sat with me on the floor using the student encyclopedias.  Each partnership got a card with one of the men's name on it.  We went over how to find the article using guide words and practiced scanning articles.  This was really hands on to where I could reach and help all students.

     8.  At the end we gathered back and shared what we found.  I encouraged them to go home and ask their parents if they knew which two men that have their faces appear on money were not presidents.