Project Whistlestop Show Me Learning Unit: MEDIA BLITZ

Unit Title: MEDIA BLITZ - R.E.A.D. ( R= Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, E= Encyclopedia, A= Almanac, D= Dictionary)

Teacher: Marie McAdams

School: Barry School - Platte County R-3 School District

Grade Focus: 6-8

Time Frame: Ongoing throughout year dealing with Library/Research Skills OR it could be a lesson developed for a 1-3 week unit.

Show Me Standards Covered:

Performance (Process) Standards

Goal 1 - Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to gather, analyze and apply information and ideas. Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas to ability to:

1.1 - develop questions and ideas to initiate and refine research

1.2 - conduct research to answer questions and evaluate information and ideas.

1.3 - design and conduct field and laboratory investigations to study nature and society.

1.4 - use technological tools and other resources to locate, select and organize information.

1.6 - discover and evaluate patterns and relationships in information, ideas and structures.

1.7 - evaluate the accuracy of information and the reliability of its sources

1.8 - organize data, information and ideas into useful forms (including charts, graphs, outlines) for analysis or presentation.

1.9 - identify, analyze and compare the institutions, traditions and art forms of past and present societies.

1.10 - apply acquired information' ideas and skills to different contexts as students, workers, cutmens and consumers

Goal 2 - Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to communicate effectively within and beyond the classroom. Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content areas the ability to:

2.1 - plan and make written,oral and visual presentations for a variety of purposes and audiences.

2.2 - review and revise communications to improve accuracy and clarity

2.3 - exchange information, questions, and ideas while recognizing the perspectives of others.

2.4 - present perceptions and ideas regarding works of the arts, humanities and sciences.

Goal 3 - Students in Missouri public schools will acquire the knowledge and skills to recognize and solve problems. Students will demonstrate within and integrate across all content area the ability to:

3.1 - identify problems and define their scope and elements

Communication Arts

In Communication Arts, students in Missouri public schools will acquire a solid foundation that includes knowledge of and proficiency in:

CA1 - speaking and writing standard English (including grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling and capitalization

CA3 - reading and evaluating nonfiction works and materials (such as biographies, newspapers, technical manuals

CA4 - writing formally (such as reports, narratives, essays) and informally (such as outlines, notes)

CA6 - participating in formal and informal presentations and discussions of issues and ideas.

Unit Introduction:

Communication arts provides the students with opportunities to develop critical thinking skills. The school media center provides a treasure of often underutilized teaching resources that offer the freedom for lessons and projects that will expand the students' imaginations. They should learn how to locate and gather information and ideas, process and organize that information and create print and non-print communications for various purposes. By using various techniques to accomplish this, the student should have many opportunities to develop these skills.

Goals or Objectives Toward Goal -

1. Students will accomplish a variety of learning activities.

2. Students will have the use of the media center on an independent study project. Working individually and in groups, they will have the chance to complete some learning exercises, add to their own knowledge bases and improve their research and study skills. This unit provides the student with practice using the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, encyclopedias, almanacs, and dictionaries. It is designed to make good use of the media center resources that are available and to encourage creative thinking, research and inquiry skills. As students begin to use the media center more and more, the center will quickly become more than just the place you go to "check out a library book" and a place where you "look it up."

Preparation for Learning Adventure:

Students at this grade level already have some prior knowledge of the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, Encyclopedia, Almanac and Dictionary. (R.E A.D) To review, students and teacher will have open discussions and some preliminary review to include:

• The different types of reference tools that are available in the school's media center.
• Review and explain the basic library setup and implementation of those resource materials.
• Compare and contrast the R.E.A.D. forms of reference.
• Discuss when each element of the R.E.A.D. series is the most effective and the least effective.
• Explain differences in the various media tools in the library.

Unit Resources:

1.Reader's Guides to Periodical Literature

2. Encyclopedias/CD Rom (Encarta, Bookshelf, Groliers)

3. Almanacs / CD Rom

4. Dictionaries

5. Internet Search Engines - (Yahoo, Altavista, Yahooligans, Hotbot, etc. )

6. Videos on above resources

Instructional Activity: Making the Most of the Media Center (using particular resources in the library)

Description: Using the media center as a resource and the media specialists and classroom teacher as a guide, the students will use the activities listed as a pivotal point for cooperative learning projects, independent research projects that are in keeping with their own interests, and exercises that integrate science, social studies and literature.

Context for Learning: The library resources are not only a key part of the student's research programs, but also encourage critical thinking and learning skills. Using these resources in new and different ways may encourage the student's use of them on a regular basis.

Suggested Activities:

1.Students will perform a variety of activities which may include:

A. In your own words, sumarize how the almanac can be of interest or use to students like yourself.

B. Using a predetermined magazine article (Readers's Guide) summarize the main idea.

C. Survey the Farmer's almanac and determine how it is like and how it is different from the almanac in the school library.

D. Discover through research where certain words come from and what they mean. (Dictionary)

E. Select words from the dictionary that reflect a particular ethnic culture such as French, Latin, or Spanish. Discover which types of words from other languages are most likely to become a part of the English language. Write down your conclusions and give examples to support your findings.

F. Produce an Encyclopedia Treasure Hunt for classmates to use in practicing their research skills.

G. Using a dictionary or the almanac compile a list of food names and the countries from which they originated.

H. Recording an interesting piece of information from the almanac that begins with each letter of the word ALMANAC.

I. Imagine you can take only one reference book from the media center on a space flight. Justify or criticize the choice of an almanac for this purpose.

J. Record at least ten types of information that one can find in a dictionary.

K. Construct a simple quiz to determine what classmates do and do not understand about the use of the dictionary.

L. Rank in order the dictionary, encyclopedia, and almanac according to their importance to students. What criteria did you use and what reasons can you give for your choice?

M. Identify three different encyclopedia publishers and write down informa- tion about each one. Then compare and contrast the three.

N. Find the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature in the library and write down the name of its editor, publisher, and copyright date.

O. Summarize how you might use the Reader's Guide to save time when doing a report.

P. Use the Reader's Guide to locate three different articles from three different publication on a single topic of your choice. Write a one-paragraph summary for each article.

Q. In your own words, tell why it is more important today for students to have good library skills than it was for their ancestors. Give as many reasons as you can.

Specific Directions for Organizing and Conducting the Activity:

1. The library is a tremendous tool for research purposes. The teacher may decide to use this as an ongoing research unit on a weekly library day or use in a comprehensive unit of two-three weeks. Time and resource personnel will dictate this.

2. The teacher introduces the unit by asking students to brainstorm what they already know about the resources being studied. Reviewing or reteaching areas of concern may be warranted.

3. The teacher may give the students all of the activities listed under suggested activities or may let the students choose several. These will be induded in a packet of material that is to be turned in/shared at the end of the entire media unit.

4. At selected points throughout the unit, the students may provide short presentations on selected activities.

5. As a culminating activity, the student may develop an almanac with a special theme for the class. Examples might include: a community almanac, a school almanac, or a teenage almanac; make up a magazine ad for one of the three encyclopedias used in the suggested activities or design and decorate a tee-shirt designed to celebrate National Reading or Library Week. Assessment

Procedures/Criteria: Depending on the number of activities (A-Q) that the student completes, skills would be assessed on those completed. The end product of the almanac/tee shirt would be a product feature rather than a skill assessment. In assessing the packet material, the following grading tool (page 7) could be used or the teacher may design his/her own to fit the needs of the students or class time frame.

Notes to Teacher: This unit can be expanded to include more formal reteaching of the resources listed. Then the packet can be done in its entirety or at the teacher's discretion. It can be used as a co-operative learning tool or used as independent study. Related skills for this unit are reading strategies, cooperative learning processes, writing processes, and speaking skills. Media Blitz- R.E.A.D.

Packet Assessment Form

Name_______________________________________

Criteria To Be Met:

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