Week 3 Establishing The Frameworks of Problem-Solving

   Aren't you loving these books?  The examples, strategies and lesson plan ideas are so detailed and user-friendly!  Hopefully you see that you are already using many of these strategies with your students.  This week we want you to begin thinking about the resources you have available in your collections and how you can guide student use of these resources.  That all begins with creating tasks that encourage your students to explore topics that are relevent at a deeper level.       

Ch. 7-9 (Needham)       Big6 Steps 1-3        

            

1.       The students ability to reiterate what they are supposed do to and identify resources that will help them get the task done is essential to their success.   What are some strategies you use to help students identify their task and the resources they need to help them?

Ch. 2-3 (Berger)  Searching the Web

In the Standards for the 21^st Century Learner, we are to encourage students to incorporate higher order thinking skills.  Not only do they need to know how to develop a range of questions that will allow them to search for new understanding but they must be able to select and evaluate the sources in order to answer those questions and eventually master the use of those technological tools.  That is a high order.  Part of acquiring that expertise is the proper use of search engines.

      On page 29(Berger) you will find a list of 5 facts students need to know about search engines.

     2.  How do we, as teacher-librarians, instruct our students to able to make distinctions between search engines and find the ones that best fit their needs?

   Give some ideas as to how you might help your students learn to perform a thorough web search.

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Ways to Collaborate with Teachers in Process

Teachers and librarians need only collaborate to create a program that will allow students to become life-long problem solvers. While the student will want to focus on the appeal and use of Web 2.0 or any technology, the teachers and librarian should always strive to keep the focus on the process and content, reminding the learner that technology is the tool in the process.

Needham stresses practice, practice and more practice. then evaluation of the process and review followed by more practice. This need not entail huge complicated research projects but rather small quick exercises that can be done within our short teaching time frame. Developing the task and perhaps a sole question, listing resources and going through the steps to develop an answer. With the teacher focusing on the content and the librarian focusing on the process, the students should have many opportunities to hone their skills. You may not get many teachers willing to collaborate and cooperatively teach with you. In fact, you may have to do this on your own. See if you can get one teacher on board. Soon, the rest will follow. Start small.

The Importance of Developing Problem Solving Skills

Students will automatically be attracted to the attributes and convenience that We 2.0 offers but they will not automatically see the advantages to becoming mater problem solvers. We will have to see this to them, market it so that it make sense to our students. Here, at the elementary level, it is more difficult because our children cannot even imaging what it is like to be grown up. They cannot see how it will help them in the future because they cannot imagine life that far ahead. The bad news is that we have to be very creative and persistent and even incorporate more fun into the learning process. The good new is that the window for teaching them and giving them a good foundation in problem solving skills is long!

First, we need to teach students what a "problem" is and help them identify them. There are some great ideas on pages 6 and 7 of Needham.

Next, as Berger suggests, we can foster good problem solving skills by giving them authentic problems. This will is llustrate the legitimacy of the process. we need to motivate them to learn, work smarter and see that the skill of problem solving is vital to life long learning and therefore, success. One way to do this is to incorporate and integrate the technology that they are familiar with and like to use. How to do this? We can use technology as a vehicle to share such as wikis and blog; to practice such as online games; for relevancy such as videos and You Tube. If we use the tools that make sense to them, we will make the problem solving process more appealing and relevant to thier life styles.

WEEK 2: “It’s All About Process-About Teaching Process”

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A strong foundation is important to any structure.  It is where all good things begin.  It may seem like it takes a painstakingly long time to get it just right but it is well worth the effort.  It is certainly not the time to take shortcuts.  A strong foundation is one from which all things beautiful can grow.

As Needham’s Chapter 4 heading states “teaching process” is where we as educators can help our students the most.  If we want them to develop good problem solving skills we need to show them how to become more metacognitive (knowledge of your own thoughts and the factors that influence your thinking).  This week’s readings are essential to understanding the research behind the Big6 and how we can incorporate the strategies of the Big6 into our own teaching styles. 

Discussion Points to be shared on the blog: 

(1)  Needham suggests that “posing problems and integrating process within content” are two powerful Bi6 strategies” for helping students make connections.  What are some other strategies you noticed that will encourage students to start thinking about how they think?  Which strategies lend themselves to scaffolding instruction and/or learning?   

 (2) As our focus shifts to creating authentic problems for successful problem-solving we need to be mindful of a couple of things.  I mentioned on the blog last week the importance of engaging students through real life situations. Students will only engage when they feel the lesson is relevant to them.  How do we create that level of engagement when our students come to us with so many different life experiences?  Needham shares some examples of how learning goals can be presented as problems designed to engage students (p50).  What are some other learning goals that could be used to create an authentic problem for the students to solve?   

Week One Discussions Questions

1. We can ensure that students understand the importance of problem solving skills by first introducing it as ways to deal with every day problems. Students should be told they can use these skills to solve problems at home, with friends, etc. as well as using problem solving skills in a classroom. Also, any time a teaching moment occurs in our classroom that may not be a part of the "plan" that demonstrates these skills, we should grab them. The other day one of my students inspired a ten minute discussion about his newly checked out nonfiction book. Why are these pictures in here, are they real, which led to how do we find out, etc. It was great.!!

2. Collaboration can be difficult face to face, but I am finding that connecting to grade level curriculum and even the scoring guides in lessons taught in the library, opens discussions with the teachers when they are with their students in the library. This connection is opening the way for future discussion concerning students and introducing the teaching, of perhaps, together problem solving skills that connect to grade level reporting topics.

Getting Started with Information Literacy

Welcome to the 21st century filled with books in electronic formats, children who are digital natives, and fast changing technology.  This book study is very ambitious, as it tackles two books that go hand-in-hand.  The Big6 provides us a process through which we can teach our students and teachers how to become problem-solvers in a world laden with problems to solve.  Fortunately, Web 2.0 has great technology tools that can easily be integrated into the Big6 process. 

As information specialists we have to reflect on our current practices and be willing to transform ourselves to meet the challenges set before us.  How do we meld the Big6 and Web 2.0 together?  Consider the resemblance of the Big 6 to the Stripling Inquiry Model (Berger, p. 12-13).  The bottom line is, both models contain skills essential to 21st century learners.  Eisenberg, Johnson and Berkowitz address the need for technology integration into the Big6 in the ICT Big6 Curriculum attachment on the website (Big6 Toolbox). 

So how do we move forward?  Lets start by blogging about these two questions: 
(1) How do we ensure that students understand the importance of developing problem-solving skills?  
(2) Discuss ways to collaborate with teaches that will help students solve problems while learning content.  

Welcome to our Blog!

The address is phmediaspecialists@blogger.com This is where you will be posting comments and ideas as we journey through our bookstudy. Please post a comment here so we know that you have arrived at this destination hassle-free.

Diana
Vicki
Corliss