CASLS+Newsletter+Vol.2+N.15

**RONDA'S CORNER ** **OCLC ILL updates:** Things have been very busy in the OCLC world. Our books have been visiting all across the country. Just since school started and not counting January, our School Library System loaned out 198 book and we have sent books to 36 of the 48 continental states, not bad for 4 months.
 * JANUARY 17, 2012**

Our borrowing stats are pretty impresive too. We borrowed 98 books during the same time frame. They were sent to us from 30 different states. YEA !!!!!! Thanks everyone for all the help and support.

Other info..... The flyer is ready for the Book Repair workshop being offered in March. Watch your email.

**MARY ANN'S MEANDERINGS** **THIS RESEARCH APPROACH WAS TAKEN FROM A BLOG WRITTEN BY MARY BETH HERTZ.** SHE STATES: "I have broken the research process up into mini-lessons, which will ultimately culminate in a larger project."

All of my students in grades three to seven will go through this process, with each lesson meeting them where they are and attempting to fill in gaps.

Choosing a Topic, Creating Keywords and Search Terms
All classes begin with a discussion about what research is and why we do it and how we do it. Each grade will be using their research and applying it to a larger question or problem. For instance, rather than having my third regurgitate answers back to me about animals, they will use the information they find to answer the larger question. (i.e. "Your parents said you can have any pet you want. What will you need to keep the pet?") When creating search terms, I use a template to help my students in all grades through the process. They use the [|SweetSearch] search engine, which weeds out the junk they usually find on Google or Bing and which highlights their keywords and pulls text from the website into the list of search results.

Taking Notes
Each grade will differ in how they take notes and share their results. My 3rd graders will most likely stick to paper and pencil notes due to the nature of my class schedule, but they will enter their websites into a Google Form to track where they've been and what they've found. My older students will be using [|EasyBib] to organize their links and their notes. While my third graders will not be doing true citation yet, I will be teaching citation to my seventh graders and requiring all of their projects to be accompanied by a bibliography, which they will create in EasyBib. Whew! Teaching research is a HUGE task!
 * Here are some resources that help along the way:**
 * [|The SweetSearch Tutorial]: Not only is SweetSearch an amazing search tool for kids, but they have some great resources here for helping digest what research is and how to approach it.
 * Copyright Confusion Wiki: A one-stop shop for all things copyright and fair use.
 * [|How to Do Research]Another take on the research process from the Kentucky Virtual Library.
 * [|Diigo for Educators]A robust social bookmarking tool through which students can bookmark sites, highlight right on the site, share bookmarks with their peers and take notes on webpages. Teachers can create student accounts without needing emails.
 * [|SweetSearch]A kid-friendly search engine.
 * [|EasyBib]A robust online citation and organizing tool.
 * [|Flickr]Find copyright-free images with Creative Commons licenses.
 * [|Search Creative Commons] Find Creative Commons content on popular sites.

If you like this, you might also like

 * [|22 Simple Ideas for Harnessing Creativity in the Elementary Classroom]by Trisha Riche
 * [|Financial Literacy for Elementary Students]by Brian Page
 * [|Technology Integration in elementary classroom]Edutopia community group
 * [|Teaching Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom]by Mary Beth Hertz
 * [|Mary Beth Hertz's Blog]