Library and Research Skills Instruction: Bibliography and APA Citation Basics

 This month, I had two sessions of library and research skills instruction. 

The first one was with our Grade 10s who are gearing up for Personal Project. I gave a 30 minute talk on bibliography and how the library can help them in their inquiry and research needs. My talk focused more on converting a question, a goal of research and an inquiry into a language of answers.

The second one was with our Grade 9 students who have started working on varied research tasks across subject areas. I had a talk on APA Citation Basics with them during a 30 minute skills session in the Comparative Religions (CRe) or World Religions class. For this group, I focused my talk on the principles behind making a bibliography and the fundamentals of citations. 

Since CRe/World Religions is under the discipline of the social sciences, it is but natural that the World Religions teacher request for a session on APA Citations. Below is the infographic I made for the class.

Library Instruction Activity: Library Bingo Cards

PPT: From Questions to Answers

Teachers and School Librarians Working Together for Student Achievement

This is a work in progress! Collecting and curating all my blog posts on teacher-librarian collaboration.

Teacher-Librarian Collaborative Activities:  Library Scavenger Hunt
LSH 2016

Teacher-Librarian Collaboration Lesson Plans & Mini-Lessons
Lesson Plan on Information Literacy: Teaching the Big 6 Model (2006)
Dear School Librarian In Action: Library Skills Instruction for Prep Students (2012)

Teacher-Librarian Collaboration: Dynamics, Functions, Purpose and Roles

The Beacon Academy Library Packet for Teachers - A promotional material for inspiring collaboration with teachers (2012)

School Librarian as Collaborative Teaching Partner Five ways to make collaboration happen (2015)

Grade 9 English: Preparing for Personal Project
Grade 9 English: Preparing for Personal Project
A recent post on teacher and school librarian collaboration, where I worked with the English teacher in planning a mini-lesson on Search Strategies for Grade 9 students (2017)

The School Librarian: A Trusted Sidekick - Adapting Dianne McKenzie's framework and approach when collaborating with teachers (2017)

How school librarians can help teachers? A smorgasbord of activities that school librarians can do in partnership with teachers, for reading development, promotion and literacy skills teaching (2018)

The school librarian can also assume the role of student services or support for student life. Here is a blog post where I wrote about the plans and activities that school librarians can do in collaboration with class advisers. (2019)

Media and Information Literacy Matrix of Topics

A Media and Information Literacy (MIL) matrix of topics I put together as product of my practice and research when preparing for training workshops on MIL for school librarians.

Please properly attribute and appropriate my work as source when you use the matrix. I would also appreciate an email or a message informing me that you used the matrix.

Thank you!

Mil k 12-library_instructionalprogram from Zarah Gagatiga

Library Talk: Research Basics

Sharing my PPT of the library talk on research for grade 9 students.
 

Library talk research101 grade 9 from Zarah Gagatiga

Citation Concepts for High School Students

Posting some slides from a PPT I use to teach citation to my high school students. I have used this presentation last year, in August, when we opened school. This term, I will be doing a research lesson with grade 10 students. I will use these slides as springboard. Apart from these, I will also use a graphic novel to teach research concepts.

ThingLink: A Visual Guide to the BA Library

Setting a Purpose for Reading (Handout)

Reading purposebm11 from Zarah Gagatiga

The Extended Essay Checklist: Student's Edition

I made another infographic using easel.ly. Yes, I am loving it!

Teaching Research to Teens: The Extended Essay (EE) Journey

My first infographic via www.easel.ly. 

I will be using this for my session on research/EE with grade 11 students this week. I'll blog more on the utility and experience of using easel.ly and the infographic itself some other time when I'm less busy. But drop a comment if you have thoughts about the infographic.

Library Link Lesson: The Research Cycle & The Research Model

Reflectionson tok mockessaytheresearchmodel from Zarah Gagatiga

Information Literacy Lesson: Reflection and the Research Model

Il tok gr.11 reflection_research from Zarah Gagatiga

Citing of Sources and In-Text Citations

Information Literacy Session: Citing Sources and In-Text Citations
Grade 11 TOK (Theory of Knowledge)

Schedule:
15 November - TOK Class A
16 November - TOK Class B
*Both 1st periods

What idea do I want the 11s to bring with them after the session:
Avoid plagiarism by citing your sources and citing in-text

What IL skill do I want the 11s to apply across subject areas: Engagement and extraction of relevant information from sources (read, listen, view, take notes, reflect, summarize)

Procedure (for Teacher Librarian to do):
1. Present IL topics: Citations and In-Text Citation
2. For students: Generate as many questions as you can about the topic. Focus on what you want to know about the topics.
3. Show Cite is Right video - http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=pSQH9OTOLBs
4. Game: Plagiarism Quiz - http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/plagiarism_quiz.swf
5. Go back to the questions generated by students at the start of class and check if these questions were answered by the activity they just finished doing (video and game).
6. Put on parking lot unanswered questions.
7. Short lecture on in-text citation: Ten Things to Remember when Citing In-Text (from MLA Handbook)
8. Show samples of in-text citations.
9. Distribute handout on in-text citation.
10. Go back to parking lot and check for questions that were answered through the short lecture

Instructional Materials:
MacBook / LCD / post its / Parking Lot photo / In-Text Citation Handout

References:
Cite is Right Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=pSQH9OTOLBs
Plagiarism Quiz - http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/plagiarism_quiz.swf

The Modern Language Association. MLA handbook for writers of research papers. New York: MLA, 2009.

Prepared by  Zarah C. Gagatiga / Teacher Librarian 8 November 2012

Library Link Lesson: Primary & Secondary Sources

 

Primary secondarysources from Zarah Gagatiga

Library Link Lesson: Citing of Sources (MLA Style)

A simple library activity I whipped up for the Technology class of grade 10 to drum up the importance of citing sources in all research work and school related projects. This was done in coordination with the Tech teacher.

a. Send two articles on plagiarism cases for students to read over the weekend: one on Krip Yuson and the other on Sen. Tito Sotto.

The class will be divided in 2 groups. Group 1 will read the article on Krip Yuson while group 2 will read the recent article about Sen. Sotto.

b. Round table discussion in class the following meeting.

Prompt questions: What moves some people to plagiarize? How can plagiarism be avoided?

d. Online drill on citations using EasyBib, World Book Online Citation Maker and Word Document.

e. Manual citation practice using books, print magazines and journals.

f. Homework: Cite Right! - students will work on citation activities on varied formats of references.

For submission, and in the long run, shall become their Citation Brochure

Dear Librarian: Reply on School Library Instruction Program

This is my initial reply to Angelic and I wish I could say more.

Angelic,

Consult your Reading or Language Arts coordinator on skills that need strengthening or focus. It will also help you if you ask for the subject matter guide or the curriculum, if the coordinator is open enough. From there, you can identify topics for your lib instruction program. It should be clear to you, at this point, the role the library plays in students' learning of skills and your part as librarian in the teaching of it. If not, sort this out first.

Here is an example, if the Reading/Lang Arts subject in Prep puts importance in language learning and acquisition, then, come up with literacy activities that will foster speaking and listening skills as foundation, and reading and writing skills as application. It can also be viewed the other way around. The approach is to take these four skills as integral to each and essential to the young learner as language and thought develop. This would mean more storytelling sessions, film viewings, talks by authors, illustrators, activities where Prep boys can listen and interact with others. The boys' output may be stories they wrote themselves, or art projects where they can write and speak of the process they went through. Or books they made themselves about everyday experiences. As the learner move from one grade level to the next, coverage in the curriculum changes as well. By grade 1 or 2, they begin reading - decoding and comprehending. So, topics that introduce the book culture may be included in the library instruction program. This is where parts of the book, using the table of contents and the like come into play [:-)]

Remember that balance is an important aspect of the lib instruction program. While you teach skills, you need to fill the need to READ for fun. Check your collection for recommended read applicable for K-2 grades. To do this, you need to know the reading levels and interests of your boys vis-a-vis, your collection. And in this day and age, collection pertains to print, digital and other multimedia formats.

Good luck and do tell me what happens. Thank you for always seeking my advice on school library matters.

Dear Librarian: School Library Instruction Program

Here's another email seeking for ideas on setting up a library instruction program -

Dear Ms. Zarah,

Good day! I am currently updating our Library Instruction Program. I would like to ask you of some recommendations. What topics should we include for Prep, Grade 1 and grade 2? We are exclusive for boys and I know you have great experience in teaching.

The email came from Ms. Angelic Abayan Bautista, school librarian of Marist School, Marikina.

Lesson Plan : Information Literacy using the Big 6 Model

Information Literacy Skills
Grade 6 (heterogenous)
February 10 – 13, 2006

I. Context
A. Objectives
1. Review of the Big 6 Model
2. Follow steps 1 – 5 as applied to a Reading project (Compare and Contrast, Venn Diagram of selected topics from grade level novel – The Watsons Go To Birmingham)
3. Use references in completing the Reading project
4. Cite sources used as references for the project

B. Topic
Day 1 – Review of Big 6 Model
Day 2 – Hands on activity – application of the Big 6 model to Reading project

C. Resources
Basic print references (encyclopedia, almanacs); biographies; online resources (big 6 website and online drills); PowerPoint Presentation; Computers

D. Time Frame
Two meetings – February 10 and 13, 2006

II. Learning Experience
A. Prelection
Solve the puzzle - Big 6 Puzzle
*Students do the puzzle online in 5 minutes.

B. Discussion
1. Library Teacher provides a review of the Big 6 Model - What are the six steps in the Big 6?
2. Individual work – students read the definition and the activities in each step - Further Reading on te Big 6
3. After reading, students answer the online quiz - Big 6 Online quiz

Group Work
• The class will be divided in 5 groups.
• Each group will have a topic to work on. The topic assigned to them is in preparation to the class’ Reading project.
• With the library teacher’s help, students identify the tasks to be done (step 1-2)
• Instructions (to complete step 3) :
a. Assign a leader, a secretary and reporter
b. Use the simplified Big 6 (Super 3) handout to guide you in completing steps 1-3 of the Big 6 Model
c. In your notebook, write your answers to the questions in the handout
d. After answering the questions, move to step 3 – Location and Access. Identify all the sources of information that you can use.

5. Library teacher recommends print and online sources for the project.

Day 2 – Continuation of Steps 4 – 5 / Hands on
*Reading teacher will facilitate on day 2.

C. Evaluation
Hand out of finished project and answers from group work will be graded.

III. Reflection
What problems and difficulties did you encounter working with your group mates?
How did you solve these problems?
How else can you use or apply the Big 6 Model?

IV. Action
Use of the Big 6 Model in other activities and assignment sin the content areas.


*This is a lesson plan following the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm as espoused by Jesuit basic education schools.