Encyclopedia Information Investigators
Audience/User Group:
Grade: 4th (20 students)
Setting: The elementary school media center.
Instruction Need
Students need to learn the basics of encyclopedia use and how to apply that information to in-depth homework assignment and research papers.
Learning Objectives
- Comprehend topics that can be researched in an encyclopedia.
- Apply alphabetical ordering and guide words to find entries.
- Analyze pertinent information.
- Evaluate the difference between the dictionary and an encyclopedia.
- Comprehend the severity of plagiarism.
Student Outcomes:
The student will:
- Give examples of topics that can be researched in an encyclopedia.
- Demonstrate use of alphabetical order and guide words to locate subject entries.
- Differentiate pertinent information from non-pertinent information.
- Summarize related information in written form.
- Compare and contrast a dictionary and encyclopedia.
- Understand the importance of original work based on research.
Instructional Method
Verbal, visual and tactile modes of teaching will be incorporated in the teaching process.
(Statistics have proven that when multiple senses are aroused during the teaching process student outcome is enhanced through increased retention of newly learned information.)
The instructional method will begin with asking students questions. Next a verbal presentation of the various parts of the encyclopedia coupled with visual power point presentation will be given. A unit that they are currently being taught in science class will become the focus of the instruction as the instruction progresses. Students will practice placing words from a list between two guide words in order to demonstrate student's understanding of the alphabetical guide word selection process. Finally students will then gain hands-on knowledge of an encyclopedia as they look up entries according to guide words, finding answers to questions relating to space. After locating the information on the subject entries to the space questions students will write in their own words short answers to the questions, volume number and letter.
Assessment
Class size: 20 students. Two sets of World Book Encyclopedias are available.
Verbal Assessment will be through student participation during power point presentation of key points of the encyclopedia.
Written Assessment will be through the following exercises:
Children will be broken into 4 teams of 5 students per team with each team responsible for 5 different questions.
Each team will first look at their questions and elect one person to choose which volume of the World Book encyclopedia their team will need to answer their questions.
The team will choose two members to write down the answers to the questions.
Each team member will look up at least one question, but all team members may help search for the answers by giving suggestions.
The fifth question all team members participate in finding the answer.
The team will choose one person to be a spokesperson to give the answers to the class.
They will have 10 minutes to answer their five questions and then present their answers to the class by the one elected spokesperson.
This exercise performed by the students will allow the teacher to assess if the students have a basic understanding of how to use an encyclopedia by:
- Choosing correct encyclopedias alphabetically in order to find answers to questions.
- Demonstrating the use of guide and entry words.
- How to read and synthesize information into a concise answer.
- How not to plagiarize.
*See attached handouts:
Handout # 1 Guide Word Exercise
Handout # 2 Finding Space through Encyclopedias- this handout is broken into four separate parts with 5 different questions on each part with a total of 20 questions.
(Four teams-five questions each = 20 questions)
Class Outline
(Note: During the long range planning for instructional media, the specialist will confer with teachers to ascertain which units are being covered in class and can also entice the children to learn research methods. In this case, space is in the 4th grade science curriculum.)
- Introduction
- Attention Getter - How can I find out who was the first man in space?
- Introduce Encyclopedia. Power Point Frame 1
- Space Web - Brainstorm related topics that we could find in the encyclopedia. Power Point Frame 2
- Parts of the Encyclopedia
- Entry Words - Power Point Frame 3
- Guide Words - Power Point Frames 4-8
- Layout of Encyclopedia - Power Point Frame 9
- Index - Power Point Frame 10
- Research information
- Research - Buried Treasure Analogy
- Discuss Pertinent Information - Read 1st paragraph on Space Exploration. What details are irrelevant, and which tell us what we want to know.
- Dictionary vs. Encyclopedia
(Compare and contrast to show children when to use which reference tool)
- Dictionary - gives pronunciation, part of speech, short definitions, and sometimes an example sentence.
- Encyclopedia - provides an in-depth summary of subject matter and is more commonly used when doing research papers, reports, and in-depth homework assignments.
- Purpose: To give children an appreciation for how much information is provided by the encyclopedia.
- Original Work
- Explain to students that once they have found the information they are searching for they just don't copy the information word for word because that is illegal and called plagiarism.
- They may read a few lines at a time or a paragraph and then summarize what the paragraph said in their own words.
- Sometimes this takes some practice in order to be comfortable with putting information in your own words.
Guide Word Exercise
(Handout # 1)
Instructions: Place the words that fit between the guide words.
|
Cent Coat |
Maple Mint |
Spy Sugar |
_______________ _______________ ________________
_______________ _______________ ________________
_______________ _______________ ________________
Choose from the following list of words
Sunday, matter, bovine, star, machine, climb, copper,
Nuclear, story, century, meter, stamp, coach, milk,
Hint: (You should have 5 words that you did not use)
Finding Space through Encyclopedias
(Handout # 2)
Instructions - Write a short answer and include the volume number and volume letter you used and the page number where you found the answer.
- Who was the first American astronaut in space? _____________________________
How long was his flight? ____________________________
- Who were the first two men to walk on the moon? ___________________________
and _________________________________
- When was the first moon walk? ___________________________
- What do astronomers observe? ___________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
- When did space exploration begin? _______________________________________
- How was Pluto discovered? _____________________________________________
- In what direction do planets move across the sky as seen from Earth? _____________
- How far away does the space station orbit the Earth? _________________________
- What is Skylab? ______________________________________________________
- When was Skylab built? ________________________________________________
- When did space exploration first begin? ___________________________________
- In reference to space exploration, when did Robert Goddard launch the first liquid propellant rocket? (Hint: timeline) ________________________________________
- Define the word planet. _________________________________________________
- What are the seven main things that astronauts do when they work in space? (Hint: Look at bold sub-headings)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
- In U.S. Space exploration, what were the names of the first seven American astronauts? (Hint: Look at picture.)
_______________________________ _________________________________
_______________________________ _________________________________
_______________________________ _________________________________
_______________________________
- When did the first Space Shuttle go into space? ______________________________
- Who was the first American woman to explore space and what date did it occur?
_____________________________________________________________________
- If we establish a base on the moon, what is the most valuable resource that we will need?
_________________________________
- Meeting seven basic needs by astronauts are:
_________________________________ ______________________________
_________________________________ ______________________________
_________________________________ ______________________________
_________________________________
Teacher Talk
When class comes into the library have them break up into five teams of four students per team. Ask the following probing questions.
I understand that you are studying space in your science class. Tell me some of the amazing things you have been learning. They may tell me about stars, planets and astronauts. How could I find out who is the very first person to ever go into space?
Hold up the encyclopedia. This is an encyclopedia. Now this is just one volume but some encyclopedia has over 20 volumes to one encyclopedia set, but other types of encyclopedias could just be one volume.
We are going to be studying the encyclopedias that have many volumes. Have the encyclopedia set out aside on a table for students to view.
On the front cover of an encyclopedia is the name of the encyclopedia, the volume number and the letter or letter of the alphabet. The letter is the beginning letter of each entry. Another name for entry could be subject, heading or the main topic you are looking for. For example this volume is number 15 and it has the letter P on the front cover and the spine of the book. So every time I look up a main topic in this volume it will start with the letter P.
Open up the encyclopedia and have a student read a guide word on top of page. What letter did that start with? Pick up another encyclopedia and show the front cover. Ask students what volume number is this encyclopedia. Children will say # 1. What letter is on the front cover? Children will say A. Open the encyclopedia and have students read the guide word at the top of the page. What letter did the guide words start with? Child will say A.
Repeat: I want you to notice once again that on the front cover and the spine of the encyclopedia there is a volume # and the letter or letters of the alphabet.
Turn on power point frame 1
- What are some of the topic you are studying in your science lessons? You just told me some really interesting points you are learning about space.
Power point frame 2. Web
- Purpose:
to find related topics to the word space and so that the child will understand that there is more than one place to look for information they are seeking. If a child is wants to know who is the first person is space and only looks up space, they may not find the correct answer. They may have needed to look up space program.
So this broadens the search perimeters and gives the child a greater opportunity for success.
- There are a lot of different places that we could look to find who was the first person in space. Which one of these topics (web) might include people who went into space. The children hopefully answer space programs. Now we are going to learn how to find our answer.
- Pass out one encyclopedia volume per table. We are going to hunt for a word that is in darker print on the pages on the encyclopedia.
- Power point frame #3. Read the definition of the frame
.
- The word in darker print is called an entry word. Children open encyclopedias and give examples of entry words.
- Alaska was a word the students found. That is great. Our main topic is Alaska. That is called an entry word. Our entry includes the main topic Alaska it might have pictures of Alaska and a summary of many interesting facts about Alaska. We even found a map of Alaska. Pick a few other students to find entry words in their encyclopedia so that you can make sure everyone understands the concept.
Treasure Map Analogy
But I still want to know who was the first person in space. I don't just want to open the volume and go page by page looking for the answer to my question. Teacher is flipping or tuning pages one by one, see how long this could take.
When we are looking for answers to questions it is often times like being a detective on a case we have to solve. So we need to have some clues. So I am going to use clues that the encyclopedia writers have given us. And the clues are called guide words.
Power Point Frame #4 read definition
Children open encyclopedias and give examples of a guide word at the top of the page.
Let's see if you can follow the clues. Close encyclopedias for just a moment.
Power Point frames 5-8. Now if these were the guide words on the encyclopedia page what main topics would be on this page?
- Researching in the encyclopedia is like looking for buried treasure. Entry words, guide words and the index are the clues that take you through your treasure map to where X marks the spot. Once you are at where X marks the spot you have to dig down until you find your treasure chest. Your treasure is in the answer to your questions. However sometimes you may have to dig, searching through other information before you hit gold. What is gold? It is knowledge.
- Take a few minutes to complete you Guide Word Exercise.
- Now boys and girls you are going to have a chance to find your space gold. Open your encyclopedias and follow the directions on the Space Treasure Hunt worksheet.
- Finish the teaching exercise by doing a few last questions with the class as a review to make sure that everyone understands the basic use of the encyclopedia. Let a child call out a name of subject, ask the class what volume should you choose to find the answer, teacher looks up answer and reads the first few lines or first paragraph of subject selected by students. Review definitions of entry words, guide words, index and basic use of encyclopedia.
- Congratulate the class on a job well done, and invite them back into the library to work on more homework and research papers using the encyclopedias.
Guide Word Exercise
(Handout # 1)
Answer Key
Instructions: Place the words that fit between the guide words.
|
Cent Coat |
Maple Mint |
Spy Sugar |
_______________ ______________ ________________
_______________ _______________ ________________
_______________ _______________ ________________
Choose from the following list of words.
Sunday, matter, bovine, star, machine, climb, copper,
Nuclear, story, century, meter, stamp, coach, milk,
Hint: (You should have 5 words that you did not use)
*Answers are in word list accented with bold print.
Encyclopedia Worksheet
(Teacher Answer Key)
- Alan B. Shepard, Jr. V1 A Pg.828.
- His flight was 15 minutes long. V 1 A Pg.828
- Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. V1 A Pg. 829
- July 20, 1969. V 1 A Pg. 829.
- They observe the location and motions of heavenly bodies. V1 A Pg. 834.
- October 4, 1957. V 1 A Pg. 840.
- Using mathematics discovered Pluto. V 15 P Pg. 580.
- They move westward across the sky. V 15 P Pg. 510.
- The space station usually orbits 200 to 300 miles above the earth. V18 SO - SZ Pg. 721.
- Skylab is the first U.S. space station launched into space. V18 SO - SZ Pg. 721
- Skylab was launched into space May 14, 1973. V 18 SO - SZ Pg. 721
- Space exploration began October 4, 1957. V 18 SO - SZ Pg. 695
- Goddard launched the first liquid propellant rocket in 1926. 18 So - SZ Pg. 695
- The following are the seven main things done in space by astronauts: navigation, activate equipment, conduct scientific observation and research, docking, maintain and repair equipment, assemble space station and leave the spacecraft. V18 SO - SZ Pg. 704
- It is any of nine large objects that orbit the sun. V 15 P Pg. 509
- The following are the first seven American astronauts to explore space: Slayton, Schirra, Cooper, Carpenter, Grissom, Glenn, and Shepard. V 18 So - SZ Pg. 713
- April 12, 1981. V 18 SO-SZ P.723
- Sally Ride was the first American woman to explore space on June 18, 1983. V 18 SO - SZ Pg. 725
- The most valuable resource will be oxygen. V 18 SO - SZ Pg. 728
- The seven basic needs are: breathing, eating and drinking, eliminating body wastes, bathing, sleeping, recreation, and controlling inventory. V 18 SO - SZ Pg. 703
References
The World Book Encyclopedia. 1998 ed. 20 vols. Chicago: World Book Inc. 1998.