Monday 27 March 2017

Reference Resources - So Many Choices!


In order for the students to be able to start their own inquiry process, they need to be aware of the many different types of reference resources available as well as know which reference resources best meet their research needs.  The teacher librarian with the classroom teacher have to model and teach the researching skills collaboratively with the students so that they can be competent with searching properly for their own print or electronic reference resources.  The students need to be able to evaluate the reference resources for validity, accuracy, and meaning.  They have to be able to critically analysis the references and be skilled to use the references effectively. 

Here is a word tagul cloud of the different types of reference resources mentioned in Theme 3:

Created at   https://tagul.com





There are endless amounts of electronic and print reference resources that the students can use for their particular inquiry process.  For the chart below, there were many examples discussed in Theme 3 of  UBC LIBE 467 course, but I tried to choose those that had a Canadian component if mentioned.  The chart below can be a starting point and example for students and educators in their inquiry needs.


Reference Resources
Examples


The Web
Grey Literature
Indexes
periodicals like journals, ERIC  (subject indexes), books, pamphlets, reports, government documents
Abstracts
Summary of research ideas
Full-text Databases
Bibliographies
Biographies
Directories
General Encyclopedia
Specialized Encyclopedia
Dictionaries
Thesauri
Almanacs
Yearbooks
Handouts
Maps
Atlases
Geographic Sources



The following chart from Simon Fraser University (SFU) Library shows the inquiry need and possible best reference resources to use:

Retrieved from SFU Library Website   

The following diagram from the University of British Columbia Library's  Research Help section can be adapted for our students for their inquiry research projects.

Retrieved from UBC Library

Here is a YouTube video (retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a0PsZykg8Y) about choosing reference resources:





References:

Beyond Google:  The Invisible Web.  (2015, August).  LaGuardia Community College.  Retrieved
          from  http://library.laguardia.edu/invisibleweb/teachingtools

Brown, David. K. (2001) The Children’s Literature Web Guide.  University of Calgary.  Retrieved
          from http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html -

Canada 411.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from http://www.canada411.ca

CultureGrams.  (2010).  ProQuest LLC and Brigham Young University.  Retrieved March 18, 2017
         from  http://www.culturegrams.com

Dictionary of Canadian Biography.  University of Toronto.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
             http://www.biographi.ca/en/index.php

EBSCO: Research Databases: Novelist K8.  NoveList.   Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
             https://www.ebscohost.com/novelist/our-

Educational Listservs. (2015).  Community Learning Network.  Retrieved from
             http://www.cln.org/lists/home.html

Encyclopedia Britannica.  Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
              https://www.britannica.com

ERIC.  EBSCO Industries.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from https://www.ebscohost.com/us-high-schools/eric

Google Earth.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from https://www.google.com/earth/

Guinness World Records.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com

Historica Canada.  (2016).  The Canadian Encyclopedia.  Retrieved from
               http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/

Infoplease.  Sandbox Networks, Inc. Retrieved March 18, 2017 from http://www.infoplease.com

Katz, William A.  (2002).  Introduction to Reference Work – volume 1: Basic Information Services.
           (8th edition).  McGraw-Hill.

Mapquest.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from https://www.mapquest.ca

Mueller, Aaron, instructor, 2016W-LIBE467-63C-Information Services I course, University of
          British Columbia. 2017.

Open Education Resources Commons.  ISKME.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
             https://www.oercommons.org

Oxford English Dictionary.  Oxford University Press.  Retrieved March 18 2017 from
            http://www.oed.com

Research Help – Library.  University of British Columbia.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
             http://help.library.ubc.ca/#planning

Riedling, Ann Marlow et. al.  (2013).  Reference Skills for the School Librarian:  Tools and Tips.
            Linworth.

SFU Background Reference Sources or Reference Resources: Home, SFU.  (2017, February 24).
          Retrieved from http://www.lib.sfu.ca/find/other-materials/reference-sources

Submit Data and View Standards.  Canadian Institute for Health Information.  Retrieved March 18,
           2017 from https://www.cihi.ca/en/submit-data-and-view-standards

Tagul Cloud.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from https://tagul.com

The Canadian Atlas Online.  Canadian Geographic.  Retrieved on March 18, 2017 from
              http://www.canadiangeographic.com/atlas/learningtools.aspx?lang=En

Thesaurus.com.  Dictionary.com.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from http://www.thesaurus.com

The World Almanac for Kids Online.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
              http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com

Webcat.vsb.bc.ca.  Vancouver School Board.  Retrieved March 18, 2017 from
              http://webcat.vsb.bc.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=B490662M92414.8892&profile=ls&menu=tab21&ts=1490662692414

Welcome to the Katz Website, Introduction to Reference Work.  Volumes I & II.  (2001).  The
              McGraw-Hill Companies.  Retrieved from https://books.google.ca/books/about/Magazines_for_libraries.html?id=eq3quljxEw0C&redir_esc=y

Where do we find answers? Elementary Reference Lesson.  [YouTube Video].  Retrieved March
            18, 2017  from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a0PsZykg8Y



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Sunday 5 March 2017

Good Changes

Models of Change

Change is always difficult but with the new BC curriculum, teachers also need to evolve their educational practices for the 21st century.  Two ways to evaluate new innovations or changes are the Concerns-Based-Adoption-Model (CBAM) and Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition Model (SAMR).  These are progression models for initiatives and technology.  They move along a spectrum of no personal change and concern to constant collaborative change and innovation.

CBAM retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/
SAMR retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model


The CBAM has 3 diagnostic dimensions, which include Innovation Configurations, Stages of Concern, and Levels of Use.  The Innovation Configuration has 2 components.  There are 7 Stages of Concern and 8 Levels of Use.

The Science Program Innovation Configuration Map for CBAM (Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/innovation_configurations.html)

Component 1: The teacher groups students for learning.
(a) Assigns students to groups that vary over time based on instructional objectives and students’ ability.(b) Assigns students to small permanent groups for lab assignments and other group work.(c) Assigns students to groups during lab activities only.(d) Provides whole group instruction exclusively.
Component 2: The teacher emphasizes science process and program content.
(a) Emphasizes science process and program content equally.(b) Emphasizes the science program content exclusively.(c) Emphasizes the science process exclusively.(d) Emphasizes science recall and memorization of facts from a variety of sources.(e) Emphasizes recall of science facts from previous science textbook.

Chart created by Ferdi Serim
Chart created by Ferdi Serim


The SAMR model developed by Ruben R. Puentedura focuses on four stages of technology progression.  The four 4 levels go from Substitution Stage with no real technological change to Redefinition with new "inconceivable change" with technology.  The following includes Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning (Bloom et al., 1956):

Chart developed by Kathy Schrock.

School Environment

Before I discuss the two teachers to help evolve their practice, it would be good to have an insight of the elementary school's culture and environment.  For the last year and half, the school has been going through a change in their teaching and learning philosophy with a new principal.   The new principal seems to be on the pulse of innovation since he has been writing a weekly blog with school information, links, and initiatives.  His blogs contain words like “creative problem solvers”, “21st learners”, “intellectual risk takers”, “collaboration”, “exemplary practices”, “responsible citizenship,” and “innovative technological tools and resources.”   

There are initiatives and committees to evaluate and implement iPads and apps in learning.  Parent surveys were sent out on iPad availability and funding.  There is also an inquiry grant for implementing Fresh Grades, an “evaluation and student portfolio creating” software.  About a third of the teachers are starting to experiment and evaluate with Fresh Grades in their classroom practices. Students and parents are also using and evaluating Fresh Grades themselves.  

In addition, the school also has some staff interested in an inquiry project for software that will support the new BC curriculum.  The Teacher Librarian also provides initiatives for the school by providing support for the school wide inquiry projects such as the Heritage Fairs and Science Fairs that require good reference resources.


As a whole, the school on the CBAM model is on Refinement for Levels of Use and Behaviours.  For Expression of Concerns, the school is on Consequences.  The school is going through change but a lot of the new initiatives are at the introductory phrases and the teachers need time to learn, experiment and integrate new initiatives.  In terms of the SAMR model, the school is on Augmentation.  Since the school is going through change and looking for new ways to teach students, the teachers are generally more receptive to change.

Teacher 1

Ms. B is a grade 3 teacher.  She has been at the school for 10 years and has been teaching for 15 years.  She is an excellent and experienced teacher who cares about each individual student. She collaborates with 2 other teachers for school assemblies such as during Remembrance Day and Christmas concert.  She also runs a Global Citizen Club for students to raise awareness of global issues.  This year they raised money for a sister African school and collected non-perished good for Christmas hampers.  There isn’t much technology utilized in the classroom except emails to the parents.  For research project, the students research online at home or go to the library for reference resources.  For CBAM, she is at the Management and Routine.  In terms of Innovation Configurations, she is at the highest level for Component 1 and Component 2.  For SAMR, she is at Redefinition.

Teacher 2

Ms. H. is a grade 7 teacher and she is also a very excellent and knowledgeable teacher.  She has been at the school for 20 years.  Ms. H. is a passionate, hardworking and devoted teacher that provides plenty of enrichment for her students.  Her class is currently using Fresh Grades as a way of evaluating and communicating with her students and parents.  Also, she has a Smart Board in her class that she uses Safari for PowerPoint presentation of photos for art projects.  Therefore, she is more keen to try new technology. The students use the school set of iPads in her classroom for research or go to the library for reference resources.  She also volunteers for every Grade 7 boys sports team as the manger and has been to every afterschool game.  She also attends school activities that her students are involved in afterschool, evenings, and weekends.   Her classroom opens at 8:00 am and after school till 4:30 pm for students to work collaboratively on projects.  During the pass month she has been to the evening district Science Fair and Destination Imagination contest on the weekend with her students.  In terms of CBAM, she is at Consequence and Refinement.  Ms. H. is the same as Ms. B. for Innovation Configurations.  For SAMR, she is at Modification.

Moving to a Higher Level of CBAM and SAMR

Before working individually with each teacher, I would ask the principal for an hour presentation during a school meeting or Pro-D Day to focus on how to present the different fairs (Science and Heritage) in a more interactive way and provide reference resources that might be helpful for their classes.  All the teachers in the school have their students present their fairs on cardboard for other students to see.  But after the fairs, all that great information at the fairs are taken home and not seen again.  It would be great to keep the learning going.  

How to share these great Science Fair ideas after the fair?
Thus, I wanted to introduce the teachers to use electronic means for them to have their student’s fairs shown and saved electronically perhaps by using their own private classroom Youtube channel with parent consent and without ads.  They could also share videos on Fresh Grades.  For the younger grades, I would film the students talking about their scientific discovery from hypothesis to conclusion that they have shown on their cardboards.  If they have hands on experiments, demostrations, or interviews, those could be filmed too.  For the upper grades, it would be great to create classroom blogs with images, links, and embedded videos filmed through iMovie related to their Science and Heritage Fair topics that other students can access and comment on.   

I would show the staff on the Smart Board an example of my son's Youtube channel on Heritage Fair.  In the video, my son is carving his own soapstone bear with explanation as well as talking about the traditions, tools, and types of soapstones used by the Inuits.  

My son's soapstone bear carved for Heritage Fair.

I would also bring in new printed reference materials, encyclopedias, atlases, and non-fiction books related to science, and Canadian topics that can be introduced and used by the students.   It would be good to categorize the books by topics and grades in tubs so that the teachers can borrow the tubs when teaching about the different fairs.

I would also show them the following graphic from Blue Valley Education Technology about SAMR and iPad Apps (http://itunesu.bluevalleyk12.org/handouts/samr_and_ipad_apps.pdf).This would be helpful to all the teachers as well as the committee exploring iPad Apps and the new curriculum.

Also, on the smart board I can show them websites that could be used by their students or themselves.  There is the online library reference resource that students can use called Webcat.  On Webcat, there are on-line reference materials like World Books, Gale Canada in Context, Gale Science, Canadian Reference Center, World Book Science Power, Encyclopedia of BC, National Geographic, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Learn Now BC, and BC Stats.

Other electronic reference sites that I would mention to the teachers about the science process are:

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/parent_resources.shtml

 http://makeymakey.com/gallery/?tag=science

https://www.googlesciencefair.com/en/

http://www.toysaretools.com

https://www.education.com/science-fair/

https://sciencebob.com/research-help/

These are more sites that I would mention to the teachers for the Canadian Heritage Fair:

http://www.histori.ca

http://historicalthinking.ca/sites/default/files/files/docs/Making%20History%20Meaningful.FINAL__0.pdf

https://www.theexplorationplace.com/uploads/file/heritage%20fair%20lesson%20plan%2009.pdf

http://bcheritagefairs.ca/about/

http://kamloopsheritagefair.sd73.bc.ca/file.php/1/heritage_fair_how-to_booklet_pdf.pdf






After the presentation at the staff meeting, the hope is that the teachers would be much more receptive to collaboration and using reference resource support in the classroom and library with me and others.  This follows the direction that the principal would like to move the school towards in terms of technology, inquiry learning, and new learning initiatives.


Since Teacher 1, Ms. B., is not using much technology in her class and her students are younger, I would have her try-out Fresh Grades with her class since it gives her students an opportunity to upload their videos there if they are filming a hands on science experiment at home.  A disadvantage with Fresh Grades is that it is really slow to upload videos.  Once the videos are uploaded though from home or school, the teacher can share each video with the whole class.  I could also set up a private classroom YouTube channel if Ms. B. isn't concerned about using Fresh Grade currently.  This would move her up towards Modification and Augmentation for SAMR. For CBAM, Ms. B. would be moving towards Consequence and Refinement.
Since Teacher 2, Ms. H., is already using Fresh Grades and her students are older, I would encourage them to use blogs.  I can model with her class their first blogs together.  Then they can use the blogs to share their knowledge about their scientific and Canadian discovery with the class using links, illustrations, and videos.  The class can also respond with comments too.  This would move Ms. H. to Augmentation in SMAR.  For CBAM, she will be towards Collaboration and Integration.


Here is a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E3rarcATqU) explaining CBAM:


 Here is a YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us0w823KY0g) explaining SAMR:






References:

BC’s New Curriculum. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca

Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of
 educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive
 domain. New York: David McKay Company.


Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). (2017). American Institutes for Research.  Retrieved
 from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/ 

Fresh Grades.  (2017).  Retrieved from https://www.freshgrade.com

Huang, Po-Sen. Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): Levels of Use.  Retrieved from
 https://sites.google.com/site/ch7cbam/home/levels-of-use

Introduction to the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM).  Retrieved from
             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E3rarcATqU 

Introduction to the SAMR MODEL.  (2017).  Common Sense Media.  Retrieved from
 https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/introduction-to-the-samr-model# 

Leading Learning:  Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada 2014.
(2014).  Canadian Learning Association.  Retrieved from http://apsds.org/wp-
content/uploads/Standards-of-Practice-for-SchoolLibrary-Learning-Commons-in-Canada-
2014.pdf

Puentedura, Ruben R.  SAMR: A Contextualized Introduction.  Hippasus [Blog]. Retrived from

Managing the Changing Process – the Concerns – Based Adoption Model (CBAM). (2017).
  Retrieved from http://lecftde.weebly.com/d-reflection-and-additional-resources1.html.

SAMR and Bloom’s.  (2014).  Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything.    Retrieved from
 http://www.schrockguide.net/samr.html

SAMR and iPad Apps.  Retrieved on from
 http://itunesu.bluevalleyk12.org/handouts/samr_and_ipad_apps.pdf

SAMR Model in 120 Seconds. Retrieved from
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us0w823KY0g&t=17s

Technology is Learning:  SAMR Model.  Retrieved from
 https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model

The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM):   Model for Change in  Individuals. (2005).
  National Academies.  Retrieved from
 http://www.nationalacademies.org/rise/backg4a.htm

Technology is Learning. (2014).  Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model

Video Curriculum.  Retrieved from http://edtechteacher.org/tools/multimedia/video-classroom/ 

VSB’s Webcat. (2017)  Retrieved from
http://webcat.vsb.bc.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=148876J57VR07.29811&profile=ls&menu=tab21&ts=1488767577707




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