Teaching Research Skills to Young Students: The CRITICAL ROLE of the Media Specialist

Beth Dempsey

This article examines the critical role of a media specialist in today’s rapidly changing world. It use to be you would go the library and take out books and look through encyclopedias. Plus look to the ever popular Readers Guide to Periodical Literature. Now though research is faster, it sometimes gets slowed down by ...the Web. It is a very complicated piece of technology. But children even under the age of 10 are succeeding. You must make research child friendly. At one Elementary school in Michigan their computer defaults away from he free web. “It gets children directly to the right information, making the best use of their time.

Also researchers and educators suggest that teachers should look at the navigational strategies, educational level, and quality of sites. Ones with few hypertext links are much more kid friendly. Advanced students could use the more complicated sites.

One site Kids InfoBits is suggested as a great database for children Grades K- 5. It culls only reference and periodical resources appropriate for children into an advertising-free research environment. This data base uses graphs, charts, and maps. Plus high quality sources.

One note that was mentioned to not forget the printed press. Publishers such as Blackbirch Press, KidHaven Press, and UXL are excellent sources, full of uncrowded pages and bright pictures.

The other tidbit of information was to be sure to Collaborate with others in the field as well as teachers in the school so you can tell what assignments are coming up.

I found this article truly helpful with 2 ideal web site information. Plus strategies for teaching students to use the Internet in a child friendly atmosphere.

In this course I have seen how massive the free web is. It is only appropriate that we limit the amount of stuff children have to weed through to complete their assignments. One caution is to be sure to do lessons on copyright laws. Too many times I have seen students copy pages from the Internet for their reports or I searches.

One thing I liked about this article was the advertisement for Gale Schools they were very colorful and the TLC logo caught my eye as well as the real life success stories written up.

I believe my library at school needs to teach more through technology. We have a computer lab, but it is off the beaten path and the librarian mainly stays with the printed stuff. But as time progresses it will come. It will have to!

2 sites to remember:

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/Mar03/MMSWP0303.pdf.

http://www.gale.com/schools