eJournal Entry 1

Courtesy of emergingreaders.com

The Instructional Design Project I have been considering involves making a tutorial for our campus library. This would include learning about the Dewey Decimal System, how our books are categorized, the card catalog system and the databases available. At the beginning of each year I use a short PowerPoint to explain about our library since it is a new campus for 7th grade. It also refreshes the memory of those returning 8th graders. However when I get to the part about the library using the Dewey Decimal System so many of the students look lost. And it gets even worse when I talk about Destiny the card catalog system.  Now I know the whole district uses this system, so they must be somewhat familiar with how this works. The next year I added a short section to the PowerPoint about the Dewey System and how to use Destiny, but that is really not enough. Students need to sit down and read about each resource our library has and practice using them including the Ebsco Databases. These students are in Middle School now and a big part of High School is research and writing papers.  My design project is being designed due to the fact no training of this type exists. The tutorial will be short lessons and activities that students can work through as part of their English class.  They will address using the Dewey Decimal System locating books in the library, using the Destiny Card Catalog and locating information using the Ebsco databases. These lessons will be new and I hope to have them available through the library webpage in order for students to always have access to them later after they have completed the lessons.

I believe this is occurring because no one has taken time over the years to explain small parts about the library or how it is arranged to students. Now I am relatively new at this job but I know many of them do not know who Mr. Dewey is or about his system.  They just know books are arranged. I have heard one school library in our district organizes their library much like a book store, according to categories. I have also explained about the card catalog system, but still so many hesitate to use it because they don’t understand how easy it is to use and that they can use it from home to look for books. The same reasoning applies to the databases, they have never been explained before or they do not have enough experience using them.  I see so many students heading straight for Google and the databases would make searching for what they need so much easier.

This could be happening because the campuses with younger students only have Library Aides.  They are not even teachers.  Without the proper training they are just not aware of educating students on the importance of the resources available in the library. These library assistants must give the students enough information to navigate their way through the library.  I have seen a couple of library aids at library workshops but I have heard others say their principal will not allow them to go. I guess they must just be responsible for checking out books and reshelving them in addition to helping teachers.

One other reason for the lack of knowledge about the library resources could be due to a language barrier. Even though many of them speak English, I can still see them struggle with the correct words or they may not understand how to ask for what they need.  Our campus receives each year so many students who suffer from low reading skills.

And a final reason which relates to the language barrier. Many of these children may come from homes where the parents have ever taken them to a public library.  The school library may be all they have ever known.  And when they arrive at the middle school our arrangement of resources and books may look like a whole new world to them.

This process was so helpful.  I now understand what I was not able to for so long; why students came to our campus with hardly any knowledge of basically how a library was run or any other the resources we have available.  Now I do have some students who seem very familiar with the library but for the most part the others are lost.  This will help me focus my project just on the needs of the 7th and 8th grade students, especially the ones the have poor reading skills or a language barrier.  I had never thought about that until I began to answer the questions.  I too often take for granted what I think they should know at this age.  I need to realize that many times if I will take a few steps back with students, they can catch them up to speed of the the others. My purpose is basically the same-to educate them on the use of the Dewey Decimal System, the organization of books in the library, the Destiny Card Catalog System and the Ebsco databases. But the textbook also brought out one good point, "Attitudes are important predictors not only of motivation towards learning, but also of how much is learned and the extent to which the material is transferred to other settings"(p.26). I understand now that it may have to start out very basic with simple applications but that will help students understand the basics and work from there. I need to set up the instruction in a way these students will understand the importance and how they can use these new skills later in life also. These resources are not difficult to use, it will just take practice and then putting the new skills to use.