Comments on: National Library Legislative Day 2011 http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=1791 Each TechnoTuesday Tue, 07 May 2013 01:06:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Cathy Jo Nelson http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=1791&cpage=1#comment-6599 Cathy Jo Nelson Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:34:04 +0000 http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=1791#comment-6599 I am in total agreement that research days are necessary. Libraries have standards just as areas of the curriculum, including fine arts and academics. In the lower grades (primary grades, elementary, and even some middle schools) many schools put kids in a library setting once a week or more for the purpose of exposing them to how a library works, including how to locate information and develop a love of reading. More often than not this happens away from the classroom teacher and not in context with any classroom learning or projects, while the said teacher has a planning period. Because many of the lessons taught are isolated from anything concurrently happening in their class, understanding the power of a library is lost, and when these kids return for real research needs, they cannot make the connection to anything taught in that isolated lesson. In high school, research projects allow for students to make that necessary connection. Their needs are defined by the research project, and so we as teachers can provide instruction that will in all likelihood stick with the student this time. Unless a student has a real need for a resource, be it a physical book on the shelf or information from a database, students will not “learn” how to find it or use it. For that reason, it is critically important to have research days in the media center. I alluded to our standards at the beginning. Libraries have instructional standards. But our standards related to research are meaningless until they are intertwined with an authentic research need

]]> By: Katie http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=1791&cpage=1#comment-6588 Katie Mon, 28 Mar 2011 03:51:28 +0000 http://blog.cathyjonelson.com/?p=1791#comment-6588 Hello! I am a future teacher. I loved the “library days” I had in my classes in high school. It was usually for research papers in English, Government, or Sociology/psychology. Do you think that research days should be required? Perhaps to familiarize the students with the library and the resources they have, and to get to know the librarians who are extremely helpful and important?

Thank you so much!

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