Collaboration at its Finest

Last week, two grades collaborated on a lesson taught during library class with Mrs. Sandlin. The 4th grade students taught the 1st grade students how to use online encyclopedias and helped them research animals using Encyclopedia Britannica and PebbleGo.  The first graders benefited tremendously from the older students' guidance as they developed their skills in using varied research resources to gather information. 

In the previous weeks, the 1st graders had researched animals with books and cited the information with title, author, and page number.  Now they are recording the article title and the online source where they found the article along with the details they learned.  As the 4th graders teach the 1st graders, they are becoming more ready for an upcoming research unit about extreme weather that will include selecting reliable sources, evaluating the reliability and usefulness of information within their sources, synthesizing information through research with multiple resources, and crediting their sources as they communicate their learning.

Mrs. Sandlin states, “Library activities like this one are a valuable part of the information literacy progression towards more formal research projects in the future years of their academic careers and generally using reliable electronic resources to get information in daily life.”