Information Problem-Solving

Oh my! time really got away from me. I knew it had been a while since I last posted on my blog, but 3 months? I’m so ashamed. Oh well, the new year brings new resolve. There are a couple of books and series that I want to review, but I’ll save those for another post. Today I want to write about what we’ll be doing in library for the next several weeks.

One of the big pushes in education right now is for students to be able to read and use informative text materials in order to solve information problems. Simply stated that means kids need to know how to do research. It doesn’t have to be research on a grand scale. It can be for a school assignment or it might just be finding information about something that interests the student personally. The steps to solving these information problems are the same.

The process we’ll be using is called the Big6. The Big6 was developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz way back in the 1990s. The process consists of six steps (the name was a big tip off).

1. Task Definition

2. Information Seeking Strategies

3. Location and Access

4. Use of Information

5. Synthesis

6. Evaluation

The fourth graders will use this process to learn more about a historical figure of their choosing while the fifth graders will use it to learn more about a specific country that they will pick.

The kindergarteners, first, second and third graders will use a simpler process called the Super3 to learn about animals. The Super3 was also created by Eisenberg and Berkowitz and includes the  three steps: Plan, Do, Review. Each of these three steps include one or more Big6 steps. Plan is a combination of steps 1, 2, & 3. Do combines steps 4 & 5. The last step, Review, is pretty much the same as step 6, Evaluation.