One of my greatest moments of joy at the library is when a youngster discovers the Dewey Decimal System. The look of delight on the face of this young intellectual, makes taking all the strange and sometimes bizarre questions worthwhile. When a student realizes their subject of interest has its own designated number, and is located in the same place no matter the division; children, juvenile, adult, and no matter where they are in the country this number becomes their research headquarters. I am linking a Dewey lesson plan that I find both instructional and entertaining. This lesson plan is called SWAT, shelve with a theme, and it directs the students in discovering the ways and whys of the Dewey. The lesson plan includes full instructions and a rubric. Any school librarian should appreciate this well designed lesson plan and the fact that it requires cognitive skills but also includes the opportunity for the student to expound on knowledge gained. The step by step process involved in the lesson plan allows the students to discover the methodology of arranging books by themes and builds on specifics within a theme. When a student becomes familiar with the Dewey a new world of building from the base to higher subject division, assists the student in facilitating other students in their searches. In my personal evaluation of this lesson plan I would consider it to be constructive. The students work in collaboration in groups. They are given web sites to browse for further information. They are asked to write a paper concerning their findings. They are problem solvers using skills they have gained in the past and making the task relevant to the situation. This assignment is based in a library setting and it involves using an adopted system of categorizing that is in use in real life. The social interaction in the group and the discussion of multiple views concerning the subject of a book creates a deeper level of thinking. To me the actions in this lesson plan could create a label of Constructivist Prescription. The successful student after experiencing this lesson should be enabled to go to any library that uses the Dewey system and experience success in their reference pursuits. This lesson could be created in a behaviorist format by passing out a list of the Dewey numbers and their subject headings. A matching test could be given listing subjects in one column and section numbers in another column and draw a line from the subject to the number. This type of lesson would not open the world of the library to the student nor would it give skills other than list and number matching. The goal of a school librarian should be that of giving the key of knowledge to the students by finding out their subject of highest interest and then allowing them to discover the location of the material they find the most interesting. If someone is enabled to locate something that holds their attention now they will be able to parlay that experience into real life knowledge and when the time presents itself to research other subjects of interest they will have the basic skills and tools at their disposal to either search in the hard copies or utilize the internet to search the web.
This lesson plan is called SWAT, shelve with a theme, and it directs the students in discovering the ways and whys of the Dewey. The lesson plan includes full instructions and a rubric. Any school librarian should appreciate this well designed lesson plan and the fact that it requires cognitive skills but also includes the opportunity for the student to expound on knowledge gained.
The step by step process involved in the lesson plan allows the students to discover the methodology of arranging books by themes and builds on specifics within a theme. When a student becomes familiar with the Dewey a new world of building from the base to higher subject division, assists the student in facilitating other students in their searches.
In my personal evaluation of this lesson plan I would consider it to be constructive. The students work in collaboration in groups. They are given web sites to browse for further information. They are asked to write a paper concerning their findings. They are problem solvers using skills they have gained in the past and making the task relevant to the situation.
This assignment is based in a library setting and it involves using an adopted system of categorizing that is in use in real life. The social interaction in the group and the discussion of multiple views concerning the subject of a book creates a deeper level of thinking. To me the actions in this lesson plan could create a label of Constructivist Prescription. The successful student after experiencing this lesson should be enabled to go to any library that uses the Dewey system and experience success in their reference pursuits.
This lesson could be created in a behaviorist format by passing out a list of the Dewey numbers and their subject headings. A matching test could be given listing subjects in one column and section numbers in another column and draw a line from the subject to the number. This type of lesson would not open the world of the library to the student nor would it give skills other than list and number matching.
The goal of a school librarian should be that of giving the key of knowledge to the students by finding out their subject of highest interest and then allowing them to discover the location of the material they find the most interesting. If someone is enabled to locate something that holds their attention now they will be able to parlay that experience into real life knowledge and when the time presents itself to research other subjects of interest they will have the basic skills and tools at their disposal to either search in the hard copies or utilize the internet to search the web.
http://www.longmeadow.k12.ma.us/ws/dewey/index.html
Discover Dewey SWAT