San Francisco - Our City by the Bay

A Third Grade Research Unit - other research units on following pages...see Sidebar

Introduction and Overview

Thanks to the 2004 passage of Proposition H, (now called PEEF - Public Education Enrichment Fund) generously voted for by the citizens of San Francisco, every public elementary school in the City now has a credentialed Teacher Librarian. SFUSD librarians work directly with students, teachers, and administrators to maintain school libraries, provide direct services to students and teachers, and create exemplary library media programs in each school by collaborating with teachers, instilling a love of reading, enhancing learning through technology, and teaching information literacy.

Elementary librarians are working daily with students and teachers at all grade levels. Presented here is a collaborative social studies unit about our city for third grade teachers, librarians and their students. This unit is a work in progress. The creation of district-wide research units for 4th and 5th grades are in the works. As we are working on this wiki, please disregard the formatting irregularities, they will be fixed soon.

The goals of this project are:

1. To create information literate students: teach research skills and the ethical use of information, teach how to find, use, and evaluate print, digital, and primary source materials.

2. To create a district-wide library media curriculum for all schools and all students. The following year we will pilot a fourth grade California research unit.

3. To provide accountability to the district and the SF taxpayers (who voted for PEEF) and to show the community what librarians do in schools.

Collaboration: School librarians will not just help or support 3rd grade teachers with this unit, they will work together with them at each stage of this unit - strategizing, planning, creating, teaching, and assessing. When planning a lesson, mark each learning activity with a “CT” (for classroom teacher) or “LMT” (for library media teacher) to be clear who is responsible for teaching each piece of the lesson. Each lesson can stand on its own, and teachers may pick and choose how deep they want to go. Feel free to modify or recreate lessons to fit your schedule, teaching style, resources, or interests. Expect the unit to take at least 4-6 weeks. To maximize time, consider some form of flexible scheduling for library access.

Many of the lessons are designed as short mini-lessons (20 minutes or less). Most librarians will have less than an hour per week with a particular 3rd grade class. Lessons will be continued by the teacher in the classroom and also with parents at home in the form of homework. Lessons that are specifically designed to be taught by the Library Media Teacher will be clearly identified as a “Library Skills Lesson” (ie., using the OPAC, using an encyclopedia, making a bibliography, etc.)

Literacy: Many lessons have suggestions for read-alouds that either the CT or the LMT can read to the whole class. Librarians will create a display of relevant books for students to check out and/or a box of relevant books to be checked out for the entire classroom (or a rotating classroom collection if more than one 3rd grade classroom is doing the unit). The district's Library Services Department will also have resources available for loan and SFUSD librarians can easily share materials between schools.

• Enhancing learning through technology: Access to technology varies widely throughout SFUSD elementary schools. Take advantage of what is available at your site. Even one computer with Internet access is enough to allow students the opportunity to do some research online. If your school is sorely lacking in technology, be creative: raise money for disposable cameras, take trips to the public library to do research, etc. Many of the Power Point presentations will be available on transparencies for use with overhead projectors, for those who do not have LCD projectors. 

• Information Literacy is “the ability to find and use information” (AASL, Information Power, 1998), or more simply put, the research process. We will be using the Big Six Model. All third grade students will learn how to use an OPAC - their own school's and the SF Public Library online catalog. Student's will use the district's subscription databases, as well as print sources such as books, encyclopedias, atlases, periodicals. The use of primary source materials will also be required. There will be an emphasis on the ethical use of information, including citing sources and making bibliographies, plagiarism, and evaluating web sites. The first theme of the SF Research project will be done as a WHOLE GROUP (classroom) in order to scaffold and model the research process and ensure success in subsequent units.

Here is a fool-proof Big Six Organizer to print and use for any research project.

Unit Themes

The unit is divided into ten themes. Classrooms may choose as few or as many themes as they have time to complete. Some of the themes are designed as webquests (an inquiry-oriented online tool for learning that promotes critical thinking), but they can be modified and presented in print form if technology access is limited. The first theme will be completed by ALL classrooms, as a whole-class project, in order to model and scaffold the research project to all students.

The themes are:

Theme 1: Where is my City

Theme 2: My Neighborhood

Theme 3: The Original San Franciscans

Theme 4: SF History

Theme 5: SF Landmarks

Theme 6: SF Architecture

Theme 7: Earthquakes!

Theme 8: SF Government

Theme 9: Making SF a Kid-Friendly City

Culminating Project

2011 is the third year of our exhibit of student work about San Francisco in the Children's Room of SFPL Main.  Students will be expected to do their best work on this project, as it will be on display for the entire city!

Click here for examples of Theme Projects.

Examples of Library Skills Lessons, to be taught on an "as-needed" basis:

• What is research? : Library Skills Lesson
• The Big Six: Library Skills Lesson
• Sources of Information - Library Skills Lesson
• Using the OPAC - Library Skills Lesson
• Using an Index - Library Skills Lesson
• Taking Notes - Library Skills Lesson
• Plagiarism and Copyright - Library Skills Lesson
• Creating a Bibliography - Library Skills Lesson
• Using Newspapers - Library Skills Lesson

Standards

American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st Century Learner (view PDF) 

California Department of Education (CDE) Language Arts and History - Social Science Standards for Grade 3

For more information, or if you are interested in participating in any way,

please email renvolpe at yahoo dot com