University of Georgia
Instructional Technology
School Library Media

Master's Portfolio
Summer 2006

I-Search ( Final Product Example, Log, Reflection .doc)

Through the I-Search I experienced a process model that I can employ to help students pursue answers to personal or scholarly questions, to efficiently find information in a variety of formats, and to use information ethically. I identified a topic of personal interest -- a trip to London with my niece -- and then increased my likelihood of finding appropriate information by developing and refining research questions. Activities such as reading without note taking, personal interest webs, and Know-Don't Know-Want to Know charts were creative and effective strategies for focusing my topic. I also gained experience using Boolean logic and keywords to search for information on the Internet, in databases such as GALILEO, and in the OPAC at the local public library. Furthermore, my professor modeled intervention at the point of need and supplied pathfinders, two strategies that I can use to help students locate and document information effectively.

Plagiarism is a common complaint when teachers assign research projects.   I was excited to gain experience using the double entry draft system and research logs, which I believe discourage copying by forcing students to draw personal connections to information. Additionally, I was motivated by the ability to create a final product that required synthesis and analysis of new knowledge and encouraged originality. My product was a series of birthday cards/gift tags that explained how various books and other gifts would increase my niece's understanding of the sights we planned to visit. The I-Search also helped me gain further experience using APA formatting to document sources, and l learned about Noodlebib, an easy-to-use online tool that can assist students with this task.

In the Order assignment, my group chose a literature-related objective from our PDEP, developed an order that would help us meet the objective, created a Power Point presentation to explain our order to our media committee, and developed a procedures checklist to ensure that in the future we do not overlook any steps in this potentially complicated task.

My group's order demonstrated mastery of AASL Standard 1 in several ways.   First, to encourage reading and lifelong learning by stimulating interests, we used such strategies as polling students to discover books they were anxious to read and examining circulation records to identify popular authors, genres and subject areas. These activities helped us understand the needs and interests of our learners. Additionally, we ordered classics such as Newbery, Pura Belpré, and Coretta Scott King award-winners, books that were timeless in their quality of writing and in their appeal to children. To increase the probability that students would both enjoy and learn from quality resources, we evaluated all materials using respected selection tools and a comprehensive list of criteria. We also identified promotional activities, such as book talks, personal reading logs, and displays, to encourage students and faculty to use the new materials.

Second, we applied a multiple strategies to ensure access to resources and information in a variety of formats to all members of the learning community. For example, we added audiobooks and videos to support aural and visual learners and those with physical exceptionalities. To ensure that our order reflected cultural diversity, we included quality multicultural biographies, folk tales, poetry, drama, and fiction and sought books whose illustrations and characters portrayed the predominately African American and Latino populations of or school. Bilingual and Spanish books were added to encourage reading by English language learners and their families. The order project also required us to consider access issues such as interfiling Spanish and bilingual books within our collection instead of creating a separate Spanish section. We used LM_Net to obtain the advice of other experienced media specialists on this topic.

Finally, we promoted ethical use of library media resources by researching AV broadcast licenses and by adding a processing checklist item to inform our faculty of requirements that were different from the norm.

The PDEP forced our group to consider how our media center program could foster the ideals espoused in Information Power while supporting the mission of the school, particularly, that of helping all students become lifelong learners in a global and technological society. We developed a philosophy that demonstrated many of the criteria in AASL Standard 1, including:

• provision of intellectual and physical access to materials that support the curriculum, encourage reading, and expose students to a wide variety of viewpoints
• collaborative planning of instruction to promote information literacy
• ethical use of information

A five-year plan was a critical component of our PDEP.   We analyzed our student population, curriculum, and facilities to identify needs and develop goals and objectives that would guide our program.   Among others, these goals and objectives included:

• building collaboration with teachers in order to help students develop information literacy competencies within a meaningful context
• managing the collection through weeding, arranging, and purchasing materials to ensure that instruction was supported by current, relevant, high quality materials
• promoting a love of reading
• providing access to materials in a variety of formats to meet the needs of diverse learners
• arranging the physical space and creating multilingual signs to increase access to users