South Tama County Elementary students researching while using technology

Heather Garrett, teacher librarian and technology integrationist for South Tama County Elementary, works with students everyday to integrate technology and information literacy into their learning.

A study the kindergarteners have been currently engaged with is weather. This instructional unit supports the following classroom standards: Science Standard K-ESS3-2: Ask questions to obtain information about the purpose of weather forecasting to prepare for, and respond to, severe weather.

Writing Standard W.K.7: Participate in shared research and writing projects.

Reading Standard RI.K.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

The Information Literacy Standards being met are: I. Inquire: Learners participate in an-ongoing inquiry-based process by 2. Engaging in sustained inquiry. IV: Curate: Learners act on an information need by 1. Identifying possible sources of information and 2. Making critical choices about information sources to use.

Heather describes the lesson here: Students are recording their voices and taking a video of an assessment piece of our weather research. We practiced deciding which books, fiction or nonfiction, would help us gather information on the topic. We also learned how to take notes and organize our information for each type of weather (rainy/stormy, sunny, snowy, windy, cloudy). The last piece was to use the information we learned over several weeks to decide their favorite type of weather and write about it. When they were finished, I taught the first student how to take a video using the SeeSaw app. They had to teach the next student who finished, who had to teach another student when they were finished.

This is a great model for how the teacher librarian in a school supports the standards being taught in the classroom and teaching information literacy while integrating technology. Thank you for sharing, Heather!