Collaborative Library Research Projects: Inquiry That Stimulates the Senses

One of the most important roles of today's Library Media Specialist is collaborating with teachers to design instruction. Out of his many years of experience in collaborating with teachers in a large public high school, the author describes this collaboration process and presents lessons in various disciplines to spark student inquiry. These reproducible lessons are immediately usable and will serve as prototypes for developing other lessons. Research tells us that students learn in a variety of ways (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.); one of the purposes of the book is to use the learning station approach to provide opportunities for students to learn via listening, viewing, reading, and touching. Grades 7-12. One of the most important roles of today's Library Media Specialist is collaborating with teachers to design instruction. Out of his many years of experience in collaborating with teachers in a large public high school, the author offers this book to describe this collaboration process and presents lessons in various disciplines that can be used to spark student inquiry. These reproducible lessons are immediately usable and will serve as prototypes for developing other lessons. Research tells us that students learn in a variety of ways (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.); one of the purposes of the book is to use the learning station approach to provide opportunities for students to learn via listening, viewing, reading, and touching. Students also learn best when they can interact with the material and each other, and are stimulated by the activities. Therefore, the units contain a variety of learning methods such as listening to music and oral history, using computers for research and interaction, watching videos, reading books, and discussing articles with classmates. There are also a variety of suggested end products using different media. Grades 7-12.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Collaborating With Teachers to Promote Student Research World War II Station Unit Holocaust Stations To Kill a Mockingbird Stations Animal Farm Stations Shakespeare Stations How to Develop and Implement Collaborative Research Units Drugs, Alcohol, and Smoking Research Evil Characters in History Research Paper Edgar Allan Poe Poster and Report Children of The River Poster and Report Decades: Of Mice and Men, The Human Comedy, and We Didn't Start the Fire Constellations and the Zodiac Poster and Report Rocks and Minerals Poster and Report Biography of Hispanic-American Persons Brochure Greek Heritage Essay/Poster and Newspaper Shoebox Float Project: The Nations of the World Report

About the Author :
John D. Volkman has been the Library Media Teacher at Reedley High School in California since 2002. He received his MA in Library Science from San Jose State University in 1976 and has been a Library Media Teacher at Fresno area high schools since then. His first book was Cruising Through Research, Library Skills for Young Adults (Libraries Unlimited, 1998).

Review :
Volkman provides a wealth of practical information and ready-to-use research lessons that will promote actual student inquiry….Developed with teachers by a school librarian, these units actively engage students in the learning process. A must-buy for school libraries! This book provides helpful advice in an area central to the mission of school media specialist everywhere – collaboration with teachers. In clear, jargon-free language, Volkman lays out an argument for using his style of collaborative research units. Using multiple methods and media helps students learn material more effectively. Volkman shows examples of research units he has used incorporating various media and methods in stations that can be set up in the media center…Volkman's accessible writing provides a well-thought-out, no-nonsense book that will be useful to the novice or experienced school media specialist in junior high and high school settings. Whether attempting to build a working relationship with teachers or merely looking for a fresh direction from which to approach collaboration, these units will be useful for school media specialists at any experience level. This guide is chock full of ready-to-use collaboration units based on universal topics such as World War II, the Holocaust, Greek history, and Shakespeare. It is ideal both for introducing collaboration and for folks who need an infusion of new ideas…The sheer completeness of this resource makes it valuable for any librarian to instantly collaborate with classroom teachers. Volkman provides sixteen stations/units complete with ideas for each station, its materials, purpose, and needed handouts. If you are a fan of this approach, then this book is for you. The bibliographic exercises and scoring guides alone are worth the price of the book. Overall, Volkman has provided an unparalleled winner that every teacher and librarian should own.