Tom+Brown's+Work

Eisenberg and Berkowitz’s Big6 Skills
 * 1. What is the model/framework?**


 * 2. What is its purpose?**
 * The Big6** is a process model for teaching information skills and more generally a problem solving strategy. It contains a six-step research/ problem solving process that can be applied to educational needs and real world decision-making. The steps act as general guides for completing tasks. This provides structure and direction. The steps are streamlined to remain accessible to a variety of learners and age groups. The process can be broken down into the “super 3” or the “little 12” for more or less detail. The 6 steps are:
 * 1) Task definition- Define the question or problem. Understand the terms of the assignment.
 * 2) Information seeking strategies- Decide where you might find the information, encyclopedias, books of a certain subject, websites, journals etc.
 * 3) Location and Access- Get the resources, find them in the catalog, be able to search the web and be able to use the index, table of contents and menus online.
 * 4) Use of information- Read, listen, take notes.
 * 5) Synthesis- Bring together various sources, making conclusions, writing the report.
 * 6) Evaluate- Judge quality of work, accomplishment of goals and the research process.

Eisenberg and Berkowitz developed their Big6 skills approach in 1990 based on the work of Ann Irving’s 1985 “Model for Completing Assignments.” Irving created a universal process approach to any and all learning tasks. The big6 simplified this model making it more accessible.
 * 3. What is its history? [Who developed it? When? What was its significance when it was published? How has it evolved over time?]**

The Big6 franchise has evolved over time and capitalized on their work. They have many books, workbooks, CD’s, posters, pens, bookmarks, and anything else you could put a big6 on and find in a school. They continue to develop and stay with current trends. They are now concerned about information technology, technology literacy and information overload.


 * 4. Why did your group decide to include it?**

We decided to include the big6 because it is a common and versatile framework that children can easily understand. It allows for multiple ways to get information, reading, listening or viewing and allows for any delivery format including brochures, written papers, speaking, artwork and other ways to present information.

As a universal model to join classroom curriculum with information literacy any skills can be taught directly or indirectly with the model. Information and research process skills are innate in the steps and can be elaborated on. For example, the step “use of information” includes understanding the source and evaluating its credibility. Other skills not directly a part of the framework of information literacy can be addressed by making them a component of the assignment such as having a decision making aspect as part of the students tasks.
 * 5. Which skills can be taught using this model/framework?**

Mike Eisenberg gives us a lesson involving recognizing relevancy of information using step #4 “use of information.” He then suggests that breaking assignments apart into their component skills can help build students up to more difficult tasks or isolate where they’re making mistakes. The Big6 process model or method comes into play when we’re talking about student’s daily information relevancy tasks that they have to perform in the classroom. They will often be asked to read some chapter or article and then answer some questions related to it. This is a three step process first going back through the material finding information, reading/ understanding that information and applying that information to a question and coming up with an answer (synthesis). These are three out of the six steps that we’re expecting people to do automatically. Instead he suggests early in the year (and I would say a good lesson for elementary students) is to concentrate on just locating the information. What page is it on? How did you find it? You can then work on putting it in your own words, synthesizing and critical thinking. Isolating the steps will narrow the focus on these key skills and also allow you to identify where individuals are having problems in either understanding the material, finding it or expressing it.
 * 6. Which examples best represent how this model/framework can be used effectively to teach those key skills?**

Eisenberg, M. (1998). #4 use of information. //Emergency Librarian//, //25//(4), 43. Retrieved from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

Using the big6 in Taiwan another teacher shares a creative lesson. The teachers themselves go through a task definition phase determining what unit of the social studies curriculum to do a collaborative research lesson on. They pick a unit and the children have their own task definition phase where they decide on topics. In this activity groups focus on one aspect of a time period or culture. A group researches things like food, clothing, buildings, or culture and each prepares some unique presentation of this information. The project continues where everyone gets old pictures from home or an archive to compose stories about. Students are encouraged to interview people from the time period to get information about the photograph. Pictures and stories were presented to the class and students self assess.

Chen, L. (2007). Integration of Information Literacy into Elementary History Teaching: A Framework of Big6 Model. Big6.com []
 * Two articles:**

Jansen, B. (2005). Relieving the Confusion: Location and Access Made (Relatively)Easy. //Library// //Media Connection//, //23//(7), 29-30. Retrieved from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

This article suggests ways to improve the location and access process (Big6 skill #3) for young learners. Due to time constraints it is difficult to introduce a research project, have everyone look up books, get the books and then go through them for information in 45 minutes. The librarian can put a collection of books on reserve and have the collection available in one place when the class comes in. This will then free students to complete the task of finding the information in the book itself.

English, N., & Hanks, R. (2003). Muggles in the Media World. //Knowledge Quest//, //32//(1), 19-21. Retrieved from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.

This has a good second grade project and a digestable list of areas that classroom teachers may want librarians to focus on.

**Assignment 2, Part B**


 * Option 2:**

Write an email message to the classroom teacher you will be collaborating with and explain your plan for teaching the lesson. Dear Mrs. Clark, I got your UbD for the Chuck Close project, looks great. Your lesson says “use library resources,” big 6 skill number 4 is “use information.” I will focus on this particular aspect of the research process in a short mini-lesson and allow students the majority of the time to get their research done. Use of information is characterized in the big 6 research process as engaging the information and extracting information. This means looking through the text, reading the material, finding what’s important (engage). Then taking notes (extract).

We will look at effective note taking strategies such as using a graphic organizer and remembering to cite where they found the information so they (or someone else) can find it again. Graphic organizers can serve as a comprehension aid so it also reinforces the engagement aspect of use.

Using the index or table of contents in a book can be thought of as locating information (big 6 step 3) more than “using” information (step 4) but for practical reasons it deserves mention here. Many students may overlook the index or not use the table of contents effectively if they’re unsure of what they’re looking for. It qualifies under use of the book or resource.

We will have all of the books on, about or containing Chuck Close, available on a reserve cart. To expedite things further I may have the books pre distributed among 4 or 5 tables of 4 students each. Students will be focusing more on using the book itself rather than finding materials.

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