Information Literacy Plan Mac Barron Georgia Southern University

Grade: 9

Teachers: Selena Reynolds, Mac Barron SLMS

Content Topic: British Imperialism in India Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Goals Standard: 1. Inquire, think critically and gain knowledge. Skills Indicator: 1.1.3 Develop and refine a range of questions to frame the search for new understanding. Disposition Indicator: 1.2.5 Demonstrate adaptability by changing the inquiry focus, questions, resources, or strategies when necessary to achieve success. Self-Assessment Strategies Indicator: 1.4.1 Monitor own information seeking processes for effectiveness and progress, and adapt as necessary. Connection to State Standards:
SSWH15 The student will be able to describe the impact of industrialization, the rise of nationalism, and the major characteristics of worldwide imperialism. d. Describe imperialism in Africa and Asia by comparing British policies in Africa, French policies in Indochina, and Japanese policies in Asia; include the influence of geography and natural resources.

Over view: This lesson is part of a World History unit on industrialization, nationalism, and imperialism. The subject content of the lesson I collaborated on focuses on British imperialism in Asia and Africa. The information literacy skills portion of our lesson focuses on learning how to develop good questions to guide research. In the lesson, the entire class works together to produce a large poster over the many aspects of British Imperialism in India and Africa. Final Product: At the end of this assignment, each group will add its given image and its paragraph(s) to a large poster entitled The Many Facets of British Imperialism in India Library Lesson:

This lesson includes the use of a Promethean Board and projector, photographs printed on paper, shared online documents, and Internet access. Our school is fortunate enough to have Promethean Boards and projectors in each core classroom and internet capable netbooks for each student, so a trip to the Media Center is not necessary for this lesson; therefore this lesson will be completed in the classroom. Assessment Product: The paragraph(s) written by each group and the large class poster. Process: The SLMS and regular classroom instructor will help guide question development and research throughout the assignment. Student self-questioning: 1. Are my research questions specific enough to guide me in looking for information? 2. Does the information in this source help answer my research questions? 3. Does my paragraph explain one aspect of British imperialism in India?

Instructional Plan Resources students will use: - Photographs - Shared link to pathfinder: http://thebritishinindia.wikispaces.com/ - Online sources found in pathfinder and/or traditional textbook - Netbooks Instruction/activities Direct instruction - The classroom teacher will introduce the day with a bell ringer assignment, brief review of unit so far, and an introduction of the GPS and topic by connecting the changes made during the industrial revolution with the need for raw materials and markets from around the world. She will give a brief set of class notes on the definition and major aspects of imperialism. Modeling and guided practice - She will then hand off instruction to me. Ill explain that the students will find out for themselves what form British imperialism took in India and Africa and what some positive and negative aspects were. However, I need to help them develop good question forming skills for inquiry learning. Ill give them an image from the Industrial Revolution (since they are familiar already with the material), a young person in a textile mill, and walk them through developing good questions to guide research on the Industrial Revolution. I will take their responses and turn them into good and bad examples of questions to show students the difference. Independent practice - After students know the difference between good questions and bad, I will break them into purposeful groups of three (Ms

Reynolds is more familiar with the dispositions of these students than I, so she will make sure groups contain a range of ability levels). Each group will receive one image (on paper) from the period which focuses on a separate aspect of British rule in India or Africa(ex: Sepoy Mutiny, development of infrastructure, harsh labor conditions, demeaning role of servants, education for upper classes only, etc) Each group is to develop two or three questions based upon the image to guide their research. Both Ms Reynolds and I will circulate through the room to help groups develop these questions. Groups are then to use the pathfinder link on board to research the answers to their questions. Sharing and reflecting - After researching their questions, each group will produce at least one well-written paragraph. Each paragraph must have a one or two word title to identify which aspect of British imperialism is most evident by their topic. After groups have placed their images and paragraphs on poster and are waiting for the chance to tour the poster, they will fill out online survey (link written on board) to assess their use of inquiry learning and subject area content. After poster is complete, the entire class may tour British imperialism in India and Africa by passing by the poster to see the work of their peers. Reflection on Assignment On collaboration I had a great experience collaborating on this lesson. I found the teacher I worked with to be open in listening to my ideas and welcoming me into her class. I presented the skill I wanted to work on and we looked at the unit to see where it could be put in naturally. Since my background is in Social Studies, I was familiar with the scope and sequence of the current material being covered. Because of this familiarity, we only met to plan and work out details twice and for relatively short periods (30 minutes the first time and 15 minutes the next). During instruction, I had a little difficulty adjusting to her behavioral expectations (what to let go, what to find unacceptable). Had we discussed this, the lesson may have gone even more smoothly. On the lesson During the lesson, students seemed to be engaged and seemed to like making up the questions. Some groups latched on immediately to developing open ended questions that allowed for research. Others needed some more guidance. According to the survey results, 63% of the 27 students said they were more likely to pay attention to the material if they were deciding what to look for, although only 22% said they preferred this kind of assignment over teacher centered lecture notes. On the same survey, all but two students could give at least one piece of information relating to British imperialism in India or Africa. However, this information was wide ranging and much of it was too specific to any one groups focus to be placed on a traditional end of unit assessment. Because of this, Ms.

Reynolds developed a review graphic organizer for the top of the next days lesson, which the students copied down and could go to as study material for the next unit test. When going over the graphic organizer, Ms. Reynolds intends to take the very specific information found by individual groups and tie it to more general policies used by Great Britain. We wont have a more accurate idea of content learning until after the mid unit quiz and end of unit assessment. I think the assignment was a good beginning to helping students ask good questions to guide research. Obviously, this is an ongoing skill that needs to be used repeatedly, so that it becomes part of the routine of information seeking. This particular skill is so fundamental to information seeking, that it should be introduced far earlier in the career of the students than in week 12 of the second semester of the freshman year. One positive aspect of this lesson is that it can easily be adapted for almost any content material across the curriculum, making it easy to introduce in earlier units. The product for this lesson was very basic a well-written paragraph. We felt it was perfect for an introduction to the skill and for the limited time (we wanted to only use one 90-minute block). On further practice of the skill, Id like to expand the product although this may happen naturally as we shift our focus to more advanced skills that still may need to begin with good questions.

Resources students will use: Photos to engage inquiry learning process