To prepare for a field trip to a petting zoo, first graders will be researching the animals they’ll encounter at the petting zoo in the library media center. The students, in three groups, will work to separate fiction from non-fiction, discover facts about the animals as ‘animal detectives,’ and create a list of new information. Then together, they’ll come up with one question about the animals that they’d like to know the answer to that they’ll seek out at the petting zoo. Each group will present its findings to the rest of the class.

Instructional Goals: 

• Students will be able to distinguish between fiction and non-fiction sources
• Students will be able to work cooperatively to use information resources
• Students will be able to formulate questions about a topic

Learning Objectives:   

• Students will demonstrate their ability to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction by stacking like materials.
• Students will demonstrate their ability to use nonfiction resources to elicit facts about the topic by contributing at least one animal fact to the group worksheet.
• Students will demonstrate their ability to work cooperatively and their ability to formulate additional questions about the topic by collectively forming a question about the animals to be answered by the petting zoo guide and noting it on the worksheet. 

Motivational Goals:  

·        Students will be motivated to use the library for research, in addition to their pleasure reading.

·        Students will gain confidence in their research skills.

Sources

 American Association of School Librarians (2009) Standards for the 21^st Century

            Learner In Action.  Chicago:  AASL.                      

 Small, R. (2005)  Designing digital literacy programs with IM-PACT:  information

            motivation, purpose, audience, content, and technique. New York, NY:  

            Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

New York State Department of Education, Curriculum, Instruction & Instructional

            Technology. (2009)  Learning Standards of New York State.  Retrieved from:             http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/standards.html.

 

Materials:

•  list of petting zoo animals; hay bales; ‘animal detectives’ worksheets; list of three questions for petting zoo; pencils & paper

Introduction: 

1. Students will come from classroom with classroom teacher and either an aide or a parent volunteer to the Library, already divided into three groups.
2. Each of the three adults (LMS, classroom teacher, aide/parent) will sit at a table with a group of students.  On each table will be fiction and non-fiction books and magazines about animals.
3. In order to gain students’ attention, LMS will have replaced the chairs at the library tables with small hay bales and will have a magnifying glass as a detective prop.   
4. Once students are seated in Library at the tables, LMS will briefly introduce the idea of being ‘animal detectives’ by using the preselected library resources (books, magazines) to hunt for facts about petting zoo animals.
5. LMS will distribute Animal Detectives worksheet and outline the lesson’s components and expectations

Body:

1.  LMS will review the concepts of fiction and non-fiction.
2. LMS will ask students to put the resources into two piles:  one that tells stories about the animals (fiction) and one that has information about the animals (non-fiction).  
3. Students will then each choose materials from the non-fiction pile to find facts about the petting zoo animals.
4. Once they find a fact about an animal, they’ll tell the adult facilitator of the group (librarian, teacher or aide), who will write it down on the worksheet.   Each student will contribute at least one fact to the worksheet.  If a student has trouble finding a fact in his/her resource, the other students in the group can suggest a different resource.   If one student’s reading skills are prohibiting fact-finding, the other students can assist by helping with certain words or the adult can read sections of a resource out loud so that the student can pick out facts after hearing them. 
5. After the group has chosen at least 6 facts about the petting zoo animals, the adult will read them back to the group to be sure everyone has heard and understands the facts. 
6. The groups will then each discuss a question they’d like to ask the petting zoo guide during the field trip, and write it down on the worksheet.   The students should be encouraged to think about what they already know, from their research, and what they’d like to know after the visit. 

Conclusion:

1. All the groups will rejoin and the students will be asked to ‘teach’ their classmates their fact about the animal they researched.   Each group will stand up together and individually tell their facts. 
2. LMS will remind the students that they can find information in the library about anything they learn about with their teacher, and that she looks forward to hearing what the answers to their questions are after they return from the field trip. 
3. Students will return to the classroom with the teacher and aide/parent volunteer.
4. On the morning of the field trip, students will be given the list of three questions that they came up with in the library as a reminder.  When they return from the petting zoo, they’ll go over the questions and the answers together in class and the teacher will write them on the board and invite the LMS to the classroom so she can learn from the students. 

Learning Assessment Methods:
1. Separating fiction and non-fiction resources into stacks.
2. Choosing non-fiction resource for research.
3. Contributing at least one fact to the worksheet.
4. Student oral presentation of new knowledge gained at end of lesson.
5. Classroom discussion of three new pieces of information gained at
petting zoo which answered questions generated in the library lesson.