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A book by me in the library!
Description:
Have your students imagine themselves as authors. Their books are so good that they have copies of them in the school library! In this lesson students will use library and alphabetizing skills to create a pretend book spine of a "book" that they have authored. Using a template page included in this lesson, each student will title their "book" and create the correct call number using the first three letters of their last name. For interest, students may check in the OPAC to see if anyone with their last name has authored a book in the LMC. Then students will locate the exact spot on the shelves where their "book" belongs; sliding it between the correct two books for the LMS to check. As a secondary project, the class "books" could be put in alphabetical order as a wall or bulletin board display.
Goals & Objectives:

Instructional Goals:

 

Students will be able to alphabetize books. Students will use imagination to title an imaginary book by themselves. Students will follow directions.

 

Learning Objectives:

 

Students will correctly create a fiction call number, per the system used within the media center, using their last name as the author's name (e.g. FIC FRE, or E FRE, etc). After putting their call number on a paper (book), students will create a title for their book. Students will access the OPAC to search whether there are any other books authored by someone with their same last name. Finally, students will demonstrate their knowledge of the organization of books in the Library Media Center by find the exact shelf location to shelve their book.

 

Motivational Goals:

 

Students will understand the relevance of alphabetizing as a useful skill. Students will gain confidence in their ability to locate the right place for a book using the call number and their alphabetizing skill. Students will be inspired to imagine that they could some day write their own book with a story that interests them.

Materials & Sources:
Each student will require: Pencil Book Spine page Access to OPAC (not all at once) Access to fiction collection shelving Also have a finished Book Spine made by LMS (complete with exciting title and proper call number) to show as example. Have call number flashcards or whiteboard available; also have a dictionary, nonfiction book, and phone book, as well as fiction books, available as examples of resources in which information is organized alphabetical order.
Procedures:

Introduction:

 

20-25 Minute lesson. After seating class at tables, LMS will review the skill of alphabetizing with flash cards (to the first, second or third letter, depending on class level). Ask students when they might use this skill. Quickly review the skill involved with the use of dictionaries, indexes of nonfiction books, phone books etc. (taught in previous lessons). Explain that today they will focus on the fiction call letters on the spines of chapter books in the media center. Review fiction call letters and their relation to the author. Use whiteboard or flashcards to review putting the call numbers in order to the first, second or third letter (determined by level of class).

Body:

 

Have students imagine that they have all become authors of books. Tell them to imagine that in the future they have each written a story that is so good that a copy is to be kept in the media center for everyone to be able to read. Ask them to take a moment and think of something that they find interesting that they would write a fiction story about. Give them a few minutes to really use their imaginations.

Show students Book Spine page completed by you. Tell them the exciting title of your book. Show them the call letters and how they contain the first three letters of your name. Show them where you will correctly shelve your book using the call letters.

If possible, use OPAC on projector to illustrate looking up your last name to see if anyone else with the same last name has authored a book in the LMC. If no projector is available, verbally review entering an author's name in the OPAC.

Handout one Book Spine sheet and pencil to each student. As you handout sheets, reinforce the importance of being creative with their title, and picking a story that would interest them. Show students the directions written on the sheet and stress the importance of following each step.

Have them write their call letters in the appropriate place on the Book Spine page. Then have them write their titles in. Wander around the tables to give assistance as needed.

(This next step may be eliminated if time does not permit it)
As they are satisfied and finished with their page, they will move individually on to the OPAC to do a check of their last name as author. This is purely as a matter of interest, although if they find a fiction book written by someone with their same last name, they could try and locate that book while shelving their own.

Students are then to go to the fiction shelves and use their alphabetizing skills to find the place on the shelves to insert their spine (making sure to leave the spine part hanging out, and folded over and able to be seen). To signal to the LMS that they are done, students may stand quietly at their book with their hand raised (or some other understood signal) until LMS can confirm that they have successfully found the call letter location for their "book".

Conclusion:


Once the LMS has checked their placement, students may go and search for books to check out for themselves while others finish up. At the very end of the lesson, the LMS will collect all of the Book Spine pages to go over after the class ends.

As a future class project, the students could work together and alphabetize the entire class's "books" to make a class book shelf on an empty wall, hall, or bulletin board space. This would be done best if each Book Spine page had the instruction half of the page cut off, or book image entirely cut out. After the books were up, each student could introduce their book to the class and tell the title and what it would be about. Different classes would each then have their own shelf to display.

Assessment:
LMS will observe students as they work. Emphasis will be on following directions. Book Spine completion will be assessed, as well as finding the correct shelf location for their "book".
Sources:
Print this Lesson Plan
Presented By: Maureen Frei
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