LIBRARY MEDIA SKILLS OBJECTIVES: The student will locate the word aardvark in an volume encyclopedia. The student will scan for pertinent facts. The student will distinguish between facts contained in a dictionary and facts in an encyclopedia.

CURRICULUM OBJECTIVES: The student will identify the aardvark as a nocturnal mammal from Africa. The student will become familiar with the author, Marc Brown, and his Arthur books. The student will learn to draw an aardvark. The student will participate in a group report.

INSTRUCTIONAL ROLES: The library media specialist will introduce the differences between encyclopedias and dictionaries. She will discuss scanning facts and will introduce the basic shapes for drawing an aardvark. After the students have collected their data, the teacher will create a class report for display. The teacher will also read aloud Arthur books and make various copies available.

ACTIVITY AND PROCEDURES FOR COMPLETION: Have you ever wondered what kind of animal Marc Brown's "Arthur" is? A couple of people at Portlock Primary School did and that was the beginning of a great resource-based unit for the second grade. We discovered that Marc Brown's Arthur was an aardvark. The second grade teachers then decided to connect the Arthur books they wanted to use in their classrooms with aardvark research in the library media center. During regular library media center time, the library media specialist taught a lesson on the differences between an encyclopedia and a dictionary. Included in that lesson was basic information about scanning for facts. At a later date, each class returned with their teacher for a special project time.

The class had already "met" Marc Brown and Arthur in their classroom through the oral reading of various books for the Arthur series, so the library media specialist elicited some questions the children had about real aardvarks. Typically, the students asked about the size, color, location, activities, and food of the aardvark. The library media specialist recorded these areas on the overhead projector for the class to see during their research. Students then used their previously acquired library skills to search for "aardvarks" in the encyclopedia and scan for the answers to the questions. Students recorded their answers. (Complete sentences were not copied, just the facts). It was very important that the teacher and library media specialist worked together as a team during this search. The children were allowed to share their findings at this time. Information was recorded on the overhead by the library media specialist. Afterwards, students were taught to draw simple aardvarks, using the book You Can Draw Funny Animals. The information gleaned from students' research was used to produce a classroom report written on large chart paper and displayed in the library media center. This report was illustrated with aardvarks.

FOLLOW-UP: Knowing that Arthur books would be in demand during this time, the library media specialist placed all the Arthur books in a special bag and rotated these books between classrooms. Also on the rotation schedule were Arthur bookmarks to keep, a visiting Arthur doll, and a giant Arthur poster. Each week for a month something "Arthur" visited each classroom. In addition, the computer teacher used the Arthur's Teacher Trouble that is available in CD-ROM format. Lastly, there was a reading contest and there were "Arthur" prizes for the students who had read the most books in their class.