Book Research
Topic: Book research
Objective: Students will find examples (quotations, statistics, etc) for their speeches in books. Students will be able to locate a topic in an index.
Materials: 7-10 note cards for each student
Library time
Main Points for their speeches
Steps:
1. In the classroom, hand out note cards to each student. Explain that today you are going to be learning about how to look up information for their speeches in books.
2. Explain to the students how your library’s card catalog works. It may be a computerized catalog, where you can type in specific topics or themes and find books about those ideas, or it might be an older system that is not on the computer. Vary your instruction in this area to fit your situation. If the catalog is computerized, you may want to spend time working with search tips if you have not already covered this area when talking about internet sources. If you have the older system, explain to the students how locate a book that relates to their topic, then check that book’s bibliography for other books they might want to look for.
3. Discuss the various parts of the book, such as table of contents, chapters, index, etc. Explain that they will not have time to read every book that they might use for their speeches, so they need to be able to locate the information they need in some other way.
4. Ask the students what ways they think they could find out what was in the book without reading the entire book.
5. Show students the index section of the book, and explain that it has a list of topics that are discussed in the book. For instance, if they are doing a speech about baseball, and one of their main points is pitching, they might look for pitching in the index.
6. Ask the students where else they might be able to find information in the book if there is no index. Suggestions may include the table of contents or the chapter headings, etc.
7. Tell the students that you will be going to the library for the rest of this class period. They need to find books relating to their topic, then look for pertinent information in the index, table of contents, or chapter heading. Then they will need to locate support for their main points and write the quotation word for word on their card. They will also need to properly cite their sources on the back of the card so that they can easily access it for their bibliography.
8. You may need to allow more than one day for research, or you may have students find only one example for each point from a book.
Results: By the conclusion of this activity, students will have note cards with examples for their main points. These should be easy to organize into the body of a speech. If students do not complete the activity in class, they may need to have library time assigned as homework.
Elissa Martin
6-12-07