EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

ECD105

ASSIGNMENT

The instructor is having her students work through a WebQuest on designing a "model classroom," or "ideal classroom," a topic that they are being asked to research.

OUTCOMES

1. Students will complete an information needs assessment, articulating their specific needs re: this assignment. ACRL Standard 1.1

2. Students will  become familiar with building topic-relevant keyword and phrase lists as the first step in a search strategy. ACRL Standard 2.2

3. Students will become familiar with how to employ keywords and phrases to do a subject search in the LRC's ChesCat online catalog for BOOKS and other non-electronic sources. ACRL Standard 2.2

4. Students will become reacquainted with the Library of Congress Classification System, specifically the LB and LC sections, most relevant to them for this assignment. ACRL Standard 2.3

5. Students will be introduced to evaluation standards for information. ACRL Standard 3.1

ACTIVITIES 

1. Students will engage in a discussion of their specific information needs for this assignment. ACRL Standard 1.1

2. Students will build a list of keywords and exact phrases germane to this topic. ACRL Standard 2.2

3. Students will observe and implement a ChesCat Online Catalog search by SUBJECT KEYWORD: model and class*; ideal and class*; class* and design; and class* and environment (thus learning about truncation, Boolean logic, and how keyword searching differs from browse searching).

4. Students will conduct a SUBJECT BROWSE search for CLASSROOM and compare this search method with SUBJECT KEYWORD searching as done in Number 4 above.  

5. Students will observe then implement an exact-phrase search for "model classroom" or "ideal classroom" in these EBSCO databases: Academic Search Premier, ERIC, Primary Search and Teacher Reference Center. ACRL Standard 3.3; ACRL Standard 3.5.

6. Students will observe then implement a similar search in ProQuest.

7. Students will be shown and then given the opportunity to browse RECOMMENDED WEB SITE: EDUCATION from the Library Home Page.

8. Students will observe then implement an ADVANCED SEARCH for full text documents/articles about classroom design in ERIC's online database (of over 1.1 million documents/journals, 107,000 of which are now available online free, as of 10/2004). ACRL Standards 3.1-4

HANDOUT: ECD105 Outline/Worksheet

EVALUATION: Based on instructor’s rubric for critique of assignment. ACRL Standards 5.1-5; ACRL Standards 6.1-3.