BrockM_7ThingsYouShouldKnow

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17 Things You Should Know About Second Graders


Melissa S. Brock

FRIT 7136

September 27, 2010


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Scenario: A second grade teacher and the School Library Media Specialist are working

on a collaborative project in order to teach information literacy skills through a science project

the teacher had planned. The teacher has separated her class into small groups of six to research

information on a chosen science topic for an end-of-the-year presentation project. The first small

group has chosen to research the animals of Australia and New Zealand; the second group has

decided to research flora of the South American rainforests; and the third group has agreed to

research the different effects of pollution/global warming on the Earth. Each group is

responsible for finding the information and creating a power point presentation with pictures and

text to present to the class. The teacher has brought her class to the school library media center

to perform their research. The School Library Media Specialist is getting the students to focus

on the research and the creation of the project. The SLMS observes the second grade students

displaying a wide variety of information seeking skills and behaviors.

Standards for the 21st

Century Learner in Action (American Association of School

Librarians, 2009) describes the ideal information literacy skills and behaviors that should be

expected of students by the time they reach second grade. But, there are situations in which the

ideal skills and behaviors are not seen when the students enter the media center. The following

things can cause these unproductive situations.

Thing #1: Many of the students younger than age 8, or third grade, are still beginning

readers (Cooper, 2002). They rely more on visual and auditory information and look around for

visually familiar materials for answers to questions. When they are unable to locate the materials

that they understand, this may cause the young learner to feel defeated and uncomfortable about

information seeking. Ideally, the second grade student should be able to select and use


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appropriate sources, including picture dictionaries, beginning encyclopedias, magazines, maps,

and globes to answer questions (American Association of School Librarians, 2009). The SLMS

can help these students perform the research by planning sessions that help them locate resources

such as elementary encyclopedias with simple texts and pictures, childrens magazines, and kid-

friendly websites such as Brittanica Elementary and KidsQuest. Through modeling and

guidance by the SLMS, and reinforcement by the teacher, the students will soon be able to

discover resources in the media center more independently.

Thing #2: Another behavior seen among this age-group is the difficulty using a

structured catalog system. Many children in second grade are most likely making a transition

from a preoperational to concrete operational stage in development (Cooper, 2002). They tend

to browse and jump from place to place. When in a semi-structured environment, they find it

foreign to use formal organized information and categories. Even in online searches, young

children will browse results more often than trying specific keywords to find information (Bilal,

2002). This can cause confusion and make the students more likely to wander aimlessly and

miss the answers. Ideally, these students should be able to understand the organized scheme of

the media center, the organization of books, the purpose of online catalogs, and the use of

databases of online resources (American Association of School Librarians, 2009). The SLMS

can help the students navigate and choose appropriate resources by labeling the needed resource

book areas with familiar markers, modeling the use of online catalogs and databases on projector

screens for large groups, and guiding the students with keyword choices on individual searches.

Thing #3: Some research has shown a trend of young students relying mainly on

websites for research. Even though children do not think like adults, their use of adult search

engines, such as Google, is found to be extremely common (Large & Behesti, 2005). They are


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often unaware or are not using the website portals designed for children. If they happen to come

across them, they usually do not use them because they are not as familiar as the adult websites.

Of course, this is not the ideal information seeking behavior for this age-group. They need to be

choosing appropriate sources for their comprehension level and using different types of

sources to find the facts and answers to their questions (American Association of School

Librarians, 2009). If they use inappropriate sources, they are more likely to continue the

unsuccessful browsing behaviors or become frustrated and give up searching for information.

Again, the SLMS needs to instruct them in choosing children-appropriate websites, as well as

other sources, and how to use them. The present web portals for children are constantly

changing to become more appealing and use designs that are familiar (Large & Behesti, 2005).

It is up to the SLMS to encourage use of childrens sites and help them see that they produce

comprehensible data.

Thing #4: Many of the children this age have learned about using computer technology

from their parents. But, some children have never been formally exposed to using the tools of

technology (Cooper, 2002). This lack of knowledge can cause confusion and misuse of the

computer, leading to a loss of important skills for learning. The ideal use of technology by

second grade should be an ability to use online catalogs and databases, as well as using different

computer software programs to create reports and projects (American Association of School

Librarians, 2009). The SLMS would benefit students most by teaching technological skills in

small groups with collaboration from the teacher to reinforce them. This would allow for

scaffolding of those who need help building skills, peer teaching by students who are more

technologically advanced, and advancing of the students who are ready to move to new

programs.


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Thing #5: Many young children do not have a good grasp of what their information

needs are, so they are not sure what, or how, to search for these needs (CIBER, 2008). They

often miss important documents because they do not put in the important keywords; then, they

have to repeat the search several times in order to find what they want. As a result, students lose

patience with the navigation because they want speedy answers. Ideally, second graders should

be able to identify one to two keywords about a topic, problem, or question (American

Association of School Librarians, 2009). Fortunately, research has shown that young students

take readily to keyword searching once the concept has been taught and the keywords are

identified for the search (Large & Behesti, 2005). The SLMS should help students with

identifying keywords for searches, and teach them how to break down questions into keywords.

This can be taught as needed or be encouraged through brainstorming sessions, in the media

center and the classroom, about how research questions can be broken down into keywords.

Thing #6: Young children usually do not focus on the relevancy of documents and will

stop the search process after printing out two or three articles . The speed of young peoples

web searching means little time is spent evaluating information (CIBER, 2008). They do not

focus on the content of the article and will only scan the titles for the words they need. Because

of the glancing and scanning of articles, they often end up with invalid articles for their search or

articles that are based on opinion instead of facts and research. By second grade, students should

be able to interpret information, find, recognize and use facts from more than one source

(American Association of School Librarians, 2009). Exposure to fact-finding sessions with the

SLMS teaching, guiding, and modeling can help students see the importance of looking for valid

articles. Students need to review articles, websites, and digital information in order to reflect on


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whether it is factual or not. The teacher can also help by including fact-finding sessions in the

classroom.

Thing #7: A major concern for all age groups of students is the act of plagiarism.

According to anecdotal evidence, plagiarism is a serious issue, and there is a fear for the

collapse of copyright respect because it is seen as unfair and unjust (CIBER, 2008). With our

present technology, it is easy to cut and paste information from any digital data. Ideally, our

students in the second grade should respect rules, ideas of others, rephrase sentences, and credit

sources of information (American Association of School Librarians, 2009). This needs to be

instilled by both the teacher and the SLMS in the classrooms and media centers. The SLMS can

model this in reference pages and citations. The use of bibliography and citation software can be

helpful if the students have difficulty with the reference process. Monitoring the research

process as children are in the media center can also offer teaching opportunities and friendly

reminders to credit the sources.

Concern for the younger students lack of informal searching for pleasure and personal

interest has also been researched. Studies show that this age group is digitally searching for

school related information, but does not show as great an interest in searching for personal use

(Silverstein, 2005). Second grade students should be locating information in all formats for

personal interests, as well as for school assignments (American Association of School Librarians,

2009). Students are sometimes very overwhelmed by all of the responsibilities of the school

environment. They often forget that the world is full of information beyond what is required for

the next project or lesson. The SLMS should encourage teachers and administrators to foster

personal growth through reading times for student-interest books, magazines, comics, or even

web searches. SLMSs could give class surveys to students and then offer to stock carts or


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shelves in the classrooms that contain materials for the personal interests of that class. There

could also be shelves labeled and stocked for the classes in the media center.

In closing, it is important to remember that the information skills need to be taught in

collaborative efforts with teachers in relation to the content standards and units that are being

taught in the classroom. The students must see the value of information literacy skills and

behaviors and their use in the real world. Hopefully, these valued behaviors will stay with

students and turn them into lifelong learners and seekers of information.

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2009). Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action.

Chicago, IL: American Association of School Librarians.

Bilal, D. (2002, November). Children's use of the yahooligans! web search engine. III. Cognitive and

physical behaviors on fully self-generated tasks.Journal of the American Society for Information Science

& Technology, pp. 1170-1183.

CIBER. (2008, January 11). Information behaviour of the researcher of the future. Retrieved September

15, 2010, from JISC:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf

Cooper, L. (2002, September Vol. 53 Issue 11). A case study of information-seeking behavior in 7-year-

old children in a semistructured situation.Jounal of the American Society for Information Science &

Technology, pp. 904-922.

Large, A., & Behesti, J. (2005, Fall). Interface design, web portal, and children. Library Trends , pp. 318-

342.

Silverstein, J. (2005, Fall). Just curious: Children's use of digital reference for unimposed queries and its

importance in informal education. Library Trends , pp. 228-244.

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