Letter from Margaret Lincoln. . .

In February 2002, I organized a Big6 training for 48 teachers and school library media specialists in southwest lower Michigan that featured Bob Berkowitz as the workshop presenter. This training was funded through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that allowed us to bring Mr. Berkowitz to the Battle Creek, Michigan area through the Foundation’s Expert in Residence program. The grant project and workshop are described in an article written for the October 2002 issue of MultiMedia Schools. Periodically, we still receive requests from teachers and library media specialists from around the country asking for help in organizing similar staff training in the Big6.

The videotape in question was made during an additional follow-up staff workshop put on for teachers at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek and was designed to introduce the Big6 to educators who had little prior knowledge of the problem solving approach. Acting students at Lakeview High School offered a dramatization based upon the foreword to the 1990 book “Information Problem Solving” by Michael Eisenberg and Robert Berkowitz, published by Ablex Publishing Corp. p. xvii-xxvii.

Show me the 2-Act video now! (Large file. Please allow a few moments for the QuickTime movie to load.)

USING THE VIDEOTAPE:

PROJECT BACKGROUND
A Big6 Workshop in Battle Creek
In July 1999, Margaret Lincoln, Library Media Specialist at Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, Michigan, enrolled in a Big6 Skills course taught by Bob Berkowitz at Syracuse University. Finding the course to be effective and engaging, she felt other school personnel could gain substantially given the chance to learn about the Big6 from the model’s cofounder. With funding provided by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Berkowitz came to Battle Creek as an “Expert in Residence” to provide information literacy training to some 40 area educators in February 2002. Following the workshop, teachers and librarians returned to their school districts and collaborated to develop lessons that would reinforce the Big6 approach. The Big6 eNewsletter has published several of these lessons available at the Big6 website.

Follow-up Activities
Participating school districts planned Big6 trainings for their teaching staffs. Lakeview High School held an in-service in April 2002 because implementation of the Big6 had been adopted as part of a North Central Accreditation strategy of the school’s Student Achievement Subcommittee. The committee sought an entertaining, non-threatening, reality based method of introducing the Big6 at a staff workshop.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Videotape Synopsis
Students from the Lakeview HS Theatre Arts Department offered a dramatization in two acts of library instructional lessons: (Act One) a traditional introduction to the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature and (Act Two) a sociology assignment. Students worked under the direction of Lakeview High School teacher Mrs. Susan Kernish.

Reflection
1. How would you characterize the instruction delivered in Act One? Were there any redeeming factors? Is there ever a need for this type of instruction?

2. Identify one Big6 step that was effectively illustrated in Act Two. How have you addressed this particular Big6 step in a classroom assignment? For example, how has brainstorming of all possible information sources figured into an instructional unit?

DEVELOPING BIG6 UNDERSTANDINGS
Teachers should confer with fellow department members; consider their curriculum and list activities from existing units or lessons that reinforce Big6 skills. They should refer to the Big6 summary given below and to the explanation of Information Literacy: The Big6 Skills Process & Approach (which follows below).

Adapted from The New Improved Big6 Workshop Handbook

INFORMATION LITERACY: THE BIG6 SKILLS PROCESS & APPROACH

For each Big6 stage, students will demonstrate the ability to do the following:

Adapted from The New Improved Big6 Workshop Handbook

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