Lesson Plan #: AELP-IFO0201

Locating Library Books (Learning How to Alphabetize in the School Library)

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Jane Wilson Adickes
Email: jadickes@prairienet.org
School/University/Affiliation: Heritage CUSD #8, Homer, IL

Date: October 18, 2001

Grade Level: 1, 2, 3

Subject(s):

Duration: 30 minutes

Description: Correctly locating a fiction book seems like a simple task to adults. Young children must learn a number of new skills and concepts to be able to locate a picture book in a library collection. Second graders know the alphabet well enough to learn to use it in building a strategy for finding materials in alphabetical order; they know both their first and last names. They understand that a person is responsible for writing a book. It is time to build the foundation for successful library material retrieval skills by immersing students in an authentic learning situation which connects schoolwork (alphabetical order) and life-long learning skills. This lesson can be implemented by the school librarian, a teacher, or a collaboration between the two. To accomplish this task successfully, the student must understand the concept of author, know the letters in alphabetical order, and integrate and apply this information to locate library books that have been shelved in alphabetical order by the first letter of the author's last name.

Goals: Illinois State Board of Education's English Language Arts Learning Standard (Goal 5)

Objectives:
  1. Students will correctly recite the alphabet in proper sequence.
  2. Students will be able to identify an author as a person who writes books.
  3. When called upon, every student will correctly state his/her last name and the first letter of his/her last name.
  4. Students will locate a picture book and identify the author's last name as having the same beginning letter as their own.
Materials: Procedure:
Begin by reading an ABC book to the class. Then lead the children in a group oral recitation of the alphabet. Each child should speak loudly enough to be heard. Ask, "What is a special name for a person who writes books?" At least one student should respond with the word, "author." Ask the other students to touch their nose with their finger (or other indicator) if they, too, think that a name for a person who writes books is "author." Reinforce this by making sure that all students participate and by repeating the definition of "author."

Slowly recite the alphabet, and ask each student to stand up when the first letter of their last name is mentioned. Have one student model this. When the letter corresponding to the first letter of each student's last name is recited, the student will stand and wait quietly to be recognized. As soon as each child stands, ask him/her to say their last name and then the first letter of their last name.

Explain how the picture books in the library are filed alphabetically, grouped by the last name of the author. Model finding a book by an author whose last name begins with the same letter as yours. Ask students to choose a book, explaining that they are to find a book from the shelves written by an author whose last name begins with the same letter as their own last name. Begin normal check-out procedures, and assess to make sure that each student did find a book from the correct area of the shelves.

Assessment: In a short one-on-one session (easily done at book check-out time) with the librarian/teacher, the student will: recite his/her own last name; point to the first letter of the author's last name on the book cover; and correctly identify the letter as the beginning letter of the student's own last name.

Useful Internet Resource:
 * Illinois Learning Standards
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/