Beyond the Bird Unit (Constructivist Teaching Strategies‪)‬

LANCE AND LOERTSCHER (2001) WARN THAT IT IS POSSIBLE TO USE HIGH-QUALITY INFORMATION RESOURCES AND STILL CREATE INEFFECTIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCES FOR K-12 STUDENTS. TO ILLUSTRATE, THEY DISCUSS THE "BIRD UNIT," THE TYPE OF RESEARCH ACTIVITY WHERE STUDENTS SEARCH FOR INFORMATION IN ORDER TO FILL IN WORKSHEETS THAT THEY TRANSFORM INTO ESSAYS AND PRESENTATIONS. BY ITSELF, THIS TYPE OF EXERCISE DOES NOT GO FAA IN PROMOTING INFORMATION LITERACY, NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR INFORMATION LITERACY APPEAR IN INFORMATION POWER: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS FOR LEARNING (AASL & AECT, 1998). THESE STANDARDS PURPORT TO PROMOTE THE SKILLS OF THE LIFELONG LEARNER AS RELATED TO INFORMATION USE, SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING, AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. This paper contains a brief overview of constructivist teaching strategies followed by a description of this collaborative inquiry where teachers and teacher-librarians pooled their experience and knowledge. This effort resulted in a number of strategies for using information to enrich learning. After presenting the strategies, this paper concludes by suggesting a process for using constructivist methods to enrich any lesson plan. The process integrates information literacy skills with three types of constructivist lessons: problem based, inquiry based, and project based.