Sell me on Dewey!

Students create short, snappy, written commercials about the main categories in the Dewey Decimal System. Commercials are viewed by the class to reinforce Dewey, and help students locate books in the Library Media Center. Dewey Commercials can be used in Library Media Center Orientation for grades 3-5.

A lesson plan for grade 4 Information Skills

By Sonja Beckham

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Related topics

• Learn more about Dewey Decimal System, cooperative learning, information literacy, and media centers.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn the basics of the Dewey Decimal Clasification system.
• learn the major informational categories in each section.
• easily locate resources in the Library Media Center.
• use creativity and writing skills, as well as their social skills, in a collaborative manner to develop a group’s commercial on a particular segment of Dewey.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

80 minutes

Materials/resources

• Library Media Center
• Poster of Dewey Decimal System & Main Categories
• Flip Chart (to write students’ ideas of what they might find in a particular section)
• Sheet of paper for them to write about their Dewey Assignment (with directions to work as a team to scan a section of Dewey in the Library Media Center)
• Pencils
• Notebook paper
• Handout Sell me on Dewey!
• Observation Rubric

Technology resources

Video Camera with tripod

Pre-activities

Students will need a general knowledge of the physical layout of their school’s Library Media Center.

Activities

1. Students arrive in the Library Media Center (LMC).
2. Teacher/Library Media Specialist initiates discussion about finding books on specific topics. Students share how they find information about books in the school’s LMC.
3. Teacher discusses impetus for the Dewey Decimal Classification system (DDC).
4. Teacher displays chart regarding broad categories of DDC. Discussion ensues, with teacher inquiring what might be found in each section and writes notes on chart.
5. Hand out attached document Sell me on Dewey!. Students are divided into groups of 3 to 4 (as many groups as you can given class size to match DDS categories. You may combine the 001-199 & the 200-299 in one group as those sections can be small.)
6. Students are work together to divide up the shelves within their section and scan the types of information and books found in “their section.”
7. They list this information and select a few books that typify their section.
8. Students share this information with other members of their group.
9. The group collaborates on writing a short, snappy commercial to deliver to the class about their section of Dewey. Their goal is to not only to “sell” this section of Dewey but also inform the audience about what can be found there, why they would want to use it, and how to find it.
10. Students informally present their commercials to the class and the teacher.
11. To keep the lesson to 40 minutes you do not have to videotape the commercials.
12. The students may need to have the additional time to work out group dynamics and to scan the shelves. They can use the additional time to work on their commercials and decide what “props” if any they want to use for the videotaping and the commercials.
13. It is recommended this be a two-class session since the videotaped product would be useful at Library Media Center Orientation for grades 3-5.

Assessment

Use this mini quiz to answer the following and/or use the Observation Rubric.

1. What is the Dewey Decimal System?
2. Why was it developed?
3. List how the DDC is set up. Beside each numerical category list the types of information that can be found there.

Evaluations based on observation: Teacher may evaluate from observation during class time and end product the following:

• how well the students worked together (social skills)
• whether they met their objective to sell and inform their audience on their Dewey section in the finished commercial (creativity and writing skills)

Supplemental information

Comments

This lesson is a fun way to introduce dry but necessary subject matter to enable students to become independent seekers of information. It is a lively lesson and appeals to multiple learning styles. At the end you will have a product that you can use with other classes and in orientation.