[CALIBK12] HIT: Unruly 4th graders & Fake Websites

[Larry & Tania Guyer]

Okay; having this wrist brace on arm is having me hit buttons I didn't mean to. Sorry for the blank email from a few seconds ago. Many thanks to those who responded to my dilemma, especially a special someone who injected humor into his response. The answers are varied, but I think I will scale back for now, and wait for 5th grade to resume the fake website lesson. Again, if someone has a solid lesson plan for elementary students and fake websites, please share and I will post a hit list.

Thanks,
Tatiana

1. As a former “boy” myself let me first apologize.  Most of us eventually grow up into men.  As you can see I work with high school kids, but I do have a 4th grade son and we raised 3 older kids.  I would suggest working this experience, without names, into the lesson.  Point out what an irresponsible use of information that was.  It might not work this year because it will only add fuel to this kid’s fire if he hears you’re talking about him.  In future years it might be worth it though.

I also would go to the class and have an expectations discussion and tell them that if there is a repeat by enough of them with the bad behavior no one from the class will get to come back for a certain amount of time.  This will enlist the girls in trying to control the boys if they really want to come back for more lessons.

While I empathize with the Mother, about the only thing you can do is nod your head and say “I understand where you’re coming from.”  A kid who would go home and scare a kindergartner with information like this isn’t going to be real responsive to what we are going to do discipline-wise.  Don’t let him ruin the whole process.


2. I actually save the website evaluation lesson for 5th and 6th graders.  I found the same problem, that 4th graders were just not quite ready for it.  If you'd like to see my lessons they are on my Skills Blog at www.csslibraryskills.blogspot.com.  Scroll down to the lesson "When in Doubt, Doubt."


3. Which website was it, and how did it offend the mother?  I do not think 4th grade is too early.  Some schools start in 2nd grade.  With the younger students, maybe tying it to fiction and non-fiction might work.  Maybe a really over the top website that is obviously fake might work.


4. I'd suggest you pick your fakes with care.  The one with the Pacific rainforest octopus (what was it calle, now...?) is cute enough that you would have to laugh, and if you show it on a split screen with a real octopus website, the kids would learn and get a laugh out of the fake.  But remember, 4th graders absorb different messages from a lesson than middle-school kids, no matter how precocious they are (and I know that in Mayfield they are quite bright).  It's just that the lesson you are teaching has some elements that most 4th graders will not really comprehend yet.


5. Though I’ve been at secondary for many years, I was an elementary teacher librarian for six years. I did some lessons about credibility, and basically I kept it really simple until 7th grade. AT the 4th – 6th grades, I selected one really preposterous site where there were obvious mistakes. For example, a teacher at my site had made one about blue elephants living in South Carolina and eating peanuts from trees. The point of your lesson is to simply say, “Don’t believe everything you see on the Web.” You can then FOCUS on the correct thing to do, which is to check the “authority,” or origin of the site, etc. But it’s probably not necessary to go into a huge variety of bad places. Young kids get off-task very easily, as you well know.

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