Information skills and the special needs student.

Abstract

Information skills play an important role in school curriculums as students learn how to obtain information throughout their lives for leisure, academic, and vocational purposes. The special needs student presents additional challenges. Studies show that utilization of mentored learning situations can enhance development of appropriate social skills along with academic progress for special needs students. This case study was designed to teach basic information skills while mentoring a special needs student toward appropriate social behavior in the media center.

Introduction

He stormed in and went to an empty table where no one joined him. It was the third week of school and one of the fourth grade classes had come to the media center for their scheduled weekly session. I walked around passing out atlases for our activity, talking to various students until I came to his table. As I put the atlas on the table in front of him and said, "Hello," he looked at it, shoved it off the table into the floor, and stared at me. His face was streaked from crying, and he was obviously angry about something as usual. I picked up the atlas, put it on the table in front of him again, left my hand on it and told him I was glad to see him and learning to use the atlas was kind of fun if you gave it a chance. He answered that he hated everything at school, and this was just something else he didn't want to do. As I walked away, I couldn't help wondering why his media center visits always began this way. Predictably, within ten minutes he was shouting and crying and under the table, and when the class finally left, I was once again disappointed at how the session had gone but also relieved to have it over with. I began to search for the root of the problem.

The Importance of Information Skills

Developing information skills, such as learning how to use reference tools, is an important part of the elementary school curriculum. The school library media specialist, in conjunction with the classroom teacher, works to provide meaningful lessons and projects that utilize the different reference tools in order to teach the elementary student how and when to use each of these materials (Lowe, 2001; Wesson and Keefe, 1995; Vandergrift, 1994; Information Power, 1988). Generalization of newly learned skills is essential, and the connection between the skill being taught and its application in every-day life must be made for students to truly understand their importance. Once the student learns how to effectively select and use reference tools, this skill can be used throughout his/her life for leisure as well as academic and vocational purposes (Jones, Dohrn, and Dunn, 2004; Wesson and Keefe, 1995).

An extra challenge is presented when attempting to teach information skills to students with special needs (Chen, 2004; Wesson and Keefe, 1989; Hammill and Bartel, 1982). Many times, the student may have much lower reading and comprehension skills which require additional assistance in using the tool. Emotional behavior problems present another difficulty; the student disrupts others or struggles to focus on the instructional topic. Studies have shown that special needs students often require modified or completely different instructional materials from those designed to meet the needs of a group of students in order to be successful in learning new skills (Jones, Dohrn, and Dunn, 2004; Hammill and Bartel, 1982).

Research has also shown that special needs students who are taught in a mentored learning situation are much more likely to learn and develop appropriate social skills, along with their academic skills, and the school library media specialist has an excellent opportunity to mentor special needs students through individualized information skills instruction (Wesson and Keefe, 1995; Harris, Banbury, and Litton, 1980). In addition, the media center itself provides an ideal setting for mentoring students by providing training that will allow them to assist with checking materials in and out, reshelving items, etc. as their individual capacities allow.

Behavior modification and mentoring are equally important to the overall success of the special needs student. Behavior modification plans are implemented by the special education teacher who is diligently working to help his/her students acquire the skills necessary for success in the mainstream environment. By working in partnership with the special education teacher, the library media specialist can then mentor these students by providing structured learning and modeling opportunities which utilize the skills being developed through behavior modification. This joint effort establishes a learning environment where students can experience success, demonstrate competence, and ultimately grow socially by invoking their problem-solving skills in real-life situations (Jones, Dohrn, and Dunn, 2004; Behrman, 1987).

Defining the Problem and Finding a Solution

Because of emotional and learning problems, the fourth-grade student from the introduction spent a great deal of time each day in pullout sessions in the special education classroom. When the school year began, he was attending the scheduled media center session with his class. After the first few sessions, I realized this arrangement was not beneficial to him or his classmates. After several discussions with both the classroom and special education teacher, we decided that something different was needed to make the media center sessions more beneficial for this student. A 20-minute individual time was scheduled for him to come and work with the media specialist once a week on developing the research and information skills listed in the grade 4 curriculum guidelines of Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS). Using a variety of print reference tools, the student would gather information on a topic of his choice and prepare an informational booklet instead of doing the activities that were being used with his classmates to learn and develop the same reference skills.

During the scheduled media center sessions with his class, a variety of topics were used to demonstrate and then practice locating information using the various reference tools. Trivia and guessing game formats were often utilized. This less formal, interactive method for developing information skills is usually more effective than completing an out-of-context worksheet. While the majority of students enjoy learning reference skills in this environment, it can be very frustrating for a student who is working below grade level, needs more specific instruction and demonstration to understand the activity, and requires more time to locate an answer.

The independent sessions would allow more time for the media specialist to physically demonstrate how to use each of the reference tools and then assist him in using them to locate the information he needed. A topic-oriented approach would help to retain the student's attention and provide extra incentive to complete the assignments in order to collect the information needed to assemble his booklet. Working toward his personal goal of "writing a military manual" would motivate him to learn how to use the different reference tools since there would be a tangible result at the end of his labor that could be enjoyed personally and shared with others. Once the student had developed some basic information skills, it would be less frustrating for him to participate in the group activities and would help to reduce the circumstances that often led to his emotional outbursts and inappropriate behavior while in the media center.

While meeting with the student and discussing various topics, he continually expressed a keen interest in "army men," and a 12-week research project on infantrymen of World War I was designed for him. The main objective of this project was to teach this student some basic research and information skills while mentoring him toward appropriate social behavior in the media center so that he could eventually rejoin his class in their scheduled media center visits.

Reference Tools and Data Collection

The student utilized a variety of print reference tools during this project, including a world almanac, thesaurus, dictionary, atlas, the World Book encyclopedia, and two non-fiction books: World War I Uniforms Coloring Book by Peter F. Copeland and World War I by Louis L. Snyder.

To capture the student's interest, we began the project by focusing on the illustrations for the booklet. As an incentive to stick with the project, the student received a personal copy of the World War I Uniforms Coloring Book which he could keep and take home after completing the project. Duplications were made of the infantrymen on select pages to be colored for insertion into the report. All illustrative work was done with colored pencils. The student was responsible for consulting the colored information chart and descriptive captions in the book to insure accurate depiction. He worked independently to complete the illustrative material during the data collection weeks. He was also responsible for finishing any lessons started during his media center sessions through shared guidance from the library media specialist, his classroom teacher, and the special education teacher. Other organizational supplies, suggested by the special education teacher, included a pocket folder for his papers, 4x6 index cards to record facts, and a quart-size ziplock to store them. At this point, the student was very enthused about his project.

Lessons involved an introduction to each reference tool, an explanation of why and when the tool was most useful, modeling how to use the tool, and then assisting the student in using it to obtain the information needed for his project. Review of how and when to use the different tools was provided continuously throughout the project in the form of hypothetical questions, "Where do I find out what a word means?" and "What can I use to find a map of Africa?" which required a verbal response from the student to demonstrate his understanding of the scope of each tool. Reinforcement of the skill was provided through application questions, "Can you show me how to find our state on a map?" and "Can you show me how to find the definition for infantry'?" which required the student to physically select and use a tool to demonstrate his ability to use it constructively.

The following types of research and information skill lessons were completed by the student over a nine week period:

1. Using a general dictionary to find definitions for infantry, terrain, trench, and honor.

2. Using a thesaurus to find synonyms for soldier, rough, trench, and honor.

3. Using the World Book encyclopedia to look up infantry, tank, and World War I and find the answers to 3-6 questions on each subject.

4. Using a world almanac to obtain information about the Medal of Honor and U.S. military participation and casualty statistics for World War I.

5. Using an atlas to locate the United States, Europe, Germany, England, France, Bulgaria, Russia, and Austria.

6. Using the index of a non-fiction/information book on World War I to locate specific information on tanks, use of poison gas, and "The Lost Battalion."

7. Using the glossary of a non-fiction/information book on World War I to learn what the terms Doughboy, Yank, Tommy Atkins, Poilu, Jerry, Boche, and Cossack mean.

8. Using a provided outline map of the countries of Europe and colored pencils to prepare a three-colored map, with a color key, showing which countries were Allies, which were Central Powers and which were neutral during World War I.

The remaining three weeks were used to organize the data collected, write the text using a word processing program, and create a title page, table of contents, list of illustrations, bibliography, and index.

Results and Discussion

At the conclusion of the unit, the student had prepared an informational booklet on the infantrymen of World War I. After a great deal of negotiation, he allowed me to take the booklet overnight to bind it at a local copy shop. He was elated with the final product. More importantly, during the course of the unit, he worked with the media specialist, his special education teacher, his classroom teacher, and independently to successfully meet the project objective.

During the last two weeks of the project and continuing for the three weeks that followed, the student came with his class to its scheduled media center session as well as his individual session. Gradually his independent sessions became less frequent and primarily focused on extra academic help rather than social skills. Was his behavior perfect now? Of course not. It was greatly improved though, and he was much better at controlling himself and functioning as a productive, active member of his peer group. He was now able to participate more fully during information skill activities and no longer found himself consistently last to find the answer. In fact, he became quite adept at using an atlas and was often one of the first to locate the correct information. He was also able to generalize the information skills he had attained during the project, largely due to the cooperative efforts between his teachers and me, which insured he was applying them to other subject areas and in other settings as he was learning and developing them. Both teachers agreed his confidence had soared and he was much more willing to apply himself in other curriculum areas and to try new things. We all felt that the main objective (to teach this student some basic research and information skills while mentoring him toward appropriate social behavior in the media center) had been met, and this project had been a successful avenue for achieving it. The mentoring provided within this setting had also assisted in providing avenues for positive reinforcement that his special education teacher could utilize in the overall behavior modification plan she had constructed for him. The main positive reinforcements used included (1) being responsible for the colored pencils set during the project, (2) additional media center time to work on his project independently when he had completed his other class assignments, and (3) being selected and continuing as a student media center assistant.

Whenever I think of this student a favorite memory comes to mind. One afternoon when I was reading a story aloud to a group of first graders, a teacher, followed by two kindergartners, came into the media center needing assistance. The student was working at a study carrel, and upon overhearing the two younger students ask if I could come and help them, he quietly got up and told them he could help them. He checked in their books, checked out a film projector to the teacher, helped the two kindergartners pick something from the picture book area and checked them out. I heard him tell them in a gentle, pleasant voice, "It's okay for me to go behind the counter and use the computer because I'm an assistant librarian." I had to look again to make sure this was the same kid! Later, the teacher he helped and the kindergarten teacher both communicated their surprise at his ability to work in the media center. They were also pleased by his courtesy. Later that year, he told me he was thinking about being a librarian when he grew up because "[he] kind of liked helping people find what they needed."

References

Behrman, Sara. "Autistic Teen Takes to Library Work: NYPL Center Teaches Marketable Skill in School-Sponsored Project," American Libraries, Vol. 18, No. 5 (May 1987).

Chen, Shu-Hsien L. "Helping Struggling Readers Through the Library Media Center,"School Library Media Activities Monthly, Vol. 20, No. 5 (January 2004).

Copeland, Peter F. World War I Uniforms Coloring Book. New York: Dover, 1978.

Hammill, Donald D. and Nettie R. Bartel. Teaching Children with Learning and Behavior Problems, 3rd Ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1982.

Harris, Karen, Banbury, Mary, and Freddie Litton. "The Library Media Specialist as a Mainstreaming Facilitator," School Media Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Fall 1980).

Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. Chicago: American Library Association, 1988.

Jones, Vern, Dohrn, Elizabeth, and Cory Dunn. Creating Effective Programs for Students with Emotional and Behavior Disorders. Boston: Pearson, 2004.

Lowe, Carrie. "The Role of the School Library Media Specialist in the 21st Century," Teacher Librarian, Vol. 29, No. 1 (October 2001).

Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS). Oklahoma City, Okla.: Oklahoma State Department of Education, 2002 ed.

Snyder, Louis L. World War I. New York: Franklin Watts. 1981.

Vandergrift, Kay E. Power Teaching: A Primary Role of the School Library Media Specialist. Chicago: American Library Association, 1994.

Wesson, Caren L. and Margaret J. Keefe. Serving Special Needs Students in the School Library Media Center. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Wesson, Caren L. and Margaret Keefe. "Teaching Library Skills to Special Education Students," School Library Media Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Winter 1989).

Susan E. Russell, University of Oklahoma 

Russell is currently Assistant Professor of Bibliography and was previously School Library Media Specialist at Little Axe Elementary.