Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Dewey Decimal Lesson

Greetings!
I am teaching the Dewey Decimal Classification system to our students here during library classes. It is a bit of a challenge, since very few of them think it is important to know this information. Since nearly all libraries the students will go into during their school years uses Dewey, it is something that they will use again and again, but many think it is boring. My assistant, Joy Palmer, uses a great method with the Kindergarteners and a few years ago I started using her method, too. We use hand signals to help them remember the hundreds.

The Dewey Decimal System is arranged a little like a person growing up.
100’s - Who Am I? (Psychology)
Finger Motion: Hold up one finger and point to yourself.
When we are little, we think only of ourselves. The books in this section have information that a person might want to know about himself. Books on my thoughts or how I feel would be included in this section.

200’s – Who is My God? (Religion)
Finger Motion: Hold up two fingers and point up toward heaven.
As we grow a little older we start to wonder where everyone came from. These books explain the world and how it was created. Books on religions are located here. (Also books on Mythology, but we don’t usually include these in our lessons!)

300’s – Who is My Neighbor? (Social Studies)
Finger Motion: Hold up three fingers and sweep horizontally across the classroom including everyone.
Once you learn about other people, you want to find out more about others. What do they do and where do they live? Books on careers, jobs, holidays, folktales are located here. These books are all about the social world.

400’s – How Do I Communicate With My Neighbor? (Languages)
Finger Motion: Hold up four fingers and put them to your lips. I wiggle them because kids like movement.
Now that we know something about other people, we might want to communicate with them. We need to learn their language, so books on other languages are here.

500’s – Man Sees the Things God Made. (Pure Science)
Finger Motion: Hold up five fingers and sweep the room with your hand as you say “Everything God made.”
Books on science and nature are in this section. We learn about the heavens, the animals, and the world God made.

600’s – Man is Lazy and Learns “How To’ Use the Science and Nature information to Work for Him. (Applied Science/Technology)
Finger Motion: Hold palm of one hand flat and use your index finger on the other hand as you would a tool to twist back and forth on palm. You have the five fingers of one hand plus the finger of the other hand to make six fingers.
Books on cars, airplanes, building bridges and other things, caring for your health, books on diseases, cookbooks, caring for pets; all these subjects are in here. This section is the “How To” section. The animal books are in the Pure science section, but caring for them (How To) is in the Applied Science section.

700’s – Man Enjoys Leisure Time. (Fine Arts)
Finger Motion: Palm of one hand is flat and the other hand used Index and middle finger as legs walking on the palm.
Since Man has learned to use science to work for him, he now has time to enjoy things like sports, crafts, music, drawing, and other hobbies.

800’s – Man is Vain and Likes to Tell Stories About Himself. (Literature)
Finger Motion: I could not think of a motion for this one. I just hold up eight fingers and tell them the section has stories and poems in it.

900’s – Man Likes to Leave a Record of His Doings, Goings, and Comings. (History, Geography, and Biography)
Finger Motion: Hold your fingers as if around a ball creating a ‘globe’ for geography.

000’s – General Information. This includes books like encyclopedias, media, newspapers, and books that have a lot of general information such as question and answer books.
Finger Motion: Hold up two fists (showing zero fingers) and say this is ‘General Junk’. You could use the term ‘General Information’, but the kids like the words ‘General Junk’ and they remember it which is the whole point.
This category has information that does not fit into just one Dewey number. For example, the encyclopedia has maps, history, science, biographies, and more. It can’t be cataloged into history because there is more than just history. Since there are so many kinds of information, it is cataloged in general information. Question and answer books also fit in this section. They have all kinds of information in them and there is no one place to catalog them, so they are general.

If you have computers available, older students may enjoy the Dewey quizzes I found online. After quiz one is done, then students can do a second and third one by clicking the links at the end of each quiz. The quizzes do not get more difficult with each quiz. http://breitlinks.com/deweychallenge/

This link helps students put Dewey books in the correct order. My Library Club members are really enjoying playing this. http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valmstrum/s2s/utopia/library4/src/library4.html

I hope these ideas help you with teaching Dewey to your kids. If any of you or your students come up with a great idea for a hand motion for the 800’s, please let me know.
Have a great week.
Audrey

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