Record Making and Researching (Toughest Task?)

Teachers of students in primary grades will tell you that it takes a LONG time to finish anything. This is so true. I've been keen to start my media literacy unit dealing with algorithms, but first I needed to finish our previously started tasks.

Today's blog post outlines how I proceeded with a six-week long media literacy inquiry into The Guinness Book of World Records. 

This focus on World Records was not my original intent. When Queen Elizabeth II died and we were "mandated" to teach something about her, I decided to use one of the lesson prompts I had designed for the Association for Media Literacy, about "The Queen and Breaking Records". I wanted the examination to be meaningful, so we looked at various copies of the The Guinness Book of World Records we had in our library. We created lists of superlative words (fastest, oldest, tallest). 

Based on my conversation with Sarah Wheatley and Dawn Legrow that we shared for Treasure Mountain Canada 7, I wanted to establish and practice research, citation and information literacy skills early.  The students were asked to peruse the various Guinness Book of World Records copies we had in the library and select one record that they were most interested in recalling. I asked the students to note the title and the page number of the record they liked. That was very challenging for many of our Grade 1-3 students (due to their "unfinished learning"). I had to conference individually with students to locate the page number and record it for them. Legible printing is also not a strong general skill right now, so I took their information finds and turned them into printing pages students could use for the books we are producing.

To make this learning personal, we also determined individual Class Records. This also took a long longer than I anticipated. First, we had a discussion about measurable records rather than subjective opinions (i.e. who is the "tallest" vs who is the "cutest"). Then, we started engaging in different challenges to establish some records. We threw Koosh balls, ran sprints in the hall, picked up pencils with one hand, and conducted other less-physical trials students suggested could make for intriguing records. It was my goal that everyone in the class end up with a record, which I know is contrary to the mission of The Guinness Book of World Records, but I wanted everyone to feel like they were the "top of the list" in some way. This activity really highlighted for me which students were incredibly competitive and which students actually didn't think highly of themselves. Students illustrated these personal records with a bit of exaggeration and a mixed collage of photo faces and drawn bodies. (Even just taking the student photos, colour printing them, and distributing them for making images took a long time!)

As we finally wrap up this project (which will result in 8 books), I sent home a reflection sheet for students to complete about the process. This was another difficult task because students need support with their reading and writing. I ended up creating some "circle the answer that best fits" responses, even though I would have preferred some more open-ended questions. (I used those but suggested they only answer two of the five options.) These are some of the questions below, based on Strand 4 of the current Media Literacy curriculum (Reflecting on Media Literacy Skills and Strategies).

Media Project Reflection - Guinness Book of World Records

Name: _________________________________________________

Part A: Choose two of these questions to answer on the lined paper

1. What kind of records does the Guinness Book of World Records list?

2. What kind of records are not in the Guinness Book of World Records?

3. Why might people be interested in trying to be in the Guinness Book of World Records?

4. Why do people care about records?

5. What do records tell us about people?

Part B: Answer every question listed below. Circle the answers

1. Do you remember the personal record you made? YES NO

2. Do you remember the record you researched? YES NO

3. How did looking at real records help you decide on making your personal record?

I SAW WORDS LIKE TALLEST / FASTEST / LONGEST

I SAW PICTURES THAT GAVE ME IDEAS

I GOT IDEAS FROM PEOPLE IN MY CLASS OR THOUGHT ABOUT MY SKILLS

OTHER: _______________________________________

4. What skills did you use when making your personal record?

SPEED/STRENGTH - I HAD TO MOVE FAST OR THROW FAR

BALANCE - I HAD TO KEEP THINGS FROM FALLING

LUCK - MY RECORD WAS PART OF MY LIFE

OTHER: __________________________________________

5. What skills did you use when researching an existing record?

READING - I READ THE WORDS TO PICK MY FAVOURITE

ORAL - I TALKED WITH THE TEACHER OR FRIENDS TO PICK 

VISUAL - I LOOKED AT THE PICTURES TO PICK MY FAVOURITE

OTHER: _______________________________________________

 I am relieved that this project is almost complete. I think there was a lot of rich learning that occurred but the amount of time it took to get through made me wonder how this could have been achieved in a much more efficient way. Maybe I just need to be more patient. After all, creating those What Is Media videos took nearly three months of work in the past, and they were definitely worthwhile.