Kimberly Ulrich
April 28-29, 2008
Dewey Decimal System
3rd Grade
Cooperating Teacher-Librarian: Sharon Cruikshank
School and City: Arcadia Elementary, Olympia Fields, IL
Length of lesson: 20 minutes
Purpose:
Students will explore the Dewey Decimal System through hands-on activity.
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to
- Recall the 10 sections of the Dewey Decimal system by number and topic.
- Locate each Dewey section in the school media center.
- Identify which Dewey section correlate to specific book titles/topics.
Illinois Learning Standards Addressed
1.C.1b Identify important themes and topics.
4.A.1b Ask questions and respond to questions from the teacher and from group members to
improve comprehension.
4.A.1c Follow oral instructions accurately.
4.A.1d Use visually oriented and auditorily based media.
Materials needed
By you:
Dewey Decimal System PowerPoint found at http://www.breitlinks.com/dewey_for_kids.htm
Computer with projection or print-outs of slides
Titles of nonfiction books on slips of paper – enough for one for every two students.
By students:
Instructional Procedures
This lesson is intended as the third in a series of Dewey Decimal System lessons. Students
should already be familiar with the basics of Dewey, including the major groupings and their
topics as well as the location of each section in their media center’s nonfiction area.
Focusing Event
Remind the students that the class has been learning about Dewey and ask them to recall as much
as they can about the Dewey Decimal System. Prompt when necessary, using questions like:
What do the words “Dewey” and “decimal” mean? (the man who invented the system, the period
that we use with numbers)
How many major categories are there in the Dewey Decimal System? (10)
What kinds of books use the Dewey Decimal System for organization? (Nonfiction)
Etc.
Input from you
-
Using a projector or slides, review the Dewey Decimal System groupings with the
students. Be sure to spend enough time on each section, giving examples of titles that
may be found in each section.
- Bring the students’ attention to the images on each slide to help them remember what
each section is about.
- Ask students to give examples of each topic, like listing types of technology or different
languages in order to be sure they understand the various topics that may be under one
heading.
- Once all 10 sections have been covered, remind the students that the purpose of Dewey is
to help them find books on their own. Also make sure they understand that the Dewey
Decimal System will allow them to find books on any topic in other libraries as well,
such as their public library, the library at their next school, and so on.
- Divide the class into partners – do not allow them to choose their own.
- Give each set of partners a slip of paper with a made-up title printed on it. Explain that
they will need to work together in order to figure out in what section their book would be
found. Remind students that first they must figure out from the title what the book is
about, then figure out what Dewey section that topic falls under.
Examples of book titles:
1. Book of Poems
2. History of Florida
3. Baseball
4. Grizzly Bears
5. Dinosaurs
6. Cinderella
7. Learning French
8. Building Robots
9. All About Tornados
10. Book about Feelings
11. Biography of Rosa Parks
-
-
While the students quietly walk around the Nonfiction section in pairs, assist teams if
they are struggling, reminding them to look closely at the signs posted in each area in
order to find the one that matches their book title.
Once all teams have found the sections they think their book title is from, go around the
room, checking each team’s choice. Be sure to ask the students WHY they chose each
section in order to reinforce the reasoning process for the entire class.
Closure
Praise students for understanding the Dewey Decimal System and remind them again that
mastering this concept will help them find books in many different libraries, including their own.
What’s next?
Introducing the OPAC and practicing finding books using call numbers in both the Fiction and
Nonfiction sections.