Wiggling

I truly understand why this stage is considered the most difficult for students.  There was so much information that I felt at times overwhelmed by it all during my ‘webbing’ phase. I have been continually using my Microsoft Sticky Notes to jolt down my thoughts, to write notes, to paraphrase and /or paste relevant information I have found during my ‘webbing’ journey.   In addition, I also cited my sources as I went along and used related links that I found on websites and bookmarked the pages.  I bookmarked the pages by first pasting the URL into the sticky note and then noting the topic of the website to be viewed at a later time.

I needed to reevaluate (and possibly regroup) the clusters I created on my desk top screen because of the large quantity of sticky ‘notes’ I had amassed for this project. 

I have chosen four websites and three books to form the foundation of my project.  In the process of determining which websites were authoritative, I reviewed 15 websites that dealt with environmental issues such as recycling, cleaning tips, making your own cleaning products, toxic household products and air pollution within the home.  Since I had questions about the history of the environmental movement; why commercial cleaners were bad; and what I need to make my own household cleaners- I eliminated those that were not relevant to my focus.   All of the websites I selected were also reliable, objective, and authentic.  They were accurate and compiled by respected organizations such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency; INFORM which is designed to educate the public about the effects of human activity on the environment and human health; and Tree hugger which is a source of information for environmentally conscious consumers and it is affiliated with the Discovery Company. 

I evaluated the books similar to the way I evaluated the websites.  For books I looked at timeliness, accuracy, objectivity, publisher and relevance.  The books are Green Cleaning for Dummies by Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, PHD with Betsy Sheldon, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cleaning   by Mary Findley and Linda Formichelli, and Household Cleaning Self-Sufficiency by Rachelle   Strauss.

Green Cleaning for Dummies is published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., which is located in Indianapolis, Indiana.  It had a thorough and detailed appendix with Green   resources. The author Dr. Goldsmith was a respected professor in Family Resource Management as well as author of several college textbooks so I knew it would be accurate.  It was published in 2009 which is only three years old.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cleaning is published by the largest trade book publisher which is Penguin Group.  It has an appendix section and the authors have extensive experience cleaning.  Thus I felt the information would be accurate.  It was published in 2005 which is seven years old but I felt it was still current.

Household Cleaning:  self-sufficiency is published by Skyhorse publisher.  It was created in 2006 but it already has three New York Times bestsellers and it is ranked as America’s fastest growing small publisher by Publisher Weekly. This book is in Skyhorse’s new self-sufficiency handbook series.  All of these factors made the information credible and accurate.  It was published in 2009 which makes it the information current.  I am so glad that my mother in law sent this book to me.  It has been extremely beneficially to me for this project.  

This “ wiggling” stage is Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process’s collection phase which calls for gathering information “ defines, extends, and supports the focus.” (Caspari,  Kuhlthau & Maniotes, p. 20).    I definitely was doing that in this step in the process of this project.  In this stage, on an emotional level the “students’ confidence and interest increase along with their sense of ownership and developing expertise.” (Caspari, Kuhlthau, & Maniotes, p. 20).  After breaking all the information into smaller parts and then putting (wiggling) those pieces back together into a complete whole, I do feel more confident and definitely connected to the project.

Evaluating the information was pretty easy for me even though it was time consuming and overwhelming at first with all of the ‘notes’ I had saved during the whole process thus far.  This is only because I have experience with research and finding quality sources.  Well, for an elementary, middle, or high school student this process is going to take longer and they might benefit from it being a separate process.  I think it could be very frustrating to some students when they realize that some of the sources they found might not be very authentic.

Source:

Caspari, A. , Kuhlthau, C.  & Maniotes, L. (2007). Guided Inquiry: learning  in the 21^st century. Westport: Libraries Unlimited.