Stacey Py Flynn
School Library Media Specialist
Writer, Producer, Collaborator
Please browse this area to see some of the projects I completed towards my Master of Library and Information Science degree at the University of Maryland's iSchool.
Pathfinder Project on Ancient and Modern China
As part of our Collection Development class, I created this online research tool based on Montgomery County Public School's sixth grade social studies unit. The pathfinder includes a section describing the county's current research method, a video tutorial for a subscription database as well as selection and evaluation of material in multiple formats. For this project, I coordinated with the Library Media Specialist who implemented the pathfinder for classroom use.
I have also posted the video tutorial on my YouTube page where it has been implemented in a number of MCPS schools as well as the Montgomery County High Incidence Accessible Technology office.
Video Link: How to Use Britannica ImageQuest
Instructional Plan
Here is an instructional plan I wrote and implemented with the 2nd grade team at GES. Using quality literature as an activator, students made meaningful connections with the story of William Kamkwamba, a 14 year old who built his own windmills, bringing electricity to his drought-stricken village in Malawi. William's self-motivation inspired our young researchers as they chose a natural resource to research and then create trading cards to show its uses.
Teachers continued the learning in the classroom with a written assignment, arguing "for" or "against" use of their particular natural resource.
Bibliographic Essay & Annotated Bibliography
For this essay, my research demonstrates how use of multiple formats and modalities encourages discovery and creativity while delivering instruction in ways similar to how adolescents use media in their daily lives. The annotated bibliography includes historical fiction and narrative that helps students to make meaningful personal connections with U.S. History. The bibliography also provides differentiated reading levels and formats for use with adaptive technology.
Lesson Plan: Be a True Detective
Edgar Allan Poe's Real Life Mysteries
Our instructional design training provided excellent opportunities to collaborate with each other as well as classroom teachers & SLMs in the field. My partner, Becca Oxley and I, created a language arts unit on the mystery genre designed for classroom use in an alternative school in Frederick County, MD.
In this lesson, students will explore connections between fiction and real-life through the lens of the mystery genre by learning about author Edgar Allen Poe with (1) a demonstration using Fakebook, a Web 2.0 tool, (2) a guided exercise using Boolean search strategies, and (3) independent reading, viewing, and listening for information using the selected website “Knowing Poe.”
Instructional Plan: Who Can Vote? Election 2012
Collaboration with classroom teachers provides many opportunities to enhance instruction and teach information literacy skills. During my field study, we seized upon the national election coverage as an extension to the social studies unit on the formation of the U.S. Constitution. Students worked as a group to create an interactive timeline, examined a variety of materials - primary sources, maps, graphics, videos and articles - to gain an understanding of how to evaluate information sources.
Social Reading and Teens: A Hunger Games Mash-up
To understand teen culture, I explored a number of social reading sites to explore how adolescents make use of social media for reading enjoyment. As a part of this project, I interviewed teens on opening night of the film version of The Hunger Games.
Video Link: Opening Night: A Hunger Games Mash-up
Tour of iSchool@Shady Grove video
As a graduate assistant for the iSchool's ALA Accreditation project, I produced, directed and edited an informational video about the iSchool's expansion to the Universities at Shady Grove during the summer of 2012.