Activities for Students on the Dewey Decimal System
Without the Dewey Decimal Classification System libraries would be in pure chaos. Melvil Dewey felt the same way. He made the observation of libraries not having a systemic way of finding books by different authors on the same subject. Dewey implemented the DDC by assigning nonfiction books with a number ranging from 001 to 999 according to subject matter. Students in the classroom can benefit from learning how the DDC system works and how to use through it classroom activities.
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Getting to Know Melvil
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As an introduction to the DDC, introduce students to the creator himself, Melvil Dewey. This is a beneficial activity for middle and high school students. There are many online biographies about Melvil Dewey. Students can read up to three online biographies about Dewey and then complete the "Meet Melvil Dewey" questionnaire. Teachers can check the questionnaire with the Meet Melvil Dewey answer key.
The Dewey Book Classification System
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Learning the numeration system of the DDC will get students off to the right start. First teach students the classification numbers for DDC and the book category that coincides with classification number. There are ten book categories for the DDC. The categories include: Generalities, Philosophy and Psychology, Religion, Social Sciences, Language, Natural Science and Math, Technology (Applied Sciences), The Arts, Literature and Rhetoric and Geography and History. Generalities are in the 000s, Philosophy in the 100s and so on. Develop a lesson where student learn the numeration system with the book categories. By way of review create a quiz, scramble or matching activity to re-teach or review the material previously learned. Enchanted Learning offers many worksheet activities to help student with DDC book categories and the numeration system.
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Know The Dewey Lingo
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With this activity, students can learn how to use a dictionary and learn vocabulary terms that are associated with the DDC. The Homeschool Learning Network provides a unit on teaching activities related to the DDC. From the onset of the unit there are words highlighted in red. These words relate to DDC lingo. Students in home school and regular school settings can make a list of these words and find the definitions for each word. Students will be defining words such as proponent, psychology and literature. This activity is ideal for upper elementary, middle and high school students.
Scavenger Hunt
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Now that students know Melville and how the DDC works, it is time for them to try their hand at a DDC scavenger hunt. Take students to the local or school library and provide them with topics, authors, books and subject matters to search for based in the DDC system. The student with the most items found can receive a small reward or prize. Enchanted Learning offers a variety of library scavenger hunt printouts. Teacher can also create homemade scavenger hunt pages.
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