6

 A 6 stage model  Can help anyone solve problems  Doesn’t have a limit on grade, subject or situation  Encourages working smarter rather than faster  A systematic process to find, use, apply and evaluate information for specific tasks

 Task Definition  Define the information problem  Ask yourself…What do we want to know or do?  Identify the information needed  Ask questions and gather the appropriate information.

 Information seeking strategies  Determine all possible sources.  What avenues are you going to take to gather the essential information?  Select the best sources.  From the list of information strategies it is important to prioritize, make lists and set guidelines for gathering.

 Location and Access  Locate sources (intellectually and physically)  To help solve the task…find those sources that will help guide to the solution.  Find information within sources  There could be lots of sources available. Determine what is important and what will guide you to your solution.

 Use of Information  Engage  Read, hear, view touch the information source  Extract relevant information  Begin using your information to make it to your solution

 Synthesis  Organize the information from multiple sources  Start putting all the information together  Present the information  After gathered and organized, find a way to present the information that is appropriate for the audience.

 Evaluation  Judge the product  Look at the effectiveness of what was presented.  Do you like how it turned out? What would you change or keep the same?  Judge the process  Look at the efficiency of the solving process.  Would you do anything differently?

 A systematic process to solve information based problems.  We can go on an information overload—The Big 6 helps us take in that information and find appropriate ways to use it.  Combines information and technology skills to promote student success.  Big6 offers webinars on a monthly basis to elaborate and detail each stage more fully.

BENEFITSDISADVANTAGES  A systematic process that breaks down information into manageable steps.  Specifically states the task and takes the student through the process.  The student is part of the process.  Needs to be taught to students.  Could feel overwhelming at the beginning.  Have to choose what info to use and what to skip over.  Hard to adapt to various students.

 Overall, I don’t think you could go wrong with this process.  It is a great way to adapt to new information or to rethink old information.  Anyone can use it! Any age person for any content area across any setting.  This is a process I would try with my students, but would need to make some modifications and adaptations to meet their needs.

 I think one of the best parts of The Big 6 model is that it doesn’t have to be a step-by-step process.  The steps can move in a cyclical pattern and in any order.  I think this makes the process a little bit more manageable, but it could also make it a bit harder to ensure you have included all of the components.  The Big 6 is something I could and would use in my current role.

 There was a lesson available on The Big 6’s site that used the model to demonstrate the process of constructing Banana Splits.  na-splits.php na-splits.php

 Stage 1  The task was defined: We are hungry for banana splits.  The information needed was identified:  Are we going to make them or buy them?  What supplies will we need?  What grocery store will we go to?  How much money can we spend?  This stage allows the learners to question themselves about what information they will need and how they will begin to use it.

 Stage 2  The range of possible sources was determined:  Go to an ice cream store or convenience store.  Gather recipes, create lists of items to buy  Go to grocery store to buy supplies.  Then the lesson says to prioritize the needs of our banana splits: What do we need to do first?  This stage seems to list the steps we could take in order to solve our task.

 Stage 3:  Sources were located:  Chose a grocery store  Within those sources the specific information was extracted:  Which ice cream to buy?, etc.  Stage 4:  Engage with the information  Begin making the banana splits (scoop ice cream into bowl, add syrups, get spoon, etc.)

 Stage 5  The supplies were organized appropriately into the bowl and made in to a presentable banana split.  The splits were then “presented”, shared with friends and eaten.  Stage 6  The banana splits were then evaluated:  Did we choose the right products?  How did they taste and look?  Were we efficient?  Would you change anything for next time?

 This lesson would be a smart way to introduce The Big 6 model to kids, because we all love banana splits.  This lesson doesn’t doesn’t seem to lend itself too well to a cyclical approach.  The steps would have to be followed in a specific order to get to the end product.  The best stage in this model is stage 6, evaluation, because it would help guide future instruction.  This lesson shows us the unlimited possibilities of using The Big 6 Model.

 The Big 6 Overview   The Big 6 Lesson  splits.php splits.php