How To Teach Elementary Students To Write A Bibliography

Whether you need help figuring out what is a bibliograhy for the first time or are ready to write a bibliography for school project – we can help! First, we will help you understand what is a bibliography, why is it important, and learn how to write a bibliography. Next grab our free printable bibliography template and your are ready to write!

How to Write a Bibliography

Need to teach your students how to write a Bibliography? Doing research and writing a report is an integral part of learning to write. Most children enjoy learning about a topic of interest. Hopefully, they will have access to a variety of books and websites they can use as they do this. Learning how to credit these sources is an important part of the research. Learning how to write a bibliography is an essential skill that will hone their research abilities and transform them into responsible scholars. Do you feel a little daunted at the prospect? Don’t worry! We have developed a step-by-step approach based on the Common Core curriculum that will make it much easier than you think. So, join us as we unravel the mysteries of creating a bibliography and empower our children to become confident researchers.

What is a Bibliography?

Before we dive in, let’s take a few moments to cover the basics. What exactly is a bibliography? The word bibliography comes from the Greek words “biblion,” meaning book, and “graphia,” meaning writing.

A bibliography is a list of all the books, websites, and other sources you use to get information for a school project or research paper. It gives credit to the people who helped you learn about your topic.

Why Are Bibliographies Important?

There are several reasons. A bibliography helps us.

• Organize our research: Bibliographies help students keep track of the sources they’ve consulted during their research, making it easier to find them again if needed.
• Guides readers: By listing the sources, a bibliography provides readers with a roadmap to further explore the topic, leading them to more information if they are interested.
• Establish credibility: A well-crafted bibliography showcases that the research is based on trustworthy sources, boosting the credibility of the work.
• Give credit: It is essential to respect the intellectual property of others by acknowledging the original sources and authors’ contributions.

 

 

What Is Intellectual property?

What is intellectual property? Intellectual property is a term that describes the creative ideas and inventions people create, like research, stories, songs, or new gadgets. It’s important to give credit to the person who came up with the idea because they put their time and effort into making it. That’s why we have rules and laws to protect their work and ensure they get credit for what they created.

Children can start learning how to find and use non-fiction sources early. Teaching them how to credit these sources and why they should, is an essential part of that process. So, let’s unravel the secrets of how to write a bibliography. Learning this skill will empower our children to become confident researchers and responsible scholars who respect the intellectual property of others.

Kindergarten and Grade One

At this stage, kids are still learning to write. That is quite the task, so we do not worry about writing bibliographies just yet. However, we can start to lay a foundation. First, let’s see what the Common Core says about research skills.

With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Common Core: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Grade Two

Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

Common Core: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

In the early stages, our learners learn to gather information to answer questions. At first, they need help from an adult, but by grade two, they should be able to do it themselves. At this point, children will not understand big ideas like “intellectual property.” But we can start talking about where we got the information to answer the question.

Children need to understand that real people write the information they find in these sources. These early ideas about who writes books and the information on websites will help them understand the need for bibliographies later. Here are some ideas for this age group.

Teaching About Parts of the book

Beginning in kindergarten, we can use story time to help kids learn about parts of a book and who made it. We can say something like, “Today’s story is Bear Says Thanks, written by Karma Wilson.” This can help them get ready to make a bibliography later.

Show the kids where you find this information on the title page (not the cover). Talk about different parts of a book, like the cover, spine, and title page. Sometimes, ask the kids to name a part of the book as you point to it. This will help them get familiar with the basics they’ll need when they start writing bibliographies.

As children progress through grades 1 and 2, you can slowly increase the information you talk about to include the date of publication and the name of the publisher.

Show and Tell Resources

At this age, getting students more familiar with the resources they use for their projects is a good idea. Ask them to show you the books or websites they used for information. This helps them practice finding essential details about their sources.

To make it more engaging, you can turn it into a fun activity. Ask the kids to search for the title and author of the book they used. Guide them by giving hints or reminding them where the title can be found. For instance, in a book, they can look at the title page, while on a website, they can check the top of the webpage or the browser’s title bar.

Students will learn to identify important information about their sources by doing these activities. This will be helpful when they start creating bibliographies in higher grades.

Create a Simple Citation Display

Creating a citation display is a fun and interactive way for students to showcase the resources they used during their research. To set up the collection, have the children gather the books they’ve used and arrange them on a table. Our free Bibliography download includes a sign you can print and place on the table.

Grade Three

How to Write Bibliography for Assignment

At this stage, the Common Core directs children to take brief notes on sources. Here is the standard.

Recall information from experiences or gather information from print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and sort evidence into provided categories.

Common Core: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

At this point, children can start to receive formal teaching about how to write a Bibliography. Our free download has some resources to help you.

A Lesson To Introduce Bibliographies

Gather some non-fiction books that contain a simple bibliography. We have provided a sample Bibliography in the download if you cannot locate any books.

Start by telling your child that bibliographies are an essential part of the research, and today they’ll learn all about bibliographies.

Invite your child to examine the bibliography and record their discoveries on the Bibliography Recording Sheet. If you do this with a class, you can divide the children into groups for this exercise.

At this stage, it is enough for the students to note the title and author, but they may notice other things. After sharing their discoveries, you can define a bibliography for students.

“A bibliography is a list of all the books, websites, and other sources that you used to get information for a school project.”

Our free download includes a worksheet inviting the children to fill in the blanks to define the word bibliography.

Require Children to Start Citing Their Sources

Once children have a rudimentary understanding of bibliographies, you can ask them to provide a simple list of their sources with each research project. At this stage, they only need to gather the title and author of each book and the site name of each website.

Our free Bibliography download provides a recording sheet children can use as they do their projects. They can hand in the sheet with their other work.

Grade Four

At this age, children are expected to provide a list of sources when they do research. Here is the Common Core standard

Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; take notes and categorize information, and provide a list of references.

Common Core: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

You can repeat the Bibliography lesson if you wish. Our free download includes a worksheet that invites the children to write their own definitions of a bibliography using words from a word bank.

Now children have to start gathering more information about their sources.

• Books: title, author, date of publication
• Websites: site name, URL, and date you accessed

Our free Bibliography download provides recording sheets children can use as they do their projects. They can hand in the sheets with their other work.

Grade Five

Once they reach grade five, students must provide complete bibliographies for all sources. You will need to find out what citation style your curriculum or school district uses and follow that style. Here’s the Common Core Standard for this age group

Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant information from print and digital sources; summarize or paraphrase information in notes and finished work; and provide a list of references.

Common Core: Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Now students are expected to provide a full Bibliography in the style specified by their school district or curriculum.

Bibliography for School Project

Here is a list of helpful resources for this age group as they learn how to write a Bibliography.

1. Blooket is a fun site that provides review and trivia-type questions on every subject under the sun. Teachers can create a free account, pick a game style, and generate a code that students can use. Once you log into the dashboard, select Discover and look for the Bibliographies game by tmercier. You can then set up the game of choice.
2. My Bib online helps create citations of all kinds. However, do check the finished citations to make sure they are correct.
3. My Bib Extension is a browser extension that helps students cite websites and online resources.
   • This video demonstrates how to use it. https://youtu.be/dIwYyjpPdJ4
   • This video demonstrates how to download your citations. https://youtu.be/cYbO9S3KWe4

A Resource For Teachers and Parents

There are 6 main citation styles, and to make things more complicated, some of those styles have different editions. That is why you need to check which kind is required.

One of the best places to get information about citation styles is Perdue University Research and Citation sources. They cover everything you need to know, although it would be overwhelming for students in grade 5. Still, it is a great planning resource for you.

What is a bibliography example

Our Bibliography Download has a sheet that helps students collect the information they need to create the list of citations.

Note: Students will quickly discover they cannot always collect all the required information. For example, websites will not always provide the date of publication or the author.

The best thing to do is to search Google using the following search query.

How to cite <describe your problem> in <citation style>.

For example: How to cite a website article with no publication date in APA 7.

If you don’t find anything helpful, visit an academic library website and look for an online chat. These are operated by trained librarians, who will be able to help.

How to do a bibliography

We hope this post has been helpful for you as you prepare to teach your elementary kids how to write a bibliography. They need to learn how to give credit to the books, articles, and websites they use. This will help them become good learners who know how to organize their work and show respect for other people’s ideas.

We trust that our tips and ideas have given you the tools to help your children or students grow into intelligent and responsible researchers. Be proud of your role in their learning journey, and have fun as you guide them through the exciting world of knowledge!

Bibliography template

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