At Vanderbilt It's Elementary, Watson

Aspects of reading, writing, science, and social studies are incorporated 
into the Young Sherlock Project, a multimedia program developed at 
Vanderbilt University's Peabody School of Education.  The Young Sherlock 
Project was based on learning in an integrated rather than a 
compartmentalized curriculum, as well as on research showing the benefits 
of cooperative learning situations that occur in shared social contexts.  
Students viewed the commercially available film, Young Sherlock Holmes  as 
a shared experience, or "anchor,"  which provided a reference point 
between teacher and student(s) on which instruction was based.  The 
project took place in three fifth-grade classrooms over a period of three 
years. 

Teachers used the Young Sherlock Holmes videodisc to help students 
generate questions that required library research and exploration.  For 
example, in the opening scene, young Watson arrives in London, and the 
narrator states that it "was a cold, snowy day in early December...in the 
heart of London at the height of the Victorian Era."  After viewing this 
scene, students were prompted to discover whether it is accurate to say 
that it snows in London and to research latitude and longitude and weather 
information. Students were also motivated to discover facts about 
transportation, dress and other aspects of London that were easily 
discernible on the video and found the videodisc's freeze frame 
capabilities to be most useful.  These aspects of setting became entry 
points into teaching Social Studies knowledge.  Similarly, teachers used 
the video to develop aspects of characterization, determine cause and 
effect relationships, and study elements of plot structure.  Teachers then 
transferred this learning to reading and writing tasks which included 
author circles, peer editing, and a class newsletter.  The use of a video 
as an anchor did not replace literary tasks, but rather was a vehicle to 
enhance learning concepts that applied to higher-level literacy 
development.    

Once the anchor became a shared reference point, it was easy to 
incorporate 30-second clips of street scenes from Hello Dolly, Oliver 
Twist, or Oklahoma.  These films, also set during the Victorian Era, 
served as "bridges" to facilitate students' exploration of aspects of this 
time period in different countries.  Other bridges included written 
material, such as letters from Abraham Lincoln to Queen Victoria.  
Metacognition was enhanced as new knowledge linked to old through the 
shared anchor, and it was discovered that students in this program 
developed a more cohesive sense of history than those in control 
classrooms.

A significant enhancement, yet to be tested, includes computer-control of 
the videodisc, together with information that can appear "on demand" from 
the student or teacher.  As shown in Figure 1, students or teachers can 
choose to learn about various aspects of the Young Sherlock Holmes unit:  
about the Victorian Era (including dress, transportation, education, 
science, differences in social class), Literacy Concepts (including 
vocabulary, plot characterization, setting, cause and effect 
relationships), Sherlock Information (including information about 
Sherlock's creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, other Sherlock films and 
books), or Time Period Comparisons (including learning about comparisons 
and contrasts of different time periods to the Victorian Era).  
Preliminary indications are that microcomputer enhancements will greatly 
strengthen the initial effort.  

For more information on the Young Sherlock Project contact: 
Charles Kinzer, Ph.D.
George Peabody College for Teachers
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 322-7311


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