Showing posts with label instruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label instruction. Show all posts

Monday, November 12, 2018

MAC Fall Symposium 2018

I had the privilege of being invited to help lead this year's Midwest Archives Fall Symposium. What an amazing day! The theme was "From the Stacks to the Classroom" and we had such a wonderful day together exploring exciting topics, sharing ideas, and growing together! Many thanks to my co-presenters, Rachel Seale (Iowa State University Special Collections) and Anna Trammell (Pacific Lutheran University). I left feeling as though I had 34+ new friends to nerd out with about instruction!

We began the day with one of my favorite activities (that I borrowed from the Info Lit workshops I lead with Becky Canovan of University of Dubuque): Solution or Sympathy! Y'all, archivists and librarians are such kindred spirits and the questions or situations that were submitted and shared with the group were phenomenal! Here's how Solution or Sympathy works. Participants:
  • Write down instruction/archives-related questions or concerns;
  • Share the questions anonymously to see if the group has experienced something similar;
  • Offer up possible solutions, or sympathize, and let the person who submitted the question know that at least they're not alone.
What I love about this activity is that it works in almost any context with almost any profession! Everyone has problems and everyone wants to know either 1) what have others done to address/resolve this problem, or 2) who is here and can at least commiserate about this. Because, sometimes it's nice to just know you're not the only one.

We could have done Solution or Sympathy all day (seriously) but transitioned to an active learning/collaborative learning session primarily led by Rachel Seale. I LOVED the narrative building exercise she introduced to the group. To use this in your own classroom, divide your artifacts/documents into 4-6 groups. Similarly, divide students into the same amount of groups and ask them to read and evaluate the documents, preparing to share out with the rest of the class information about their resource. Because you have cultivated the collection, eventually through the sharing-out process, students will start to see a story emerge from the resources. By the end, the whole class should be able to pull together the whole story - either through a whole-class discussion, or by a volunteer student who can tie it all together. You can also discuss what's still missing from the story, or try to predict what happened next. Lots of great inquiry can be built from this example! Rachel also led another activity where groups taught each other about various Collaborative Learning Techniques. She recommended the resource Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises edited by Bahde, Smedberg, and Taormina.


Rachel & I collaborated to lead a session on Growing Your Instruction Program. We set up table-topics where participants could self-select which conversation they wanted to participate in. We prepared some conversation-starter prompts, but essentially the participants ran each table independently. All we asked was that a recorder be assigned to each topic so those who are interested in more than one topic could still learn after the fact, despite not being able to be in two places at once, because the notes were shared out with participants after the conference. We did allow for participants to rotate tables partway through the activity, though most stayed at their original topic. The overarching topics were:

  • Building relationships with faculty
  • Building relationships with students
  • Building relationships with colleagues (librarians, archives, staff)
  • Advocating for resources
  • Marketing your archives

Anna Trammell led a session on Designing Special Collections Instruction Sessions Using a Social Justice Framework, and also shared out a session focusing on Utilizing Instructional Technologies in the Classroom. A few of the highlights from those sessions are found in my tweets, below.

I led a session on Assessing Your Instruction Program and presented 60 assessment ideas or tools in what was slotted for 60 minutes. I warned the audience that I'd likely be talking like the Micro Machines commercial guy or an auctioneer, and I did.
I also promised that if there was extra time, we'd go back and do some more Solution or Sympathy questions. Well, I was totally Micro Machines-y and wound up covering the 60 ideas in 30 minutes! So we dug back into the Solution or Sympathy, which also seemed to be a hit. It worked out well!

We closed out the day with an Instructional Design Workshop where groups used provided scenarios to develop a lesson plan that incorporated some of the elements covered throughout the day. Groups had ~1 hour to work on their plan and then reported out to the group:

  • A brief description of the scenario
  • Explanation of how they addressed communication barriers, incompatible expectations, and how they worked with the requestor to find out more about their needs to develop a plan. 
  • Identified their learning outcomes
  • Described or demonstrated how they incorporated active learning techniques
  • Described what items they used (from collections)
  • They also had the option to share out instructional technologies or social justice framework elements if they chose to include them
  • How they assessed the activity/lesson
What rich conversations were generated throughout the entire day! I loved learning from participants and helping facilitate activities! Below are my tweets from the day -- with tidbits and takeaways from the various sessions! Thanks again to participants for being so wonderful, and to MAC for inviting me to help plan and facilitate the day!










































Posted by Cara at 11:02 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , ,

Friday, October 13, 2017

Updates Fall 2017

Well, I suppose I'm more than overdue for a blog update. Here goes! After my last post, it was a race to the end of the semester at Grand View, but not before hosting both the Iowa Private Academic Libraries conference and the spring Iowa Library Association ACRL conference. I was a member of the planning committee for the ILA ACRL conference and as a local person, also helped with IPAL. In addition to generally helping, I also helped plan and co-lead the Information Literacy Interest Group morning session at IPAL. But rather than drone on and on, how about we just check out some of my tweets between my last post and now! :) I think you'll see some exciting things!




































You may have noticed a shift in my role. I took a new position at Iowa State University as an Instruction Librarian focusing on teaching and teaching support. This is a big switch from a small, private university to a large, Regent university, but I'm excited to try new things and serve the students and instructors here! Also, I got an adorable puppy (with photos sprinkled in above). I'm sure I'll share more as I develop into this position, but I wanted to write an official update before I left this blog hanging even longer!
Posted by Cara at 10:14 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monday, September 16, 2013

The Research Process: Now with More Detail!

Teaching the research process isn't anything new to me. Many of the classes I work with (especially those I work with in an embedded librarian capacity) request that "module" (which is what we call the lesson plans from the First-Year Core Seminar's recommended "menu" of sessions). When I most recently taught the research process session to one of my embedded Core Seminar I groups, however, I took a new approach (while building off of what we've previously used in our instruction). Why a new approach? Well, it came down to necessity. The class I was working with presented a few challenges:

  1. This semester was the first time the instructor had worked with first-year students, especially those outside her field of expertise.
  2. Within the student population there was a wide range of experience levels in regards to research, writing, and study skills.
  3. Usually the research process takes no longer than 20-30 minutes, with time to work at the end of class. This time, however, I had 1 hour and 20 minutes with the group, and was teaching in their classroom, not a computer lab.
  4. Even though I had only worked with this group of students once, I knew from visiting with the instructor, and from observing classroom behavior, that they would need a highly structured lesson in order to stay focused on the content. 

All of the steps below are included in more detail in the presentation (embedded at the end).

In order to further my understanding of the students' background knowledge and experience with research I began the class with some prewriting and reflection. I allowed them plenty of time to reflect and write, then had them partner up with someone next to them. Then I had them switch partners and talk to someone who was sitting across the room. This helped them realize the wide range of experience levels within their class, and it helped me learn more about the students as I wandered from group to group and listened. (I also had students turn in their papers so I could review them in more detail and discuss them with the course instructor.)

Then we discussed the steps of the research process and how to select or narrow your research topic. This is typically all I've done in the past, and then spent some time focusing on selecting a topic. Usually I have students brainstorm three possible topics and do some background searching to see how they want to explore that topic within the requirements of their paper or project. With this group I spent more time focusing on understanding the requirements of the paper (which had not been introduced or provided to the students before my class session), and study strategies/planning. With each required element for the paper, I also put a date next to it. I explained to the students that the dates listed were the class periods when we would discuss how to do each element, so if they didn't know what something was or were unsure how to go about completing a part of the assignment, that's okay! We're going to discuss it and learn how to do it on the dates listed.

I then provided them with a Research Progress Plan for them to write out on a calendar what they planned to do & when. Though it was only for this one project for this one class, I recommended they do this for all of their assignments and put the information in their planners. This way they could see when big deadlines are coming up for all of their classes and plan ahead in order to do well with all of them. After they took some time to plot out their action plan steps on their own, I showed them my detailed research plan and explained why I planned certain things at certain times. I think seeing the level of detail in my research plan helped the students understand that they are facing a new level of research and writing than what they have done in the past. Though we spent a lot of time focusing on study strategies rather than research strategies, I think it was something important we needed to cover in order for the students to have the foundation they need in order to be successful in their research.

In their reflective pieces they completed at the end of class I was encouraged that several students listed having a research plan as a new strategy they would use in their approach to the project. Others noted the research process as something that was new to them. Previously they had just picked a topic and started writing. I'm hoping that once they put their plan into action and follow the recommended steps of the research process they'll see that having this structure to help guide them helps make their research easier and helps them produce a better written product.

What is something new you've used in your classes that doesn't typically fall under your purview as an instruction librarian, but was something you knew the students needed anyway in order to be successful with the library concepts you were teaching?


This post originally appeared on the iLOVE blog, found here: http://ilove-instruction.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-research-process-now-with-more.html
Posted by Cara at 10:45 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Monday, August 19, 2013

Summer Wrap Up

Well, the end of summer is here. Last week we wrapped up the Summer Reading Program (below are just a few of our prize winners).

Here are some fun facts about our Summer Reading Program:
  • This summer was the first time we've done a Summer Reading Program
  • Our theme, Groundbreaking Reads, just happened to also match the construction going on around the rest of campus
  • 36 people signed up to participate, ranging from students to staff to faculty and faculty/staff family members
  • 37 prizes were given out throughout the summer (ranging from candy bars, dried fruit, small gift cards, used books and DVDs, to the large prizes: 20 minute massages, Half Price Books gift card, and a GV Bookstore gift card)
  • We held 4 lemonade lunches, a kickoff party, and a wrap up party
  • A total of 221 book slips were submitted for the prize drawings
  • I received over 50 book purchase recommendations from the book slips that were submitted (on the prize slips there was a check box asking "Was this book one you would recommend the Grand View University Library purchase for others to read?")

The University is finishing up one of the most visible construction projects on campus, the Grand Central Plaza (which includes a more accessible ramp up to the library!). If you look closely, you can also see the addition to the student center (the new level on the roof across the street).


We're gearing up for classes to start next week. This fall is going to be another busy one, but I'm hoping, despite the new challenges and responsibilities this year (new committees, lots of teaching across campus, professional organization involvement), that there will be fewer 12-hour days and a bit more balance.  This fall will definitely not be a "lather, rinse, and repeat" fall, but at least we've done the Core Sem I thing before and have a better idea of what to expect and we're definitely making some improvements to our planning, instruction, and assessment.  

Happy hectic fall, all!
Posted by Cara at 10:31 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, February 25, 2013

Overcoming Teaching Stage Fright

I recently read a blog post from Hack Library School about overcoming teaching stage fright.  Many of us have been in teaching situations that we may not have necessarily been entirely comfortable with. Perhaps it is because you’re not as comfortable with the subject area as you would like to be; maybe it is because you’re using someone else’s lesson plan; maybe  it is because you haven’t had adequate time to prepare the lesson; or maybe it is simply because you haven’t had a lot of library instruction experience.  Whatever the reason, there are ways to become more comfortable teaching.  In the Hack Library School post, they mention the following:


  • Observe other instructors. 
  • Keep it simple. 
  • Make sure you have plenty of water.  
  • Find a mentor. 
  • Focus on successes. 

While I agree with their tips, I have a few others to add to the list.

Before you teach: 

  • Meet with the professor beforehand (in person if possible, otherwise email can work too) to clarify what you are expected to teach, what the students need, and how it connects to an upcoming assignment. Having this perspective will help you as you prepare your lesson. Get your lesson plan done early and share it with the class professor--they might be able to point out important things to cover or notice things that you’re including that the students might not need. This sharing also helps me review the lesson and get to know it and the session objectives even better
  • Create an outline that works for you. Everyone’s style is different. Write a lesson plan outline that works for your style.  It’s important to remember that you’re not writing a script, however. Work to include enough detail that you feel confident with the content, but not so much that you just wind up reading it word for word to the class. Also, having too much on the page can make it more difficult to find your place after you've gotten off track.  
  • Plan more than you think you’ll need. Have a few extra examples up your sleeve to help reinforce the concepts if the students seem like they need the extra practice or if you somehow wind up with extra time at the end of your lesson.
  • But also know you won’t be able to cover everything under the sun (and the students won’t be able to absorb much of anything if you throw too much at them in one sitting). It’s okay (and important) to limit your session content to teaching just what students need for the project/assignment. 
  • Practice. This is one of the most important things you can do to become more comfortable leading a class. Don’t just practice by walking through a lesson in your head. Find yourself a willing audience (friends, colleagues, strangers you met on the street, whomever) and ask them for their honest feedback after they've observed you run through your lesson. You might have to promise them chocolate, but it’ll be worth it.  If at all possible, practice in the space you’ll be using so you can get used to the technology in the room, the acoustics, having to project your voice, moving around the space, etc. 
  • Work on timing. Timing is one of the hardest things for me when lesson planning. Estimate how long you think each task will take, walk through the tasks yourself (realizing it will take students more time than it takes you because they aren't as familiar with the resources and the process as you are), and ask friends to do a little trial run of an activity to get a better idea of the timing (again, promises of chocolate come in really handy). 
  • Do teaching warm-ups.  This wasn't something I had even thought of until I got to grad school and the head of Teaching and Learning talked about it during my Education of Information Users class. You warm up to sing; you warm up to get your body ready to play an instrument; you warm up to exercise; why wouldn't you warm up to teach? Teaching is very physical. Doing vocal warm-ups will help prevent voice fatigue; stretching will get the blood flowing and get your body ready to stand for an extended period of time (depending on the structure of your class); and taking the time to warm up and stretch will help you find your focus and mentally prepare to be leading a class. 
  • Write a basic lesson plan outline up on the board. It will help keep you on track and help the students know what to expect as you go along.

As you teach:

  • Find a teaching style that works for you. No two people teach exactly alike. It is great to have a mentor, it is wonderful to observe others teaching, but in the end you have to teach in a way that connects the students to what they need--Trying to be someone else gets in the way. You wind up thinking more about yourself rather than the students and their needs. It’s helpful to observe others teaching and borrow ideas, but you also need to modify them and make them your own. 
  • Record yourself as you practice your lesson and when you’re actually teaching. Along with practice, this is another one of the most important things you can do. Recording yourself will help you see how you teach, notice any verbal or physical nervous ticks, see how you work under pressure, and observe how you think on your feet when students ask questions or when the unexpected happens.
  • Be flexible. It’s okay to change things up as you go. Being flexible means you’re doing a good job being responsive to the needs of the class. Maybe you got off track in one area because a student asked a great question or because you could see the students weren't able to follow along. That’s perfectly fine! It’s authentic learning, trial and error, but don’t let that completely throw you off your game. You can jump back into your lesson plan to cover the rest of the content they need to be successful. 

These tips aren't all-inclusive, but hopefully you've found at least one thing that will help you feel more confident and comfortable in the classroom.

Is there something I missed? Comment below to share what you do to feel more comfortable in the classroom.

This post originally appeared on the iLOVE blog, found here: http://ilove-instruction.blogspot.com/2013/02/overcoming-teaching-stage-fright.html

Posted by Cara at 2:55 PM 1 comments
Labels:

Monday, February 4, 2013

From Ho-Hum to Hands-On: Increasing Engagement in a Nursing One-Shot


Where I work there has been a nice series of library orientation sessions in place for nursing students as they progress through their college career.  What is great about this is the strong relationship that has developed between the library and the nursing professors, and the emphasis the nursing professors place on information literacy.  The nursing students are some of our heaviest library users on campus, and since we see them throughout their college career, we really get to know the students & their research needs (and we can usually spot when they’re in a stressed-out-just-need-chocolate-because-this-intense-paper-is-due-soon part of the semester).

Because the sequencing is so well established, it can be easy for us as librarians to just keep doing the same thing (which can get a bit stale—and if I'm bored, the students are definitely bored).  Such is the case with a traditional one-shot we’ve been teaching to reintroduce CINAHL basics, and add on a few more bells & whistles (limiters, subject headings, CINAHL headings, citation tool, ILLing, etc.).  In addition to CINAHL basics, we also show them where to search and find nursing policy information. In the past we’ve done a pretty traditional lecture-demo/work time session with the students. I’ve noticed students not being as engaged as I would like—and I put myself in their shoes and asked “how would I want to learn this?” The word that came to mind: active.  

With that in mind, my colleague and I decided to make a few changes. Nothing drastic, as we don’t want to throw the nursing faculty off too much; we just wanted the students to be more actively engaged with the resources and the database navigation process (rather than just following along as we say “click here, then click here”).

As I mentioned earlier, we were stuck in a “sage on the stage” rut & wanted to move to more of a “guide on the side” approach.  To do this we revamped the lesson to reintroduce the students to CINAHL, remind them of the types of materials within (and how that’s different from a basic web search), and then (instead of having us walk everyone through the features) we wrote prompts for seven groups to practice using the features found in their prompts.  Then each group will teach the rest of the class how to use those features, and we will wander from group to group (to support them and help with questions) as they work through the prompt to prepare to teach their classmates. This approach is nothing earth-shattering, but it will be good for the students to 1) work in groups to learn their assigned prompt skills, and 2) teach those skills to their colleagues, and 3) just get up and move and talk with their classmates after having risen at the break of dawn and been focusing on clinicals all day. This will help get their blood circulating instead of just hiding behind a computer screen. 

Here are a couple of examples of the prompts we plan to use:

Your group will be teaching the class how to do the following tasks: 
  • Using the Electronic Journal List (under the Journals tab on the library website) locate the full-text for this article within CINAHL.

Lavoie-Tremblay, M., Richer, M., Marchionni, C., Cyr, G., Biron, A. D., Aubry, M., & ... Vézina, M. (2012). Implementation of evidence-based Practices in the context of a redevelopment project in a Canadian healthcare organization. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 44(4), 418-427. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2012.01480.x
--
Your group will be teaching the class how to do the following tasks:  
  • Using CINAHL, be able to login to MyEbscohost, create a folder, perform a search (using the limiters we discussed at the beginning of class: date, research article, English language, Nursing subset), select an article or articles and put them into that folder.
--
Your group will be teaching the class how to do the following tasks:  
  • Using the limiters we discussed at the beginning of class (date, research article, English language, Nursing subset) conduct a basic search using the following search terms health care delivery; show your classmates how to access a full-text article and show the steps involved in printing that article double sided. Then, show the citation button and where to find the APA citation, show an example of a citation with a DOI and explain when to use a permalink (when there is no DOI). Show your classmates where the permalink button is.

After the groups present/teach we’ll redirect the class to think about where/how to find nursing policy information on the web. We’ll start by reminding them of web evaluation criteria, then look at our list of recommended websites, and then go to nursing organization websites to find policy, advocacy, and resolution information.

We haven’t put the plan to action yet, but we’re hoping all goes smoothly! 


This post originally appeared on the iLOVE blog, found here: http://ilove-instruction.blogspot.com/2013/01/from-ho-hum-to-hooray-increasing.html
Posted by Cara at 9:19 AM 1 comments
Labels: ,

Monday, October 29, 2012

Student Shadow Day

A little while back I got a Facebook message from a former Dorian Summer Music Camp camper of mine. She is currently a student at Luther College and is starting to think about the possibility of pursuing library school to become a librarian (she hasn't yet decided on which flavor: public, academic, archives, school, etc.).  Because she's awesome and on the ball, she has begun to ask about different schools, specializations, opportunities, etc. This week she came in and shadowed me for a day to see what we do here at Grand View and to ask questions and gather resources.

Our day began with a tour of the library and of campus.  We talked a little about the makeup of the student body, the role the library and librarians play in classes (especially the embedded classes), and some of the institution history.  Then, from 9:30-10:50, Sarah observed Dan Chibnall working with a 200 level religion class that was visiting the library for a one-shot session.  They were learning to research using the Anchor Bible Dictionary and other library resources.  After that we headed over to another computer lab on campus where I taught a Core Seminar I class about presentation skills and software. Students were broken down into groups of 2 or 3 and each group was assigned a different presentation medium: PowerPoint, Prezi, or Google Presentations (part of the Google Drive Applications). They were to answer a series of questions about their software and then present back to the class, demonstrating how to use the features.

After class, Sarah and I headed out to lunch at Thai Flavors to talk about ways to gain experience, test the waters in different areas of librarianship, graduate school possibilities, specialization possibilities, networking and conferences, internships, and anything else that might have popped into our heads. It was great to share ideas and help Sarah start to think about different possibilities to begin to explore.

In the afternoon, Sarah observed me teaching another first-year Core Seminar I class, this time covering web quality.  We spent the first chunk of class working on an activity that (hopefully) drove home the idea that where you get your information is important.  Tracking information back to a quality resource is important, especially when writing papers or researching for school projects. Then students found two websites related to their paper topics and evaluated them using a quality-control checklist.

After class I had hoped to take Sarah on a tour of the parts of campus we weren't able to cover in our morning tour (it began to rain during our morning jaunt), but instead we spent the time looking at resources, library school lists, and brainstorming ways Sarah could get her foot in the door to gain experience early. All in all, it was a great day!

As I prepared for the day, I wanted to emphasize the teaching aspect of librarianship (as it is a key part of librarians' roles, especially in a small, liberal arts institution), and give her an idea of what a typical day was like. This included having her observe different librarians in different instruction settings.  I would have liked to have shown her some time on the Reference Desk, but schedules didn't align to make that happen.  I also didn't want to overwhelm her with resources, but I did want to give her an idea of where to look to prepare herself for the library school application and selection process.  Also, I emphasized the importance of experience--If she can gain experience as an undergraduate, she will be more likely to be hired in student jobs in graduate school, which will help her as she moves forward and applies for full-time, professional positions.  Here are some of the links I shared:

Posted by Cara at 10:34 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Disparate Expectations

Sometimes (oftentimes) I pose questions for which I do not have "the answer." This blog post is just a whole cluster of that, so if you came here for answers, you might want to mozy on. (Plus, as you can see, it gets a bit long.)

How do librarians, instruction librarians specifically, navigate situations in which their expectations for student achievement, classroom behavior, success, etc. are higher than the expectations of the course instructor? I have encountered a wide range of instructors during my time as a librarian (also from my time as an educator in the public schools and as I sat the other side of the desk as a library science student).  Many have high expectations for their students, but there are always a few each semester that make me scratch my head--I can only imagine how students in their classroom feel.

While I understand that oftentimes librarians are guests in the classroom, I also know that we are most definitely there for a reason (whether it is that the faculty member has asked for us to work with their students or whether it is required of them to have IL sessions with their classes to fulfill a core requirement).  We are incorporated into their class to help their students be successful in their assignments and further research/information endeavors, and help the teachers who are looking for a better end product with both the assignments students submit and with the education students receive.  With that said, there are instructors who may say one thing, but their educational actions show me something different.

Below are three main areas that come to mind.

Contact time:

My philosophy as an educator (no matter what I teach--whether it be library & information literacy skills or music, as was the case in my previous profession) is that every moment of contact time with the students is so very valuable. I respect students' time and do my best to release them on time; I also expect them to be attentive and engaged the entire duration of the class (and I know it's my job to engage them that whole time).

Lately I have found other instructors releasing their students early from class, though there is much left to be taught, reviewed, reinforced, evaluated, and reevaluated.  As a student I was occasionally pleasantly surprised with an extra 5 or 10 minutes to travel between classes (which, as an educator now, I prefer to keep as dedicated class/work time).  The occasional 5-10 minutes I could possibly see (i.e. if you know your students have "hit the wall," or when you are conferencing with students and they are to use the non-conference time for research, but have already completed much of their work), but in the instances I've seen lately involve professors releasing students an extra 20-30 minutes early from class.  I assisted with a class earlier this week wherein the instructor and I were visiting before we began (as I was there in a support capacity, rather than leading the class myself) and was told that the professor planned on releasing the students 30 minutes early because the content wouldn't take the whole time. I suggested that, instead of dismissing class early, the professor could have them work on the first draft of their homework (due for the next class) and post that to Blackboard. Now, not only are the students going to receive input on their assignment earlier, they also have a head-start on their final draft.  Simply put, if you have that time, use it--Break up the time, diversify your class activities, but use it.

Classroom behavior:

The instructor cultivates the classroom environment--Part of that is to establish clear expectations for student behavior in the classroom.  I understand that different professors have different expectations for the way they prefer to be addressed (Dr., Ms., first name, last name, etc.), lecture vs. discussion, and how long students are allowed to veer off topic before being brought back on task.  With one-shot sessions we, as librarians, come in and work with the established culture--but when classroom policies are so lax where it reaches a point of distraction, how are we (as classroom guests) expected to improve the situation so all students can reach the session's learning objectives?

I do what I can to convey my expectations from the start by demonstrating, by catching distracting or off-task behavior from the start and casually addressing it (without making students feel targeted or on display for their actions).  I try to give students the benefit of the doubt--If I am leading a demonstration and one person is not on task, I first try to make a class announcement to either 1) turn off monitors and just follow on the projector, or 2) remind them of where we are working.  I will walk around the room to monitor how on-task the group is, ask questions of different students or groups to measure their comprehension, etc.

I expect students to put away their cell phones unless they are using them for class-related activities, be on task, remove ear buds from their ears during class, and not chew tobacco & spit out the juices into empty bottles in class (this has happened multiple times and I have addressed it with each student.  I inform them that tobacco of any kind has no place in my classroom--I don't care what their professor's policy is; whenever they are in a class where I am present, they are not to be chewing).

I understand students' attachments to technology, but I also expect them to be focused during library sessions.  Other teachers allow texting and Facebooking during class--Having recently graduated from library school, though we were supposed to be more mature and focused than undergraduate students, I know the Facebooking and texting that happened in class (and almost all cell phone use in class) was not for educational purposes. I don't have students put their phones away until I see it is a distraction; then I will ask the whole class to put away their devices.  If I want students to use their cell phones can always ask them to take them out later, but I prefer to not have them sitting out, distracting not only the owners of the cell phones, but also those around them.

Better yet, what do we do when the instructors are disengaged from the class, checking email, not paying attention to 1) what we are sharing with their students (which will better help them know what to expect from their students' research) and, 2) what their students are doing? (Occasionally checking email is fine, but but not knowing when I ask them a direct question about their assignments because they are so unattached from the class doesn't convey respect for the information they felt was so important for their students to learn--and, of course, loud keyboard clicks are distracting for all.)

Whenever I am in the back of the computer classroom (which is where we encourage instructors to sit while we instruct), waiting to deliver my part of the lesson, I scan the computer monitors to see if students are on task or lost and listen to the instructor to see if there are additional pieces I should include in my lesson plan for that day (or for future sessions).  I also try to assist lost students or encourage students to pay better attention (asking a student to stop texting, put away their headphones, etc.).

Where I work, we have a policy where instructors must be present in the classroom when librarians are teaching because, if professors use our sessions as a "baby sitter" during conference or sick days, what message does that convey to students? On the same note, what message does it convey to students when professors mentally check out for the day?   

Quality work:

My goal is to give students the tools to be successful in the long run.  I want students to learn something and learn it well, to the point where they are automatically able to incorporate IL skills into their schoolwork, future employment, and personal life.  First, students need clear expectations from the start.  This not only sets students up for success, but also professors when they go to assess learning artifacts.  This means being organized with your materials, with your syllabus, having a plan before you assign something, and knowing your structure before you build your online course material (we use Blackboard--if you plan to use a resource or technology, you must first instruct students on how to use it--do not assume they have experience with the technology). This also means, as a professor, you need to pull out the time machine and transport yourself back to your years as a college student when you are designing your syllabus, assignments, group activities, and other course materials. Have others read through your materials to see if there is language you could clarify.  Are you being specific enough or too specific with your guidelines? Have you tried researching those topics--In doing so, were you able to find the types and numbers of resources you are restricting your students to? If you can't fulfill those requirements, how can you expect students to? (This is something we see a lot.)  Sometimes what sounds like a good idea or a completely doable topic is very unreasonable once you place your restrictions or try to track down the information.  On the flip side, sometimes an assignment is unreasonable because there aren't enough restrictions.

I have also found some professors who have fallen victim to a "good enough" mentality. While I agree that there is little a professor can do once an assignment has been submitted, I think by building skills as you go, students will submit higher-quality learning artifacts and perform better on summative assessments.  But I have seen professors touch on topics which their students are obviously not grasping.  Instead of deviating from their scripted lesson plans to clarify materials, they stick to their plan and the students lose out and remain confused.  I think it is important for students to learn some things on their own, but it is also important for professors to clarify (and modify), as necessary. 

Making sure students produce quality work also means instructors lead by example.  By modeling good research habits and distributing quality resources to your students you show them the importance of quality information and a quality product.  If you are going to have students read articles, please be sure they are reliable & well-respected--not something you found on About.com, Wikipedia, or WebMD (all real-life examples...). Also, be sure you are not accepting those types of resources from students.  Essentially, when you accept those materials for their assignments, you are reinforcing that "good enough" is acceptable and even preferred.

Additional comments & conclusions: 

Are these lax professor expectations a result of inexperience or lack of teacher training? Perhaps. Many terminal degrees don't require much (if any) training for their students to prepare them to be educators.  The emphasis is on research and publishing rather than effective education practices at the higher level. This leaves students without true leaders in the classroom.  Instead of teachers, they are given subject specialists who know amazing things within their discipline, but cannot convey those ideas in such a manner that students are able to understand and apply the concepts.

But what about those veteran professors who have many years of experience in the classroom? Are those cases of "this is how I've always done it" or "I already know this stuff" or other situations where the classroom culture doesn't just permit off-task, disrespectful, or distracting behaviors, it even goes so far as encouraging these things?  I know there are many excellent educators teaching at the college level.  I have had them as professors and mentors, and have worked with them as colleagues.  But, as is human nature, I sometimes get stuck on (and frustrated by) those who aren't teaching to the level I would expect of myself.  The question comes back to this:

How do we, as librarians, resolve within ourselves (first) and within the classroom the difference between (lower) professor expectations and the (higher) expectations we hold?
Posted by Cara at 4:20 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Monday, August 20, 2012

IULILColloq2012: Designing with Learners in Mind

The final session of the day was Christina Wray's (Center for Disability Information and Referral, Indiana University Bloomington) session" Designing with Learners in Mind: Utilizing Universal Design for Learning Principles in Library Instruction." Wray began by having attendees determine their learning style based on the descriptions she had on her handout (they boiled down to: imaginative, analytical thinker, hands-on learner, and spontaneous/free thinker).  This reinforced the idea that we all learn differently, but, if we design instruction to each all learners and intentionally plan beforehand, you're really avoiding creating "more work" later (rather than backtracking and reteaching, you're setting all types of learners up for success from the start).

  • "Universal design is not a trend, but an enduring design approach that assumes that the range of human ability is ordinary, not 'special.'" ~Elaine Ostroff
  • I love this quote Wray used because, in my "previous life" as a music teacher, I saw this all of the time--There is no "normal" way to learn.  No one approach to teaching will reach all learners, which is why it is crucial to approach each concept and skill from a variety of angles & present it to students in a way that engages them in multiple ways (see the three pillars below).
The Three Pillars of Universal Design for Learning (directly from Wray's handout)
  • Provide multiple, flexible methods of presentation
    • Provide options for perception
    • Provide options for language, mathematical expression and symbols
    • Provide options for comprehension
  • Provide multiple, flexible methods of action and expression
    • Provide options for physical action
    • Provide options for expression and communication
    • Provide options for executive functions
  • Provide multiple, flexible methods of engagement
    • Provide options for recruiting interest
    • Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
    • Provide options for self-regulation
Many of the librarians who attended the session, including Wray, are at institutions that primarily deliver one-shot instruction sessions, which can sometimes make using Universal Design seem unrealistic given their time constraints.  Wray emphasized that Universal Design makes your instruction more efficient because you're actually doing a better job of reaching students & making the important concepts & skills "stick." I am very lucky to be at an institution that has a large and growing Embedded Librarian program, so I get to see many of the same students multiple times throughout the semester, and can take more time teaching (and therefore include a wider variety of approaches with) concepts and skills. 

Wray has compiled a delicious.com list of resources and links (and continues to add to this as new resources become available): http://delicious.com/ccwrayiub/iuilc

Here are a few that I put big ol' stars by in my notes:
I loved that this session and my teaching philosophy overlapped in many ways and I loved that we walked away with a ton of great resources to tap into when we got home! 

The IULILColloq2012 ended with some closing remarks and prizes... Some of the prize giveaways consisted of drawing names from hats, while the last one was a bit more...participatory.  Sometimes it can be hard to get librarians (even the crazy instruction librarians) to volunteer for activities... So I stepped up to the plate and raised my hand when Carrie Donovan asked for volunteers.  Little did I know I would be asked to read Standard 3 of the ACRL IL Standards aloud...in a (horribly executed) British accent (though I did do it with...errr...gusto?).  All in all, I had a blast at this year's IULILColloq and hope it is a tradition that continue! I know the date is already set for next year's: August 2, in the same place, New Albany, IN.  
Posted by Cara at 12:41 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)