How People Learn, Chapter 7 - Effective Teaching: Examples in History, Mathematics, and Science
It was useful to read this chapter about effective teaching across disciplines (plus I just love this book!). Digging back into How People Learn and being reminded of that good learning is dependent on pedagogical and well organized knowledge is always a helpful framework when thinking about teaching and learning. I also love how the authors incessantly remind us that solid learning begins with what student's already know and their questions about the material.
At first I wondered why we were reading this chapter - why do I need to know how to teach history, math and science? And, well, I probably won't need to know how to teach each of these individually, but I do need to know what helps people learn in different disciplines and different ways. What I took from this chapter was that different ways of teaching, connecting students to previous knowledge, activities that promote real knowledge growth, and creating communities of learning and practice are cross disciplinary techniques that depend on an expert instructor. It's not that any teacher couldn't use these with practice and expert knowledge of subjects, but more that most instructors don't use these methods continuously. I thought that the discussion of history dates and facts vs. research and evidence was particularly interesting. The idea that "the history" is really just "a history" and that the dates and facts are just a basis (as is computation in math) for the larger picture. Remembering that people learn differently was also a major point in all of the disciplines.
Keeping these things in mind is helpful when thinking about library instruction because all of those broader concepts apply - prior knowledge, different types of learners, being an expert, and creating community are things that librarians can and should consider while they plan their instructional sessions.
Montgomery 2010 - Online Webinars! Interactive Learning Where Our Users Are: The Future
of Embedded Librarianship
This article was interesting because it simply makes sense. Librarians can and must become embedded in instruction (be it an academic library with academic departments, a public library with information about public school curricula, or a school librarian with individual class material). The points made in here that librarians can be active in students learning through technology, can connect directly with faculty, and can have a way to connect beyond a "one-shot workshop" are critical to making embedded librarianship work. Librarians can prove, once again, that they are integral parts of deep learning and can become embedded beyond the library into departments, courses, and assignments. Interactive webinars are one way of doing this and they reach far beyond even virtual reference. They provide a space for people to interact via technology and help the face-to-face happen without needing to be in the same place. I see this as a potential area where librarians can really excel and be engaged. A librarian could do a webinar for a course before it starts - "here is what will be helpful to you as you work through this class," "I'll be holding office hours via chat every week at this time," "look for my short webinar before you do this assignment, I'll be online when it's over so you can ask any questions." Ideas like that are completely doable and exciting to consider :)
Matos, Motley, Mayer 2010 - The Embedded Librarian Online or Face-to-Face: American University's
Experiences
This article provided concrete examples of how embedded and hybrid librarianship works. It seems interesting that the question remains - "would virtual embedded librarians remain relevant if they still had office space" because to me, the answer is clearly "yes." I see librarians needed in EVERY space: online for those who don't want to or can't talk face-to-face, via webinar for those who can't make it to a session, in person for those who want to sit down and talk with someone one-on-one. If a problem is coordination of this, a library could appoint a coordinator for these or develop policy on how to manage time, space, and technologies. I appreciated this article because it gave me other ways to consider librarianship and best practices for engaging with users.
View a Webinar from a list to be provided - Webinar page on wiki, including link to Webinar Strategies page
I viewed a webinar sponsored by Library Journal and EBSCO/NoveList called "Libraries are Essential: Connecting to Youth in Your Community." I must warn readers... I spent over an hour trying to download RealPlayer and figuring out how to make this thing work, (also the reason this is posted just at 9pm), so I might be a bit bitter in my overall evaluation. I have to say that this webinar exemplifies the reason I am not a fan of webinars. I used to watch them ALL THE TIME in one of my previous jobs, and never felt connected to the presenters. I have to say, participating in class a couple of weeks ago with Bobbi was the best webinar I'd seen even though we couldn't see anything. The slides during this webinar were not engaging, I couldn't find a chat transcript so I couldn't see questions or comments (not sure if they were submitted anonymously during the webinar) and I wasn't sure how to contact the presenters to get the materials they discussed during their webinar. Plus, the presenters didn't seem quite as energetic or prepared as I would have thought. The first woman who spoke seemed very nervous (maybe she was?) but then maybe webinars are not her best option for presenting information. I get the point of webinars, I've just yet to see one that's really been engaging and interesting (outside of our time with Bobbi). Otherwise, it's hard to sit for an hour and not be distracted...
I must say, though, that this excites me to see my classmates and my own webinars. Hopefully they (and my group) can change my slightly negative attitude toward this awesome tool.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Reflection of March 21, 2011 Class
During class last Monday we each had the opportunity to present a workshop with a partner (the same partner as for the Book Club assignment two weeks prior). This was an invaluable activity that - again - brought in professional practice that I know I will use in the near future. We each had to choose a library ethics topic and present for 20-25 minutes. It was first interesting to choose an ethics issue - my partner and I looked at the ALA Code of Ethics and chose to present on usefully using library resources. This may not seem like an ethics topic up front, but effectively providing access to users is actually a major ethical issue. If users cannot find what they need, they cannot use the material. Plain and simple.
One of the major challenges was time. I know that it was pretty logistical that we only had 20-25 minutes but it was also a good way to learn how to manage time in a workshop. We outlined our timeline for the session (which was extremely helpful) and made sure to stay on time, but to have to do this reminded me that in the real world, if a session runs over, you've got to be the President, or something, or else people will lose focus and or leave. So, keeping on time was important and this was a great way to practice this.
It was great to be able to see what others considered important ethical issues - cataloging correctly, use of new technologies, and ebooks/e-subscriptions were the topics in the Diamonds group. I not only learned "stuff" but I also got to observe other's teaching styles and what they considered to be effective learning. Most groups had a handout and did some sort of brainstorming or activity which made it clear that people thought those were effective learning methods, and I agree.
It was great to not only plan and present but also observe. This practical activity was fun and useful; I will be instructing this summer at the library and will most definitely use what I learned during this course and during this assignment.
One of the major challenges was time. I know that it was pretty logistical that we only had 20-25 minutes but it was also a good way to learn how to manage time in a workshop. We outlined our timeline for the session (which was extremely helpful) and made sure to stay on time, but to have to do this reminded me that in the real world, if a session runs over, you've got to be the President, or something, or else people will lose focus and or leave. So, keeping on time was important and this was a great way to practice this.
It was great to be able to see what others considered important ethical issues - cataloging correctly, use of new technologies, and ebooks/e-subscriptions were the topics in the Diamonds group. I not only learned "stuff" but I also got to observe other's teaching styles and what they considered to be effective learning. Most groups had a handout and did some sort of brainstorming or activity which made it clear that people thought those were effective learning methods, and I agree.
It was great to not only plan and present but also observe. This practical activity was fun and useful; I will be instructing this summer at the library and will most definitely use what I learned during this course and during this assignment.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Reflection of March 14, 2011 Class
Class last week was a blast and so helpful to think about issues which will be upcoming (presentations) and that are current (HCOD). It was extremely useful to discuss the presentations (one-shot workshops) both in the sense of what we could do long-term (icebreaker-type activities) and what we could do with our classmates. I learned a lot about what to do when it really is a one-shot workshop and that is the only time that I would have with participants such as the basics (bathrooms!), activities to help folks get acquainted, different ways to help people learn material (connecting it to prior knowledge, activities that will help them process what they've learned, and wrapping up/evaluations.
What I kind of walked away with, was that the content is actually a fairly small piece of the puzzle. That's not to say the content isn't important, but it seems like what is more important is how I choose to present the material - not just an hour or 20 minutes of information, but the ways that I intend for participants to be introduced to, and process material. To me, this means MORE planning, stronger objectives, and more intentional learning. When Kara and I were planning, we kind of said, well, we know we can talk about this, so how do we want people to learn it? Anyone who is at at workshop could probably talk about the content for as long as needed (especially with Q and A time) so I learned on Monday that we really need to think hard about the focus of the workshop and what we want our participants to truly walk away with (probably 2 or 3 things that they can actually use!)
Then, onto our HarperCollins discussion with Bobbi Newman. WOW. What an incredible experience. To have such an expert talk with us in such a professional way was pretty amazing. I am not sure I could have learned everything I did in another way, without reading incessantly for weeks. Her opinions, facts, and relatively neutral point of view were extremely valuable for me to learn about the issue and hear how professionals discuss such issues. To be able to ask questions to Bobbi, and really discuss with her this topic was incredible and I appreciate very much the opportunity to do so. It was also really cool to see our class on the twitter feeds of other well-known folks in the field. Yay!
As I saw on the syllabus, there were no readings? So I think I'm good on this part of blogging for the week... :)
What I kind of walked away with, was that the content is actually a fairly small piece of the puzzle. That's not to say the content isn't important, but it seems like what is more important is how I choose to present the material - not just an hour or 20 minutes of information, but the ways that I intend for participants to be introduced to, and process material. To me, this means MORE planning, stronger objectives, and more intentional learning. When Kara and I were planning, we kind of said, well, we know we can talk about this, so how do we want people to learn it? Anyone who is at at workshop could probably talk about the content for as long as needed (especially with Q and A time) so I learned on Monday that we really need to think hard about the focus of the workshop and what we want our participants to truly walk away with (probably 2 or 3 things that they can actually use!)
Then, onto our HarperCollins discussion with Bobbi Newman. WOW. What an incredible experience. To have such an expert talk with us in such a professional way was pretty amazing. I am not sure I could have learned everything I did in another way, without reading incessantly for weeks. Her opinions, facts, and relatively neutral point of view were extremely valuable for me to learn about the issue and hear how professionals discuss such issues. To be able to ask questions to Bobbi, and really discuss with her this topic was incredible and I appreciate very much the opportunity to do so. It was also really cool to see our class on the twitter feeds of other well-known folks in the field. Yay!
As I saw on the syllabus, there were no readings? So I think I'm good on this part of blogging for the week... :)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Just had to write... a great professional trip to Chicago!
So I went to Chicago yesterday - train left at 7:30am, and I took the train back, returning into Ann Arbor at 12:00am. A long, long day. But a good one; my time there couldn't have been better spent.
I had the opportunity to present at the Educause Midwest Regional Conference, held at the InterContinental Hotel right down town. My supervisor at the library and I participated in a poster session, where we displayed a poster we'd created and talked to people about it's contents. Our poster was on assessment of handouts that we provide at the Knowledge Navigation Center, Faculty Exploratory and Tech Deck. We complete four focus groups earlier in the term to evaluate how people learn new technology and what they like and dislike about the handouts we currently provide. Of course, the like the longer handout, but want a shorter handout, videos, an interactive handout, and activities. Needless to say, this was the first phase of our research.
It was interesting, because during the hour-long poster session I learned several things. First, I learned more about our project, just by talking about it and answering questions. I was able to better synthesize what we'd actually done and what we could do in the future. Second, I learned that not a lot of others have done this sort of assessment of their materials. To me, it seemed a fairly small task - a few focus groups and analyzing a fairly small amount of data, but it's just something that people haven't done. Finally, I learned what it was like to be at a conference. I was a bit nervous at first, but found the whole experience to be great professional development.
After our session, I traveled down to the Harold Washington Library YouMedia Center I had a chance to see not only a big, beautiful, old public library (which, ahem, needs to do research on how it uses it's huge amount of space), but also a youth media center in action. And wow, what a place. The walls are a bright green, there are flat screens on every wall, a young librarian (a 2008 SI grad) was working with some boys on redesigning and creating their youth center blog while another set of kids practiced their spoken word and recorded music. IN THE LIBRARY. This reconfirmed my beliefs that public libraries not only have to redefine themselves, but can and should. The YouMedia Center was one of the most lively places I've ever seen and kids actually want to be there. In my mind, this should be a model for other public libraries who are "fighting to survive." This place isn't just surviving, it's thriving. And your library can do this too... the MacArthur Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) are scaling this up, and offering an RFP that will end up funding 30 libraries nationwide. They see the value in sustainable, progressive public libraries, and they're showing it can be done.
It was so inspiring to see this and it gave me a lot of hope for our profession if we are willing to be creative, step outside the box, help people think about libraries differently, and make this change happen.
I had the opportunity to present at the Educause Midwest Regional Conference, held at the InterContinental Hotel right down town. My supervisor at the library and I participated in a poster session, where we displayed a poster we'd created and talked to people about it's contents. Our poster was on assessment of handouts that we provide at the Knowledge Navigation Center, Faculty Exploratory and Tech Deck. We complete four focus groups earlier in the term to evaluate how people learn new technology and what they like and dislike about the handouts we currently provide. Of course, the like the longer handout, but want a shorter handout, videos, an interactive handout, and activities. Needless to say, this was the first phase of our research.
It was interesting, because during the hour-long poster session I learned several things. First, I learned more about our project, just by talking about it and answering questions. I was able to better synthesize what we'd actually done and what we could do in the future. Second, I learned that not a lot of others have done this sort of assessment of their materials. To me, it seemed a fairly small task - a few focus groups and analyzing a fairly small amount of data, but it's just something that people haven't done. Finally, I learned what it was like to be at a conference. I was a bit nervous at first, but found the whole experience to be great professional development.
After our session, I traveled down to the Harold Washington Library YouMedia Center I had a chance to see not only a big, beautiful, old public library (which, ahem, needs to do research on how it uses it's huge amount of space), but also a youth media center in action. And wow, what a place. The walls are a bright green, there are flat screens on every wall, a young librarian (a 2008 SI grad) was working with some boys on redesigning and creating their youth center blog while another set of kids practiced their spoken word and recorded music. IN THE LIBRARY. This reconfirmed my beliefs that public libraries not only have to redefine themselves, but can and should. The YouMedia Center was one of the most lively places I've ever seen and kids actually want to be there. In my mind, this should be a model for other public libraries who are "fighting to survive." This place isn't just surviving, it's thriving. And your library can do this too... the MacArthur Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) are scaling this up, and offering an RFP that will end up funding 30 libraries nationwide. They see the value in sustainable, progressive public libraries, and they're showing it can be done.
It was so inspiring to see this and it gave me a lot of hope for our profession if we are willing to be creative, step outside the box, help people think about libraries differently, and make this change happen.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
ALA Ethics, Mosley, and HarperCollins
ALA Code of Ethics
I've been thinking a lot about ethics this term, mostly because I'm taking a course on Ethics and Applied Policy. I think this is actually the third class this semester for which I've been asked to read and review the ALA Code of Ethics - which is pretty cool in my book. It shows that SI and the field of library science are very aware that ethics are important to being a professional librarian. Overall, I find I agree with most all of the ethical statements, and believe they are necessary to upholding the rights of both librarians and users. The statements of providing: a high-level of service; intellectual freedom; library users rights to privacy; co-workers and colleagues the appropriate level of respect and fairness; public interest not private interest, service that keeps personal convictions and professional duties separate; and professional development (participation in as well), all seem vitally important to our profession. I've seen some of these in action, for example, in the February 2011 edition of the Ann Arbor Observer, there is a short piece in the UpFront section talking about fines and user's privacy rights. In another case, a librarian at the UM wanted to pull what they thought was a vulgar material from the collection and found ways to disallow it from circulating (keeping personal convictions and professional duties separate). In my relatively short library career, I've seen these ethical statements be needed to provide guidance on issues that are not always straightforward. Which is basically what "ethics" is :)
Mosley: Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty
This article was particularly interesting to me because of my current and former jobs. In my former job, I worked for the Director of some of the UM libraries and she was very focused on engaging faculty in the library. This article shows one way to do it well. Secondly, an issue that has arose several times in my current job is librarians working with faculty on assignments and providing direct support to the professors via ctools and in-person meetings. Ctools now has a feature where the librarian can upload resources and access the particular relevant assignment. Finally, I've actually been at the reference desk when these students come up with their library-integrated assignment. It's interesting to read this article, then, because it appears Texas A&M has thought through their model and that it works. Faculty often know the library for their own purposes but don't necessarily know how their students use the library. Through a workshop like the one described, faculty can have an orientation about the library AND better understand their students. Further, through librarian outreach, librarians can become integrated in curriculum (as was discussed a few weeks earlier in a different fashion), and can become a larger part of the campus.
HarperCollins: Three Perspectives
Whew! What an issue. And these tough issues will continue to come - quickly - as the digital world changes libraries forever. I chose to read three of the more generic pieces from this list since I (admittedly) did not read much about HarperCollins up to this point
Official HarperCollins statement: HC's official statement on Library Love Fest blog 3/1/2011, An Open Letter to Librarians
-Clearly HarperCollins knows they are in a jam - they wrote this letter on the defense, seeing that libraries won't be happy with their new policy. While they discuss their reasoning, they do not provide hard statistics or numbers showing where they got their 26 uselife of books. While they do say that they've talked to librarians, they don't specify who, what, where or the topic of the discussions. It's clearly problematic; the backlash justifies my statement.
Professional Organizations Respond: ALA Washington Office, 3/8/11, American Library Association tackles new challenges in the e-environment
-ALA's response was entirely professional. They've identified a solid, practical way to deal with this and how to keep their members informed. I'm not an ALA expert, so I don't know the way they usually deal with issues such as this, but it was refreshing and uplifting to see their response. They know that they need to take immediate action - and they have - and they know that it is their responsibility as a professional organization to inform their members and work for them. Kudos.
Press: Library Journal, 3/7/11, Library Consortia Begin To Vote Against HarperCollins Ebook Checkout Policy
This piece was helpful to read because it not only gave an overview of the issue, but also relayed what some libraries are doing in response. The statements by folks in the article show the way real people and organizations are dealing with this decision by HarperCollins. That libraries have revoked their licensing to HarperCollins sends a very strong statement that they completely disagree with the fact that books expire after 26 uses and that they will not stand for a company supposedly committed to resource sharing to do such a thing. The article is a bit biased, but it also raises issues of concern for the future.
My Thoughts
This whole thing is quite a mess - libraries already in funding trouble now are being challenged with providing users with what they think should be a given resource - one that is part of their future as a library. How are libraries supposed to move into the digital age if more and more constraints are put upon them? How are they supposed to survive (in the way they need to) if companies continue to restrict them? This seems to be a game between public and private, with private holding the cards trying to make money off the public which has very little right now. The companies need to survive too, but not at the cost of libraries.
I've been thinking a lot about ethics this term, mostly because I'm taking a course on Ethics and Applied Policy. I think this is actually the third class this semester for which I've been asked to read and review the ALA Code of Ethics - which is pretty cool in my book. It shows that SI and the field of library science are very aware that ethics are important to being a professional librarian. Overall, I find I agree with most all of the ethical statements, and believe they are necessary to upholding the rights of both librarians and users. The statements of providing: a high-level of service; intellectual freedom; library users rights to privacy; co-workers and colleagues the appropriate level of respect and fairness; public interest not private interest, service that keeps personal convictions and professional duties separate; and professional development (participation in as well), all seem vitally important to our profession. I've seen some of these in action, for example, in the February 2011 edition of the Ann Arbor Observer, there is a short piece in the UpFront section talking about fines and user's privacy rights. In another case, a librarian at the UM wanted to pull what they thought was a vulgar material from the collection and found ways to disallow it from circulating (keeping personal convictions and professional duties separate). In my relatively short library career, I've seen these ethical statements be needed to provide guidance on issues that are not always straightforward. Which is basically what "ethics" is :)
Mosley: Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty
This article was particularly interesting to me because of my current and former jobs. In my former job, I worked for the Director of some of the UM libraries and she was very focused on engaging faculty in the library. This article shows one way to do it well. Secondly, an issue that has arose several times in my current job is librarians working with faculty on assignments and providing direct support to the professors via ctools and in-person meetings. Ctools now has a feature where the librarian can upload resources and access the particular relevant assignment. Finally, I've actually been at the reference desk when these students come up with their library-integrated assignment. It's interesting to read this article, then, because it appears Texas A&M has thought through their model and that it works. Faculty often know the library for their own purposes but don't necessarily know how their students use the library. Through a workshop like the one described, faculty can have an orientation about the library AND better understand their students. Further, through librarian outreach, librarians can become integrated in curriculum (as was discussed a few weeks earlier in a different fashion), and can become a larger part of the campus.
HarperCollins: Three Perspectives
Whew! What an issue. And these tough issues will continue to come - quickly - as the digital world changes libraries forever. I chose to read three of the more generic pieces from this list since I (admittedly) did not read much about HarperCollins up to this point
Official HarperCollins statement: HC's official statement on Library Love Fest blog 3/1/2011, An Open Letter to Librarians
-Clearly HarperCollins knows they are in a jam - they wrote this letter on the defense, seeing that libraries won't be happy with their new policy. While they discuss their reasoning, they do not provide hard statistics or numbers showing where they got their 26 uselife of books. While they do say that they've talked to librarians, they don't specify who, what, where or the topic of the discussions. It's clearly problematic; the backlash justifies my statement.
Professional Organizations Respond: ALA Washington Office, 3/8/11, American Library Association tackles new challenges in the e-environment
-ALA's response was entirely professional. They've identified a solid, practical way to deal with this and how to keep their members informed. I'm not an ALA expert, so I don't know the way they usually deal with issues such as this, but it was refreshing and uplifting to see their response. They know that they need to take immediate action - and they have - and they know that it is their responsibility as a professional organization to inform their members and work for them. Kudos.
Press: Library Journal, 3/7/11, Library Consortia Begin To Vote Against HarperCollins Ebook Checkout Policy
This piece was helpful to read because it not only gave an overview of the issue, but also relayed what some libraries are doing in response. The statements by folks in the article show the way real people and organizations are dealing with this decision by HarperCollins. That libraries have revoked their licensing to HarperCollins sends a very strong statement that they completely disagree with the fact that books expire after 26 uses and that they will not stand for a company supposedly committed to resource sharing to do such a thing. The article is a bit biased, but it also raises issues of concern for the future.
My Thoughts
This whole thing is quite a mess - libraries already in funding trouble now are being challenged with providing users with what they think should be a given resource - one that is part of their future as a library. How are libraries supposed to move into the digital age if more and more constraints are put upon them? How are they supposed to survive (in the way they need to) if companies continue to restrict them? This seems to be a game between public and private, with private holding the cards trying to make money off the public which has very little right now. The companies need to survive too, but not at the cost of libraries.
Reflection of March 7, 2011 Class
Book club week! And boy, was it not only a good learning experience, but it was fun! After breaking up into our separate book club rooms, we had to find someone to kick off the class session. No one was speaking up, per se, and Kara and I had brought candy and had an activity planned to go with our Hansel and Gretel story, so I volunteered us to go first. While our reflection will go into more detail, I felt we did a great job in our book club (this sentiment was also found in our evaluations). The candy and drawing activity went over well, and it felt like those two things energized the group - good for the first book club of the night. We had no issues with getting people to talk, and in fact one of our criticisms on our evaluations was that we cut people off. This was partially intentional - the time for our club went incredibly fast and we wanted to make sure we had discussed enough topics. All in all, the book club was enjoyable and fun. One thing we did differently than every other group was split our discussion up; half was us discussing the story and the other half was discussing how we would use this in a youth book club as YA librarians. It was a unique twist on the book club and one which I thought worked well.
The other book clubs, those of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, The Landlady by Roald Dahl, The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians by Todd Gilman, and the Nightingale and The Rose by Oscar Wilde, all went really well. It was interesting to see how others approached their story or article, and interesting that only one group chose to discuss an academic article as opposed to a children's story. The largest challenge I saw for all groups was the issue of time (wanting to get questions in and going over, or having to modify plans as we did while going along). Each book club was unique, however and I felt we delved into all of the topics thoroughly.
Overall, it was a great activity and I definitely learned what to do differently next time - especially on issues of timing and bringing out more voices in the discussion. It went well!
The other book clubs, those of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, The Landlady by Roald Dahl, The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians by Todd Gilman, and the Nightingale and The Rose by Oscar Wilde, all went really well. It was interesting to see how others approached their story or article, and interesting that only one group chose to discuss an academic article as opposed to a children's story. The largest challenge I saw for all groups was the issue of time (wanting to get questions in and going over, or having to modify plans as we did while going along). Each book club was unique, however and I felt we delved into all of the topics thoroughly.
Overall, it was a great activity and I definitely learned what to do differently next time - especially on issues of timing and bringing out more voices in the discussion. It went well!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Book Club Readings...
I've been debating how to blog about our book club readings as I know we'll discuss them thoroughly in class on Monday during our actual book clubs (about which I'm pretty excited). It'll be pretty evident there as to whether or not I've done the reading critically, so I'll just list what I read and my immediate reflections to them (so if this is one blog post that is graded a bit less, I'll understand why). Overall, there was a very interesting diversity of reading and it really was quite enjoyable (yay grad school!).
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: This piece was quite short but very thought provoking. I am interested to see the questions and how our discussion plays out. Will we be participants discussing it in 1729 or will we be historians, of sorts? Two very different ways to view this piece....
The Landlady by Roald Dahl: I haven't read anything by Roald Dahl in YEARS and was excited to see this on the list (never read it as a child). I enjoyed the short story and am still processing the implications of it. There's a lot to wonder about, in this one...
The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians by Todd Gilman: Another interesting piece to read here! I liked the conciseness of the article and the topics presented. It was written nearly four years ago so again I wonder will we be discussing this circa 2007 or 2011, when there is still definitely a Reference Desk at OUR large research library :)
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde: I never remember hearing this story as a child but it is vaguely familiar to me. The story is so sad, and I'm still pondering "the point" of it. A good topic for book club discussions. Will we be children at the book club, or adults?
Looking forward to it!
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: This piece was quite short but very thought provoking. I am interested to see the questions and how our discussion plays out. Will we be participants discussing it in 1729 or will we be historians, of sorts? Two very different ways to view this piece....
The Landlady by Roald Dahl: I haven't read anything by Roald Dahl in YEARS and was excited to see this on the list (never read it as a child). I enjoyed the short story and am still processing the implications of it. There's a lot to wonder about, in this one...
The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians by Todd Gilman: Another interesting piece to read here! I liked the conciseness of the article and the topics presented. It was written nearly four years ago so again I wonder will we be discussing this circa 2007 or 2011, when there is still definitely a Reference Desk at OUR large research library :)
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde: I never remember hearing this story as a child but it is vaguely familiar to me. The story is so sad, and I'm still pondering "the point" of it. A good topic for book club discussions. Will we be children at the book club, or adults?
Looking forward to it!
Reflection of February 21, 2011 Class
Ah yes, it seems so long ago, the month of February and our wonderful guest speaker Vicki Brown, and our discussion of book clubs and socratic seminars. But, what a great class. Vicki was a tremendous asset to our topic and brought such practical knowledge it is hard to imagine what just reading about library book clubs in a book would be like. I learned a lot of valuable information from her and her handouts. The book club kits were a new idea to me and I found myself thinking of lots of ways that communities could engage via this type of book club format (across disciplines, workplaces, schools, community centers, etc.).
One thing I'm particularly focused on right now is engaging teens with libraries which is why Susan's question was interesting to me. I am a HUGE believer that we need to empower youth however we can, and was slightly disappointed to hear that the teen book club program was primarily run by librarians instead of teens. I understand why at least it would need to start that way but see the book club as a way for teens to bring one another into the library instead of librarians leading all the time. Of course the librarians can still promote and monitor the sessions, but I think teens can do anything and should have the opportunity to. Other than that (which wasn't even part of Vicki's presentation) I loved it and learned a lot!
Our discussion about book clubs and socratic seminars was also very interesting. It was helpful to learn about the types of questions, and then employ this while developing our own book club questions. It was also pretty awesome to hear the socratic seminar modeled in class... it was a great way to see the possibilities involved in this method in a real way. I did not ever really participate in such an activity in my schooling so it was helpful to both read about and see this in action! Now, I'm excited to run our book club!
One thing I'm particularly focused on right now is engaging teens with libraries which is why Susan's question was interesting to me. I am a HUGE believer that we need to empower youth however we can, and was slightly disappointed to hear that the teen book club program was primarily run by librarians instead of teens. I understand why at least it would need to start that way but see the book club as a way for teens to bring one another into the library instead of librarians leading all the time. Of course the librarians can still promote and monitor the sessions, but I think teens can do anything and should have the opportunity to. Other than that (which wasn't even part of Vicki's presentation) I loved it and learned a lot!
Our discussion about book clubs and socratic seminars was also very interesting. It was helpful to learn about the types of questions, and then employ this while developing our own book club questions. It was also pretty awesome to hear the socratic seminar modeled in class... it was a great way to see the possibilities involved in this method in a real way. I did not ever really participate in such an activity in my schooling so it was helpful to both read about and see this in action! Now, I'm excited to run our book club!
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