Posts Tagged 'required reading'

Teaching techniques galore!

Published February 28, 2011 reading Leave a Comment
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In preparation for a presentation at the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching, I read Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors: 17 Innovative Strategies to Improve Student Learning. The book was very helpful, both for our session and my teaching. Below are some rough notes if you are interested. Some chapters were more relevant to me, so I’ve fleshed out those notes a bit. All of the chapters are interesting and I would encourage any librarian instructor to pick it up! It is definitely worth the read.

And more to come soon about Lilly! It was a great conference, but there was lots to process.

Chapter 1: how teach makes difference in what students learn; “Effective instruction demands the use of many strategies.” (pg 2)

  • direct instruction (objectivism): present info effectively and efficiently; behavioral change is ultimate goal; demo of databases is example of behavioral direct instruction; using analogies (compare this database to online searching) is cognitive instruction;
  • Use of instructional objectives is major contribution of behavioral theories (“planning for outcomes can make a difference in your teaching”)
  • tailoring to different learning styles is example of cognitive style – students are active, but the focus is on teacher shaping classroom to elicit desired behaviors
  • acrl info lit competencies: develop research plan, identify keywords/synonyms, select controlled vocab, construct and implement search strategy and search
  • student-centered learning (constructivism): focus on the situation in which student in which student is engaged (pg 5); focus on students learning by having students interact with each other; social justice component

Direct instruction (objectivism) examples:

Chapter 2:

  • cephalonian method = students are given color coded cards with questions to help them guide (in a way) the library tour. They are called on through the “tour” to ask certain color categories while the librarians are presenting a powerpoint of the “tour”. The tour is held in a lecture hall.
  • the cards are color coded for different categories of info (blue = basic info, yellow = recommend reading, red = services & facilities, green = misc)
  • PowerPoint slides correspond to the cards (but this would be great for prezi)
  • Process: played music at beginning, hand out cards, ask students to stand and ask question based on colors; asked questions at end of session to test crowd knowledge
  • my thoughts = could be easily adapted to a variety of sessions, the planting of questions may seem artificial but students often don’t know what questions to ask us. This way it is guided but interactive. I may try this in my residential college session in the fall.

Chapter 3: universal design for learning – use different teaching strategies to reach diverse groups of learners

Chapter 4: clickers; used in a plagiarism session

Chapter 5:  brief lecture followed by library research game; good discussion of how she implemented the game and the questions she asked. While I wouldn’t ask the same questions, they provide fuel for creating your own.

Chapter 6: transferability of concepts learned in instruction session.

  • instruction sessions emphasize concepts and transferability;
  • metaphor helps with understanding;
  • first asking students what they have done already re research; next use google for searching;
  • they use guess the google game in class to help with thinking about keyword brainstorming (http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/)

Chapter 7: teaching with stories/analogies

Chapter 8: jigsawing

  • cooperative learning – using small groups to reinforce student learning;
  • subset of wider idea of collaborative learning;
  • refers to this article as good one for LI (http://www.libraryinstruction.com/active.html);
  • they used half-jigsaw because of time constraints;
  • half-jigsaw = divide students into groups; teams given info resource to explore and basic instructions and tasks; students present to the class on findings; assess entire class with short exercise on what they learned from group presentations (keeps students focused on what groups are presenting)

Student-centered learning examples
Chapter 9: peer-led criteria creation

  • peer-led discussion groups to develop evaluation criteria for an “information text” (adolescent non-fiction);
  • gave students a “graphic organizer” with guided questions;
  • REALLY COOL!

Chapter 10: the imaginary undergrad

  • Because effective researchers are process-driven and not tool-driven (!!!) how to get students to think like they do?;
  • she creates an imaginary undergraduate with the students and then asks them for research topics for the students;
  • for the research process she asks them to come up with the process and use the computer to see if it works;
  • works best in small classes (6-9 people!) and upper-level students with general need to focus on research process (and not need to know about specific resources);
  • really cool approach but would it work in our one-shots? not so sure.

Chapter 11: personality tests

  • uses a short modified meyers-briggs personality quiz to teach boolean logic (called discover your perfect career which no longer seems to be on monster.com!);
  • asks students to raise hands if they match AND conditions based on their personality tests versus OR conditions (seems a bit convoluted to get to this activity);
  • next translates that to the library databases; then translate the library database to google search logic

Chapter 12: plagiarism tutorial

  • super cool plagiarism module in a info lit credit course (I’m going to use this with Ashby);
  • peer interviews, find the plagiarized text on google, paraphrasing exercises with hands-on group activity;
  • each activity took a week’s lesson

Chapter 13: Wikis and instruction

Chapter 14: Library session based on amazing race (for the equivalent of a UNS tour); involved chaos and running (my faves!!)

Chapter 15: Electronic portfolios as assessment tools

Chapter 16: Students presented their research findings in a movie format; talks about implementing the session and using technology in instruction

Chapter 17: Great chapter on creating an experiential instruction session/experience for ESL students. Asked students to fill out a matrix that compared the American library with their home library according to certain questions (e.g., How do you check books out?) (pg 165)

Chapter 18: Students created their own zines as part of a course on inequalities. The zine creation led up to a traditional research paper, but the students indicated that they felt better prepared for the research process. Pretty nifty!

For the Love of Reading meme: Just for fun and to celebrate a well deserved day off…

Published September 18, 2009 reading Leave a Comment
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Today is my first full day off this semester (Labor Day doesn’t count because I prepped class ALL day). I do need to clean house (the partner is turning 30 and the parental units are showing up), but most of the day will be spent reading. So, what better way to celebrate reading on rainy days off than a reading meme. Love it.

What have you just read?
Last book I finished was The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright about Al-Qaeda and the build up to 9/11. Excellent book by the way.

What are you reading now?
For our Friends of the Library book club, I’m reading The Innocent Man by John Grisham. I would’ve never picked this up on my own and I’m a bit surprised it was on the list, but hey that’s why you join a book club, right?!
Also, I’m finishing up When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. And when I say finishing up, I mean I’m hitting the 300 page mark in the 600 pager. Great book, just little long.

Do you have any idea what you’ll read when you’re done with that?
The next book club book is Stoner by John Williams. I also want to read Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz because he is the funniest thing ever. I’m trying to read The Librarian Instruction Cookbook. … Trying.

What’s the worst thing you were ever forced to read?
Anything with the word competencies or guidelines in the title. Also some of my grad school Political Science literature was so horribly written that I wanted to rip my eyes out.

What’s one book you always recommend to just about anyone?
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. Seriously, you should read it. I have a copy. You can borrow it.

Admit it, sadly the librarians at your library know you on a first name basis, don’t they?
Um. Well, sadly, yes. Because I’m a librarian. Do you have a problem with that?

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?
The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod

Do you read books while you eat?
Books and magazines. I’m hard core like that.

While you bathe?
Well, not that hard core.

While you listen to music?
Hells no.

When you were little did other children tease you about your reading habits?
No. I was big enough that I could beat them up.

What’s the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn’t put it down?
Strangely enough, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Not a perfect book, but the section on the Korean airline was riveting. And I’m not being sarcastic.

Have any books made you cry?
Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey. Threw it across the room a couple of times too. Read it. Great book. I have a copy. You can borrow it.

Required Reading: Marketing Today’s Academic Library

Published August 7, 2009 outreach , the profession , work 2 Comments
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After reading a College and Research Libraries News blurb about Brian Mathews, the author of Marketing Today’s Academic Library, I began to see his name all over the blogosphere. I decided it was fate and I needed to read his book. Admittedly I didn’t start reading with much enthusiasm (because the topic has plenty of coverage in libraryland), but this book is a fantastic guide to understanding basic marketing principles and should be required reading for anyone involved in library marketing efforts.

I knew I would like the guy after reading his description of “becoming ubiquitous”. As a support institution for the academic life of our students we focus so intensely on courses and assignments and lose sight of the larger institution and its life. He argues that we need to engage with the lives of our students to communicate with them effectively.

I can appreciate such an argument because I have a unique relationship with my institution. I was an undergraduate in the 1990s; later I got a job as a staff member and entered graduate school. After grad school I became a faculty member. I have been on this campus over ten years. I know the university and its challenges very well. While knowing the campus too well can have drawbacks, I’m often dismayed by the lack of campus awareness in my library. In many ways this is what Mathews is arguing for—engagement with our communities rather than just attempts to sell ourselves to the communities.

The challenge is that engaging with the community requires a lot of commitment, work, and creativity. It isn’t as simple as throwing out a new bookmark or flyer geared “for the undergraduates”. Luckily Mathews’ book provides excellent guidance for understanding our student populations and planning a user focused marketing campaign. He also provides great examples and recommendations throughout. Also I was really happy to see the chapter “Measuring Your Impact”. He gives concrete advice for the admittedly difficult part—evaluating your efforts. For example he suggests response based marketing—asking users to visit a website for “more information” – as a simple measure of a campaign’s impact. The key consideration is that he suggests multiple approaches for assessment rather than relying on one old stand-by.

One challenge for me is that a few of his examples rely on a particular understanding of the organization of the library. In his library (assumedly modeled on Georgia Tech), there are “fun” collections such as movies and music CDs. There are also video cameras, coffee shops, and much more. At my university the movies and rental video cams are housed in the Teaching and Learning Center, a separate entity from the library. The Music Library has music CDs but they are not in a browsable collection and students need special permission to take them out of the building. We have a fun reading collection that I certainly love, but I’m a geek who likes books. Needless to say we don’t have an in-house coffee shop. While this is a minor point, it may take a bit of creative thinking to relate some of his examples to your own particular setting. Just don’t get demoralized trying to live up to (what sounds like) the coolest library ever.

Additionally a committee approach to implementing his ideas would be effective but everyone would need to be on the same page (and preferably familiar with the book). I tried to convey some of his arguments in my marketing committee meeting, but it is difficult to describe his approach to people who haven’t read it. I would encourage any marketing committee to read this book as a group and have a giant brainstorming session afterwards (Brian can thank me for increasing his circulation numbers). Seriously, it would be worth the time. And considering it is a short and fun read, it won’t require a lot of effort!

Have you read Marketing Today’s Academic Library? If so, what did you think? What ideas do you have for library marketing?

Everyday I write the book

Published July 25, 2009 work , writing 4 Comments
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Or so Paul Silvia would hope.

I am not exaggerating when I write that Paul Silvia’s How to Write a Lot changed my life. I place it on the same level as Getting Things Done for complete brilliance in simplicity. I am perfectly comfortable with the existence of manic cults rabidly dissecting the minutiae when it comes to these two books. They ought to win Pulitzer Prizes for General Nonfiction.

OK, maybe that is an exaggeration.

But, Paul Silvia’s How to Write a Lot is perfect for academics and others who have writing expectations (especially as the book is very short!). Silvia is a Psychology professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (disclosure: my institution). He has been a prolific writer and wrote HTWAL to convey the methods that worked for him.

His argument is simple. We need to set regular writing times (starting at four hours per week), establish regular achievable goals (“Finish my novel” is not achievable), and recognize that writing is a craft and not just an art. But there is much more; summarizing his argument down to those three principles is kind of like saying GTD is about making lists.

In addition to the basic ideas, he provides a few tricks for encouraging your writing. My favorite is his use of coffee as a motivator, but his idea of creating a writing group is also brilliant. The writing group, called an Agraphia group, should be a community of peers that meets weekly or bi-weekly to set goals for the coming time period. The peer group should hold each member accountable for the creation of achievable goals and provide positive reinforcement of success.

While the book is geared to research faculty, the principles are certainly applicable for the varied types of writing librarians do. The untenured librarians at UNCG created our own Agraphia group after hearing about Silvia’s book through the faculty grapevine. I think it has been pretty successful. We are very flexible in our writing projects; presentation proposals, user guides for our patrons, and even blog posts are acceptable. In my view, any writing project can provide inspiration for other possibilities plus you are giving yourself time to practice the craft.

Although he briefly mentions this, the only thing I would add to Paul Silvia’s book is the need to have our writing reviewed. Too often in libraryland we seem nervous about letting others read our stuff. In my Political Science graduate program we had regular writing workshops based on areas of concentration, and they were incredibly useful though at times brutal. While I’m not encouraging brutality (much), constructive criticism of ideas and writing style is tremendously helpful. In addition to having them at the local level I wonder if small group workshops would work through ACRL. The sections could call for participants within their subject areas, provide a submission deadline, and then distribute the papers in advance of the conference. Or, even better, we could move into the 21st century and have virtual writing workshops! Maybe there wouldn’t be enough interest; maybe the publishing turnover is too quick in libraryland. Maybe it is something to think about though.

Have you read Paul Silvia’s How to Write a Lot? If so, did you find it useful or overly simplistic? Other writing tips you would give your fellow librarians?

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