Teaching Tools Roundup

Ahoy Bookaneers!

As I'm finishing up my second quarter as a real librarian, and preparing for my upcoming quarter, I find my desk(top) covered with the new accoutrements of our profession. While many of these items bear the word "library" on them, they also bear words like "literacy," "pedagogy," "teaching," and "classroom." What has surprised me most these last two quarters is the sheer amount of teaching I have done--and the amount that I have to look forward to. This instruction takes many forms, and happens both in-person and virtually: class sessions with students I see only once or twice, one-on-one instruction while assisting a student at the reference desk, carefully detailed tips and advice in response to an email reference question, or virtual learning objects like research guides and video tutorials. This spring I'll teach a two-credit, full-quarter information literacy class as part of an I-BEST cohort, and the prospect of 20 hour-long class sessions has me both excited and just a little nervous.

I know that several of us have been experiencing the same steep learning curve as we recognize the gaps in our knowledge about teaching at the same time that we see the potential for its impact on our students. So, I thought I'd pull together some of the resources that I've found most useful in helping me grow as an educator, and I would love to hear what you all have been using, too.

• Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice by Geneva Gay has been invaluable in my process of thinking about classroom dynamics and communication styles at the very culturally diverse community colleges where I work. Gay, an instructor at our very own University of Washington, brings into focus the ethnocentricity of traditional American teaching styles, and how disenfranchising that classroom environment can be for our students. Most excitingly, Gay explores the multiplicity of communication styles represented in a multicultural classroom, and how much richer our educational experiences will be if we harness that diversity of styles in our teaching.
  

• The recent blog post "Reflective Teaching for Librarians" by Char Booth nicely summarizes the experiences I've had working with all you bright Bookaneers and the incredibly gifted educators at Seattle Central Community College, Shoreline Community College, and Highline Community College where I work and teach. Char suggests some practical approaches to collaboration, mentoring, and observation that operationalize all of the knowledge that we, almost unconsciously, absorb from our colleagues. With the brisk pace of the reference desk, its easy to forget some of the brilliant techniques that we witness daily, and it pays to be as disciplined in our record keeping as Booth suggests.

• Teaching Information Literacy: 50 Standards-Based Exercises for College Students by Joanna M. Burkhardt and Mary C. MacDonald with Andree J. Rathemacher comes as close as a book can be to the practical ideas that you get observing a colleague in the classroom. While the exercises are so concrete as to be a little limiting at times, I really appreciate the step-by-step instructions of how to plan different lessons around the various and interlocking elements of information literacy.

• While I don't necessarily agree with them all of the time, the ACRLInformation Literacy Competency Standards have been an important touchstone as I've planned classes; discussed the value of information literacy with administrators; and struggled to define, in my own mind, how the skills that I teach differ from the content of the class that I'm teaching to.

• A thousand thanks to Bookaneer Freeda Brook for sending along the brilliant In the Library with a Lead Pipe blog post on "Carleton: Forensic Librarians and Reflective Practices." Jastram, Leebaw, and Tompkins make a subtle but important distinction between teaching information literacy skills and fostering an information literate mindset, that has set my head spinning (along with Claire Murata's at Shoreline, with whom I can't stop talking about this) with ideas about how to shift my whole pedagogical paradigm.

• It's been over 10 years since I first encountered the classic Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and the inspiring Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, and they have been foundational to my thinking of the classroom as a possible place of liberation. Freire's simple injunction to remember that the teacher is also a student and that students are also teachers has had an amazing impact on the level of trust and relationship building in the classes that I have worked with. I've found that nothing makes students take me seriously faster than taking them seriously first.

I had no idea that teaching would form such a fundamental part of my practice as a librarian, but I am grateful that it does. Nothing takes more of my time than preparing for a class, but nothing feels as good as seeing a student's life get easier and more interesting because of something they learned in a class with me. We have the opportunity to make a huge impact on the lives of students in our classrooms, and I look forward to a lifetime of working with you all at getting better at that task.

Back aboard

Few of us have managed to keep actively swashbuckling this year, but in true Bookaneers fashion I’m feeling a burgeoning in my desire to post something, and in my stock of discussion topics. I promise I’ll try to keep it vaguely focused and under control (in order to spare you, dear readers, I’ve relegated some of what I feel the need to say right now to comments on previous posts).

First off, though, let my fond hope be known: that this blog will prove a gathering place for bright minds and scintillating discussion (and perhaps even idling) as we—well, most of us—move on from library school to the rest of the wide world. Let our physical dispersal only reinforce our intentionality in posting!

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That said, I’d like to take a few minutes to reflect on my experiences with the group work aspect of library school. In a conversation with a professor last night I mentioned that it’s only in the past two years, through having to write papers cooperatively, that I really feel I’ve learned how to write. He expressed surprise and mentioned that this isn’t a perspective he often hears. And it got me thinking—do we not discuss the beneficial aspects of group work because they're few and far between, or because group projects are just one of those things we’re used to complaining about, perhaps using to commiserate?

When I say I learned to write, of course, I don’t mean how to string a sentence or some thoughts together, but how to approach writing—how to respect and give myself enough time to work through the process. I’m sure that part of this has to do with observing other work styles up close and seeing where they are more (or less) effective than my own; and that part of it is the inevitable result of continuing to write, get feedback, adjust, repeat. But I don’t think this shift would have happened as quickly or enjoyably were it not for a few specific projects during which I was finally able to experience the ideal goal of group work: dividing responsibility and feeling confident your colleagues will do their part; refining ideas together; and building upon one another’s insights to create something that none of you could have come up with on your own.

In reflecting on the power of these experiences in my own graduate school career--the affirming effect they’ve had on my feelings about my decision to enter this particular field, as well as shifting my perspective on the value and possibilities of group work in general--I’m struck by two things in particular.

The first is the centrality to this transformation of the specific people I’ve worked with; obviously this type of learning comes most easily when the group you’re paired with are effective writers, workers, and collaborators themselves, and you all have something to teach one another (and are willing to learn). The second is the contrast between the several very positive group work experiences I have had, and the (about as frequent) extremely negative and frustrating attempts at productivity in groups that did not work well together. I’m sure we’re all more than familiar with that particular story—the member who won’t pull their weight, doesn’t follow through on promises, and/or relies on the fact that someone in the group will care enough to take on more than their share if it becomes clear that’s the only way things are going to get done.

There seems to be a prevalence of group work in library masters' programs in particular, and I've often heard its use discussed with reference to the collaborative nature of the field. Given that I've been in plenty of group projects since early grades but never found this felicitous convergence of skills and personalities until now, I would love to hear what others think. Are we all just more mature and ready to work together? Or are my expectations now too idealistic, and did I just get lucky with my groupmates? (Or my cohort—there are a number of other people I could imagine being happy to work alongside). What’s been your experience with group projects? The ratio or range of bad-to-good? Are group projects a useful approach for library schools to employ? And, for those in the work world, did any of these experiences prove useful in preparing you for employment in the field?

Extra! Extra! Read all about libraries! Hot off the press!

Oh, print metaphors! You are getting so quaint.

Robots in the library!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESCxYchCaWI

A very nice post from Salon about the New York Public Library and the role of the library as public space and place:
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/05/11/nypl_centennial/index.html

Seth Godin makes a good effort in this post, though I don't agree with everything:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/the-future-of-the-library.html

For interesting commentary on all of this:

http://www.metafilter.com/103550/Why-should-I-have-to-wait-for-a-damn-robot-to-get-me-my-book