Teaching Strategies

Today’s session was on the scholarship of teaching and learning. I really wanted to make sure to include it because this is something we’re all capable of doing right now and is nice to address after covering most of the content. I’m also saving the last class for wrap up and synthesis.

So, here are the slides:

If you have any questions, a lot of us have published and presented in this area. Feel free to ask for advice or collaboration!!

Announcements from the start of class:

• I’m planning to do a wrap up session for the swap and share. Don’t worry, you’ll still get to swap and share–I just want to make sure to have time to tie together all the threads we’ve started this semester. It’s gonna be a good class, please come if you can.
• Monday, May 11, at 10:00am we’ll have a session to share how we handle our lib100/20X classes. Each person will have time to talk about what they do, why they do it, and/or if it works. This will be a good chance to learn what others are doing, get ideas, and learn about how other people approach information literacy.
• Will have a workshop this summer on the practical application of what we’ve been discussing for course design. Watch for something from Giz or the PDC on this.
• Based on feedback, we’re looking at a model for next semester of a facilitated weekly discussion on the “nuts and bolts” of teaching. Of course, as with this semester, attendance isn’t required, but we want to make sure to provide this opportunity for the people who do want it. If this sounds good, we’ll start planning the logistics (schedule, how to get topics, how to get speakers, etc). At the end of the fall semester we can reevaluate and do whatever people would like (nothing, another teacher-led class, another facilitated discussion, etc).

Today’s powerpoint:

Notes from today:

• Formative assessment: clickers, end of class assignment, muddiest point, learning logs, weekly blog
• Summative assessment: EOG, big paper, annotated bibliography, final project, quizzes (depending on if graded and how used)
• Informal assessment measures performance, application, processes the students are going through
• Formal assessment measures performance against a benchmark, content mastery, ability to take a test, performance
• Objective assessment strengths include easy to grade, good for subjects with right answer (like math), good for skills-based work (like finding a book. Weaknesses include that it’s hard to create good questions, some things aren’t right or wrong.
• Subjective assessment strengths include the ability to see the big picture in the students’ work, easier to create assignments, open ended statements require students think of something to say. Weaknesses include grading time, consistency in grading, and can be hard for student to get started–it can be overwhelming. (Rubrics can help)

Questions? Leave them in the comments!!

Today’s class focused on the practical, down and dirty, aspects of classroom management. Since I knew this was a topic of interest for several people, and that we had already covered IGI and Conversation Theory a bit in another session, I decided to focus our attention on the classroom aspects of teaching. If anyone’s particularly interested in that, though, I’m happy to chat.

A reminder: Roz and I are meeting next week to discuss this project and next steps. If anyone has feedback, questions, ideas for future teaching initiatives, please let one of us know!!

I also mentioned Central Michigan’s FaCIT Take 5 For Teaching website. It’s a great resource for practical tips if you have a spare five minutes and an area you’re interested in learning more about.

Okay! The things we discussed:

First Day

• Student Tours
• Discussion of how students currently use the library (perhaps followed with student led tour)
• Students fill out card about what they want to get from the class (to be used in refining the syllabus)
• Showing the library website and how to do useful things (place a hold, reserve a study room, etc)
• Clickers to get demographic information and introduce the tool
• Learning style inventory

Getting Students To Talk

• Room and layout makes a difference. Giz volunteered to help rearrange for a few hours this summer to see if there are any good solutions. I’m in. Anyone else?
• Worksheets and in class assignments in lieu of discussion
• Pair work

Group Word

• No one currently lets students choose if they want to work alone or in a group
• Students might resist group work, but it’s good for them (they’ll have to do it for the rest of their life)
• Service learning as a way to do group work with one large class group

Getting Comfortable with Speaking

• Practice with an audience
• The shift between the reference librarian’s role as a helper/expert to a teacher’s role as the one in charge is a hard one
• Praise in public, chastise in private
• Set ground rules

Multitasking Students

• Ignore it
• Ask how what they’re doing is applicable (if blatant)
• Teach from in front of the multitasking student, wherever they’re sitting

Attendance and Tardiness

• Quiz grades: that they count towards attendance, that they start when the class starts so their grades reflect tardiness
• Tick off each comment as class participation
• In class graded exercises
• Shut door when class starts
• Stop and comment when people come in late

Learning Names

• Name table tent by each student
• Assigned seats

Establishing Class Rules

• As a class
• List that is modified each semester based on previous experiences

So, those are the comments I managed to record during our discussion. If I missed something or you think of something else, please add it! If you have any other Q&A, please leave them here!!

This is just a space in case you have questions or comments on active learning! Do you do anything interesting with your classes that you would like to share? (We’d like to hear it!)

Today we talked about several types of learning theories, really quickly. We’ll go into several of them in greater depth in the next few classes.

Because I used a very “meta” approach, I’m rolling the two posts into one here.

We started with a Q&A exercise that Kevin, Craig, and I have used in Lib100. Everyone (who wanted to) wrote questions they have in the course, and after it was over everyone (who wanted to) added tick marks to the ones they also shared. This will help Roz and me make sure to cover what you want by the end of the course.

We started with Active Learning, and used a case study as an example. The case study could be approached with an active learning strategy, but that wasn’t necessary. The point of the exercise was to experience an active learning activity.

Next up we addressed Problem Based Learning. In this case each pair had a problem they chose (how to teach a specific skill) and had a minute to find a way to solve the problem. The pairs shared out with the larger group, reflected and discussed some more, and had the opportunity to share their solutions again.

The third method we explored was Inquiry Based Learning which is perhaps the most student-driven solution. Pairs (again!) explored some aspect of IGI (how it’s related to the other subjects we’ve covered, if it is effective, how to incorporate it into instruction, etc) and shared out to the class.

Service Learning was our fourth topic, were everyone reflected individually on a project that they were very involved in. After reflecting we shared with the group.

The final category was conversation theory, in which the group would make connections as a whole. However, I had a meeting scheduled right up to that moment in class, so I had to leave at this point. If someone wants so share how that went… feel free to comment!

So, the big meta of the day:

• It was fast! It was designed to be fast to get through a lot of content for those who wanted a taste of a bunch of things. The speed also allowed us to demonstrate that there will be a lot of content about the specific topics we’ve singled out for future classes so that participants would know it’s more than just what is covered on the surface at conferences, in mainstream education literature, etc. Finally, if someone’s really busy and having a hard time making it to the classes, there was enough content to know if it’s something you want to know more about in the future. Of course, we hope you’ll come, though!
• I tried to fit in pair work leading to discussion, pair work that informs discussion that informs pair work, and personal reflection. Each of these approaches has strengths and weaknesses and a combined approach allows you to give more people a chance to do something that resonates with their own learning style.

If you have questions, please leave them here!

This is just a space in case you have questions or comments on the different learning styles/intelligences that we discussed!

This is just a space in case you have questions or comments on the different educational psychology issues we discussed!

This is just a space in case you have questions or comments on the different taxonomies we discussed!

This is just a space in case you have questions or comments from today!