Day Twelve Teaching Evening (or Extended Time) Classes

This past weekend, Charlet Key gave a keynote at the adjunct academy professional development day entitled “Library Assignments Designed to Prevent Drowning.” The gist of the talk focused on the fact that when students are learning about how to find answers (i.e., information research), they don’t always need to do so to produce a 10-page research paper with a correctly-formatted (MLA? APA?) bibliography. The latter assignment may well fit into the learning outcomes of your class if it is a general education, transfer-oriented course; however, all of us know about additional information needs that people in our fields are likely to experience, ones that require deeper thinking and familiarity with the best places to find relevant information in our fields. Instead of that research paper, might it be even more valuable for your students to learn and practice information finding processes, especially ones that apply to problems they might experience in their everyday life?

Have you thought about creating meaningful research assignments that are real-world, but also develop searching/finding skills that students can use whether they end up majoring in your field or not? Today’s “idea” will focus on some of the tips and resources that Charlet shared, which can be adapted to fit your class.

For many students, the library provokes an uncomfortable feeling…perhaps:

• one of “overwhelm” (I have no idea where to begin! This place is huge!)
  
• one of “fear “(What if I can’t find the information required of me by ____ (due date)? What if the librarian thinks I’m stupid because I don’t know what a “refereed journal” is? Who can help me?)
  
• one of confusion (The markings on the books are not numbers, like they were in high school or in the neighborhood public library; how am I supposed to find anything?)
  
• general reluctance to doing something that feels strange.

As a result, all research-oriented assignments require scaffolding, such as clear instructions, getting-started resources (such as pointers to specific databases that will help students address the information need you give them), and feedback on early efforts. One way to get this process started is to confer with the reference librarian for suggestions on how to structure an assignment that would be meaningful to you and your students (see a few ideas below, but nothing beats this customized conversation!). Then, invite her to lead a library orientation session to help your students get started, get familiar with those selected databases and key research terms, and begin their information-finding thought processes in the library. When they return on their own (in person or online), it won’t feel like such a huge, strange place! And they will begin to learn about the importance of networking with experts when trying to solve an information-needy problem! Watch her encourage networking between students as well! [and yes, I checked; the BHC Library does provide this service to evening classes too!]

Here are a few of the research-oriented assignments she suggested, followed by some great online resources that might assist you in finding others that fit your learning outcomes and the lives of your students, as well:

1. Write five short papers on the same topic/problem, but each time must use different types of resources to write it (e.g., primary sources, Wikipedia article plus sources that verify info there, books, newspapers/blogs/magazines, annotated bibliography of all of the sources from above.)
   
2. Write short paper comparing a magazine article and a peer-reviewed article on the same topic.
   
3. Summarize an article from a core publication in your subject area of a library database every other week; be prepared to discuss summaries with the class
   
4. Write a documented persuasive paper in which students research and defend the opposite position they currently believe; planning and pre-research should be scheduled
   
5. Write a piece that is common in your field (e.g., bid for a construction project, letter of recommendation, press release, grant proposal…)

For more ideas on designing meaningful assignments that require research:

Designing Assignments That Work http://www.oberlin.edu/library/programs/assignments/alternatives.html

Creating Effective FYS Library Assignments
http://www.worcester.edu/Library/Shared%20Documents/Creating%20eff%20FYS%20lib%20assign%20and%20links.pdf

Tutorial for Developing and Evaluating Assignments http://www.umuc.edu/library/tutorials/information_literacy/sect4.html

Ten Sample Assignments
http://www.library.ohiou.edu/inst/creativesample.html

Characteristics of Effective Library Research Assignments http://library.nku.edu/faculty_and_staff/information_literacy/characteristics.php

Information Competent Students
http://library.csustan.edu/theld/research_assignment_tips.htm

Day Eleven Teaching Evening (or Extended Time) Classes

In several of the “ideas,” I have mentioned that students need to experience content repeatedly and in a variety of ways throughout the evening for maximum learning to occur. Listening to your explanations is one way to experience the content, but it is not sufficient; responding to clicker questions is another way, working through problem sets in small groups is a third. How about promoting further content experiences through online discussions, practicing sample exam questions with a partner, developing exam or study questions from the readings, and exploring case studies or scenarios in which the content is applied to solve novel problems?

Almost all of these activities require good questions to guide learning and move it from rote/recall to higher order thinking. Crafting good questions is an art and takes lots of practice. A mentor of mine when I was a new instructor shared with me the following information when I was trying to improve my ability to inspire student involvement in class discussions. I have returned to it again and again as I have written questions for many of the purposes mentioned above. I hope you find this helpful as well.

Types of Cognitive Questions (an overview)

Effective teachers are highly interactive with students --that is, they ask a lot of questions and they interact extensively during the instructional process. Teacher/student interaction takes place chiefly through questioning. Most cognitive questions in educational settings fall into three types: (1) recall or memory, (2) classification, and (3) divergent.

A brief explanation of each follows:

1. Recall (memory): requires knowledge of facts only. The learner responds through rote memory. The purpose of the question is to converge ("get") the right answer.
   
   Examples: What is the largest species of whale in the world's oceans? What factors cause a person to be color blind? What is the "greenhouse effect"?
   
   
2. Classification (comprehension): requires the learner to go beyond recall in order to reason out a conclusion and/or solve a problem. This type of question usually requires higher order reasoning, calculating, solving, or comparing in order to arrive at an answer.
   
   Examples: Compare the quality of pineapples grown in Hawaii with those grown in Costa Rica? Considering what you know about the space shuttle, Challenger, what do you think were some of the reasons it exploded? Describe the conditions that must exist to result in a full eclipse of the sun?
   
   
3. Divergent: Divergent questions require creative, imaginative, or inventive responses. For the most part, divergent questions ask for possibilities, or they may state assumptive facts and ask for possible, plausible conclusions. Divergent questions do not necessarily have factual or "right" answers. There "rightness" or "wrongness" can often be judged in terms of logic or sound reasoning.
   
   Examples: How might the world be different if the giant dinosaurs still existed on earth? What kind of plan would you suggest to investigate if the Loch Ness monster actually exists?

Sample Questions That Promote Critical Thinking and Teacher/Student Interaction.

Helping students think critically can be aided by using the a variety of questions, forcing them to experience content by coming at it from various angles: hypothesizing, interpreting, seeking alternative views, raising questions, evaluating findings or opinions, discovering new knowledge/ideas

Hypothesizing

• What do you suppose would happen if ..
  
• You are suggesting that ...
  
• If I understand you correctly, you think. .
  
• Are you trying to tell me that...?

Interpreting

• What do you think this means...?
  
• These findings lead us to make what kind of assumptions. ..
  
• What are we observing here...?
  
• What do these results tell us...?

Seeking Alternative Views

• What might be another viewpoint...?
  
• Is this the only possible solution...?
  
• Have be consider all the alternatives
  
• What other options do we have...?
  
• Are there other ways to look at this...?

Raising Questions

• How do we know this is right?
  
• Do we have to accept these findings?
  
• How can you prove that?
  
• What makes this thing work?

Evaluating Findings or Opinions

• Can this be documented?
  
• Do we need to investigate this further?
  
• Do we have all the data necessary to draw a conclusion?
  
• How do we know that this is correct?
  
• Are there any flaws that exist in these findings/arguments?

Discovering New Knowledge/Ideas

• Has anyone looked at this idea before?
  
• How do these findings/ideas add to the existing body of knowledge?
  
• Are we on the verge of something new?
  
• Where do we go from here?
  
• What exciting new ideals have we just learned?
  
• Based on these findings, what do we know now that we did not know earlier?

Day Ten Teaching Evening (or Extended Time) Classes

Most of us have invited guest speakers to contribute to the learning of our students. In the evening, they can be one of those appealing activities to use to break up the evening and capture the attention and imagination of your students. Sometimes, securing a speaker during the day can be easier than evening because people consider it part of their jobs. Availability may be more restricted at night too because of personal obligations or the distance the speaker lives or works from BHC. As a result, today’s idea is about suggestions for inviting guest speaker presence when he/she is unable to attend the class in person in the evening.

Have you ever thought how exciting it would be to have the author of your textbook visit your class? Or a leader in your field (academic) or profession (working professional) that does not live in the BHC district? Or an expert of any kind who could contribute to your class for 10-15 minutes on a very focused topic? How about one of these alternative methods to an in-class presentation?

1. Have Andy create a guest account to your CE8 course site for the speaker. [If you don’t already have a CE8 site, he can create one for you for this purpose.] Invite your speaker to join your class in the CE8 chat room for a live interview/discussion. Students can access the chat box from their own lab computers to post their individual questions or comments, and to follow the discussion. Tip: Have your students discuss ahead of time the questions they’d like to ask or topics they’d like the speaker to address. Then, send these to the speaker in advance. You may find it helpful to moderate the Q&A time if you have more than 10 students in class so that the conversation is more controlled. You can save the transcript of the text conversation to revisit later or more fully discuss in class. Sharing the transcript with the speaker may also generate follow-up comments or ideas from him/her, as well.
   
2. Sign-up to get a free Elluminate V-room (or borrow mine!). Send the URL to your guest speaker with very simple instructions,*** including when to join you and your class online. Then, pull up Internet Explorer or Firefox on your classroom computer and project it on the big screen. You and your students can interview/interact with your guest live! Students can ask questions orally by sharing your instructor microphone, or they can direct their questions to you or another student to type into the chat box. The V-room also has a white board area, so the guest can upload PowerPoint slides, a Web site or other demo, or other informative visual to display while he/she is talking.
   
3. Invite the speaker to audio record a short presentation or commentary that you can listen to in class (Audacity is a free download audio recorder; If you wish, you can edit the recording or cut it into pieces or ask the TLC to assist you with either task). Once the recording is ready, you can listen to it in class and brainstorm questions for your guest speaker, posting them as topics in an online discussion board. Invite the speaker to join you in the online discussion throughout the week. Students can be encouraged to join in the conversation all week, as well. Of course, you can have the speaker post the audio presentation to your CE8 or Sungard site and then conduct the Q&A live using method one or two above during class, as well.
   
4. Teach poetry? How about inviting some poets to read their poetry live using one of the above methods?
   
5. Want to direct your contact with a guest speaker to real-world settings? How about creating written scenarios/off-site video clips/case studies of common challenges or problems your guest might deal with at work and invite his/her analysis of the situation? Using any of the methods above to discuss the scenario, students have a chance to interact with the real world in meaningful ways. These can be short as well! Perhaps one per week on a problem that relates to that week’s course concepts?
   
6. If your students produce projects or designs, you might like to invite professionals in the area to do a project review. Students could post their projects online. Then, you could ask the guest to come to class live one night using the methods above and share his/her comments/suggestions, answer questions, etc.

***Instructions for live presenters using Elluminate V-room:

1. Purchase an inexpensive, USB headset with microphone or borrow one.
   
2. Visit the V-room site a day or two before to perform the automated computer checkup and audio wizard. A small download may be necessary, which you don’t want the speaker to have to do during your class time. http://www.elluminate.com/support
   
3. Practice a bit with you [instructor] so that the speaker is comfortable with the interface and how it will work. [Easy to learn and to use, but to minimize downtime or confusion, practicing a bit is always wise!] Explain your “moderator” role in the chat box.