Book Clubs

On a brief note, I was surprised by the overall negative reaction to Socratic Seminars this past week in class.  Everyone's past bad experiences and skepticism with this method of learning made me think again about the value of the Socratic Seminar.  Are they really that bad?  It seemed kind of like a good idea to me.

On to books clubs, the primary focus for the week.  I really enjoyed the guest librarian who came and spoke with us about book clubs, primarily for teens, in the AADL system.  She brought some books with her focusing on topics such as good books for a fantasy book club, or good recipes to make for this book club.  I enjoyed rifling through the pages of these books for fun, and I am looking forward to checking them out for further perusal.  She also talked about ways in which to spice up the book club.  Some of her suggestions included creating a playlist based on the book and skyping the author, or listening to an author interview online.  I like all of these ideas.  As a future librarian possibly going to take on a teen book club, I think the idea of a playlist would especially connect with teens, and skyping the author would bring more meaning to the book under discussion.  And of course, food can only be a good thing.  There are so many possibilities and ideas to bring to a book club, all of which can offer more insights and meaning to the book under discussion.

As for the book club we have to prepare for class as an assignment, I have just finished reading the stories for my book club group, and I am certainly intrigued.  Between stories about a computer taking over the world and a tiger who teaches a princess about love, I am rather looking forward to my group's book club discussions.  I am curious about which audience each book club/story will be directed towards, and what techniques each group will use to promote discussion and bring more insights to the reading material.  This will help me to decide which techniques are the most interesting for members of the book club and what will work well to promote more helpful discussion.

Transfer, Socratic Seminars, and Book Clubs

Last class, we discussed the importance of transfer. I always find it surprising when classes during one semester have much in common with each other.  For example, in 643 we are learning about creating surveys, transfer, and prior knowledge, and in 623 my group has to create surveys for a bunch of teenagers.  Using the knowledge from 643, my group can better create these surveys which will hopefully end up being a more accurate response from the teens, so that my group can gather the most beneficial data for our report. 

In terms of transfer, our current classes in SI should be providing us with a lot of transfer, since these are skills that we will need throughout the rest of our professional careers.  Most of my classes are providing me with good skills that will be very useful, but here is an example of one class which is not helping me very much: SI 500 is lost on me, because (to use terms from 643) I have no prior knowledge to offer to the class.  In addition, the lectures are not introduced on a basic-enough level for me, and so discussions, which may be useful, I cannot follow either.  So, overall I cannot transfer any material from 500 to other classes, because I do not understand anything.  Sad, I know.

While I cannot speak in 500 discussions because I do not know what is going on, I nevertheless really like the idea of the Socratic Seminars as discussed in our readings this week.  Based on what the authors have reported, I think it is great that student participants can collaboratively figure out major themes and ideas from their newfound reading strategies.  I also find it interesting that both articles reported that body language is important.  The one teacher, Mrs. Metzger, asked her students to observe the body language of those students involved in the inner circle of the discussion.  Just as the students must decipher additional meaning in reading with comprehension by paying attention to details such as words that capitalized, so too must students pay equally close attention to their peers while in discussion - this way, a comprehensive understanding and communication is acquired.

So are Socratic Seminars where the book club is heading?  "The Book Club Exploded" article also presents a lot of engaging ideas for book clubs today.  Just as the Socratic Seminar gets more people bouncing ideas off each other, it sounds like the more books used in a book club, the more ideas and collaboration among discussion members.  And the more interactive the book club (with more books, more use of media, and perhaps some guest authors), the more happy members are with the book discussions.  And this means people will continue to happily make use of the library.  I am a fan.

Learning by Making Connections

How People Learn - Ch. 3

• infants habituate - they stop responding to repetition
• children learn language through speech and action combined
• children do learn even when there is no reward other than self-satisfaction
• although born with no language, children can develop most of the basics of story telling in the first three years of life
• adults help children make connections between new and familiar situations

Put Understanding First - Wiggins and McTighe, 2008

• the mission of high school is not to cover content but to become thoughtful about and productive with content
• often, schools cover lots of content before they allow students to apply the content
• rather, schools should teach content and application simultaneously
• "purposeful and effective use of content is the ever-present goal"

Thoughts:

In class we talked about using formative vs. summative assessment.  I thought it was interesting that not only does formative assessment determine the student's level of understanding, but it also encourages student feedback.  I think that formative assessment can be very helpful for making students excited about learning, just because it encourages student involvement.  Students are not only able to improve their work, but they can reflect on what they learned.  In this way, students can better connect with their teachers in order to make more connections with their learning.

In Ch. 3 of How People Learn, it says that adults help children make connections between new and familiar situations.  Even before schooling begins, children are learning by making connections with physical objects or with language.  Children learn language skills through speech combined with actions.  It struck me that in all the examples, it seemed that infants were learning actively and applying their learning to other situations.  This active learning is also what high schoolers want.  In Wiggins' and McTighe's article, high school students wanted learning to be interesting.  This article argues once again for learning with understanding - rather than just feeding students the learning content, teachers should make connections and applications with the content.

It seems that students want to make connections to their teachers and peers for feedback, so that they can grow and learn from mistakes, resulting in non-boring learning.  Students also want to be taught content along with application.  Ever since  these students were infants, they have been  learning with application, such as when learning to talk, they associate words with physical objects and situations.  By enabling students and children to make more connections when learning, teachers better enable their students to make more connections in the real world - I thought such an interesting connection was hearing McDonigal talk about applying gamers' skills to the real world.  (By the way, McDonigal seems like a virtuoso to me - she applies her expert knowledge of video games and gamers to come up with new, creative, and useful ways of using that knowledge.)

A Cycle of Teaching and Learning

This Week's Readings:

How People Learn - Ch. 6

Interesting Points:

• learner centered instruction includes the sensitivity to the cultural practices of students and the effect of those practices on classroom learning - pg. 135
• "Overall, learner-centered environments include teachers who are aware that learners construct their own meanings, beginning with the beliefs, understandings, and cultural practices they bring to the classroom." -pg. 136
• give students the ability to think positively about making sense of their learning, and ask questions when confused -pg.137
• assessment must focus on understanding, not memory -pg. 140
• "Feedback is most valuable when students have the opportunity to use it and revise their thinking as they are working on a unit or project" -pg. 141
• Community centered environments: willingness to participate, willingness to make mistakes, grading practices, and attention from the teacher are all things that vary based on the student's cultural background -pg. 145-146
• learning environments should connect with the broader community including homes, community centers, after-school activities, and business -pg. 147

Formative Assessment and the Design of Instructional Systems - Sadler, 1989

Interesting Points:

• "The indispensable conditions for improvement are that the student comes to hold a concept of quality roughly similar to that held by the teacher, is able to monitor continuously the quality of what is being produced during the act of production itself, and has a repertoire of alternative moves or strategies  from which to draw at any given point." -pg. 121
• feedback and self-monitoring = formative assessment -pg. 122
• teachers can find it hard to make a judgment of quality without comparing and basing it on other students' work -pg. 126
• teachers' conceptions of quality can remain static until changed by "fresh evaluative activity" -pg. 127
• lots of exemplars (key word = lots) are important for students to distinguish high vs. low quality -pg. 128
• "Something ordinary, therefore, is not "remark"-able.  Something out of the ordinary invites attention." This something out of the ordinary could mean a positive or negative comment. -pg. 133
• the learner has to be able to interpret the teacher's feedback -pg.135
• the teacher should be up-to-date on current expertise in order to pass knowledge on to the student -pg. 138
• students can collaborate with peers in learning and assessing each other's work -pg. 140

Thoughts: 

Learning is communal in that students should not only learn from their teachers and peers, but they should also be able to apply and gain knowledge across their entire community, including school and home, and other places they frequent.  Students come from a variety of diverse backgrounds, and so they take previous experiences into the learning environment.  Since students are encouraged to learn from their peers, their unique cultural and educational backgrounds will be shared as well.  Sadler mentions in his article that a teacher's evaluation skills remain static unless confronted with "fresh evaluative activity."  Perhaps with a wider variety of students coming from different cultural, or even simply different family traditions, or learning styles, a teacher can keep his or her "evaluative activity" fresh.  If students learn with understanding, rather than memory, it will be best if the students are allowed to learn drawing from each of their unique perspectives and backgrounds.  When the students incorporate their previous knowledge to their teacher's standards of quality, the students will benefit by learning these standards of quality, and so will achieve something out of the ordinary.  And whether this something out of the ordinary is positive or negative, the students will regardless be able to learn something new through feedback from the teacher and peers.  This feedback will hopefully encourage students to ask questions when confused, and not be afraid to look foolish - for their cultural and educational backgrounds are certainly not "wrong" or "foolish."  In addition, their teacher will be continuously challenged by new evaluative skills needed to address the out-of-the-ordinary.  

To bring this full circle back to Monday's lecture, it strikes me that the definitions and methods of teaching information literacy skills are constantly evolving.  I would like to propose that perhaps this is due to the constant need of librarian professionals to keep up with students' constantly fluctuating educational and cultural backgrounds.  Each student has his or her own unique learning style; teachers must also constantly fluctuate and evolve their teaching methods and evaluation of students' work and progress in learning.  It seems to me that effective teaching and learning is a collaboration between teachers, students, and peers, and so must constantly evolve to keep up with diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, as well as the resulting new evaluative skills and perceived standards of quality.

Finally, in navigating between all this fluctuating teaching and learning, I would also argue that the multiple exposures to teaching and learning styles may better enable students' learning to be synthesized.  While learning more and more from teachers and peers through evolving standards of quality and differing backgrounds, this accumulated knowledge may better serve to open students' minds to new possibilities and experiences in learning, as well as enable students to better connect with teachers and peers as a result of previous exposure to other educational and cultural backgrounds.