Week 6 -- Socratic Seminars

Yay for Book Club!!!!!!!! Well, ok, I will admit that I don't read as often as a good librarian should, but I do at times have interest in reading. Personally, I think this weeks readings were my favorite of the semester so far. Back when I was a lovable high school student, I really did love to read, and would read a ton. I was always the one who participated in class discussion in Lit class. Granted, the discussion I participated in did not always have something to do with the topic at hand, but I was still talking! But seriously, I loved lit class.

When my 10th grade lit class discussed the readings that we had, we always discussed them as the entire class. I had never actually heard of the Socratic Seminar. I wish we had approached our readings like that instead of as a whole class, it probably would have been much easier for me to get more out of the readings. Not saying that I didn't get anything out of the readings through our way of analyzing and discussing, just saying that the Socratic Seminar may have been a more interesting way of going about it.

The Tredway article gave a lot of good information and techniques about how to lead and run a Socratic Seminar. It talked about the different seminars conducted at different schools, and how students benefited from those seminars. It also give a quick overview of how the teacher is the facilitator of the seminars and how the teacher is to help the students actively learn through the seminar. It was a useful and to the point article.

I found the Metzger article to be a more in depth piece on Socratic Seminars. She described the experience of her freshmen class in more detail and talked about how her class developed over the length of the course. She started out simple, and as she saw that the students were able to take on more difficult pieces, she progressed and challenged them more. What I really appreciated about Metzger's approach to the seminars was that, even though she was the leader of the seminars, she didn't make it obvious. She participated in the seminars, often sitting in the outer circle, but she didn't try to correct students if they were wrong. She gave the students the opportunity of working out the wrong interpretations and their issues themselves, with little nudges in the right direction when needed. By giving the students the opportunity of realizing when they come to the wrong conclusions, and the opportunity to fix them, Metzger is helping the students actively learn, which was pointed out as a necessity in both her article and in the Tredway piece.


The Hoffert piece strays away from the traditional classroom/high school setting and looks more directly at actual book clubs. Because book clubs are "all the rage" right about now, this is a good article to read to get an idea of how book clubs have changed and how they can be effective. Hoffert addresses the fact that book clubs are no longer just books. Poetry, movies, and plays are also discussed, not just books. I find this to be refreshing and opens up the discussion of themes and ideas to many more possibilities. Each different medium as its own unique way of portraying a theme or plot. Those involved in the book club may find it easier to discuss a theme from, say, a movie, than from a book. I think that book clubs will continue to be popular, because they are a way for friends -- or strangers to get together and share their passion for stories, and or course, have some good (hopefully) food at the same time.

Class: I enjoyed last weeks class because we got a chance to look more closely at McGonigal's talk, and discuss the different aspects of the lecture that she gave. To be honest, it was little hard for me to catch on at first, but with the help of the others in my group, I became more comfortable with the discussion as the class went on. I'm very excited for class in the next couple of weeks, with our own little book clubs forming. It'll be fun to see how everything works, and it will be interesting to see what kinds of things we will be reading and discussing.

Maybe we should all bring snacks to our little book clubs!!!! Pass around a snack sign up sheet in class...yup, good plan.

Week 5 -- Transfer, Meaning, & Acquisition

The two readings for this week, Chapter 3 from out textbook, How People Learn, and the Put Education First article related very well together. It was very easy for me to relate to the Wiggins & McTighe article -- from the student's point of view. When I was in high school, sometimes I felt that the only reason I was there was to memorize facts, and be able to repeat those facts on command, i.e. tests. Because I was just expected to know certain required things for the tests, as soon as the test would over, I would just kind of forget about all the material that I had "learned." according to How People Learn, in order to have success transfer of information, a degree of mastery of the original subject is required. In high school, it is very hard to keep high school students interested in a certain subject long enough for them to acquire "mastery" of the subject area being studied.

Because it has become apparent over the years, that it is difficult to engage students in the necessary transfer, meaning, and acquisition of new concepts and information, Wiggins & McTighe have developed 12 steps to help with transfer, meaning, and acquisition. Teachers have to do more than just tell students about the things they are learning. For the students to truly learn, the information has to be applied and analyzed by the students. When students are able to apply what they are learning, it is more likely that they will be able to retain the information even after the assessment/test. In order for a student to fully benefit and learn what is being taught, (s)he must be able to correctly understand the subject, be able to acquire new information and build upon prior knowledge, and be able to transfer what is learned to real-life situations, to help with further learning.

Similar to last week, I felt that the concepts in this week's readings were aimed more at teacher than librarian, but the more I think about, the more I realize that a librarian -- any librarian, not just a SLM librarian -- is a teacher. Sure, we may not be in the formal classroom setting, but we can also look at a library being a huge classroom with no subject area boundaries. As librarians, we are still in situations that require us to teach in a way. We don't have the required time each week when we must teach a certain subject, we are in a library to teach patrons at anytime. We don't just help patrons find what they need, or just help with their research. Hopefully, we get the change to teach them how to correctly perform research, and how to use -- yes, I know I just used the word use -- what they learn. So, yes, teachers are the only ones responsible for helping students, librarians are also, our students just don't have a specific age range, and we're not in a classroom.

As for class reflections from this week...I wasn't there, and I'm sorry I wasn't, but it was probably better for everyone that way.

Week 4 -- Learning Environments

The readings from our textbook this week tied in nicely with the Sadler piece. The book talked about the various different types of learning environments with the community: learner-centered, knowledge-centered, and assessment centered. The Sadler article focused mainly on the assessments and how teachers are to work with students to maximize their ability to perform well at various assessment tools. 


I realize that this class is a required course for SLM folks, but I feel that these readings were focusing mainly on the instructional value of the various environments -- as in teacher & student, not really librarian & patron. Don't get me wrong, I did find the readings this week to be interesting, and I'm sure as librarians we will be able to benefit from these readings, I just feel that they were looking more at the teacher perspective. 


In the chapter, I thought that the figure 6.1 was very helpful in demonstrating how the different learning environments are all intertwined within the overall learning community. Venn diagrams have always been very helpful for me when I'm trying to understand something. When teaching, we much keep in mind that a curriculum that looks at all learning environments together is more beneficial than have just a learner-centered environment, or just a knowledge-centered, or just an assessment-centered. To be fully beneficial to the student, we must incorporate all aspects, taking into consideration, the learner, the knowledge level, and the quality of the assessments. 


From class on 31st: I enjoyed looking over and watching a couple of the screencasts, although it became apparent to me, that I didn't include all of the required aspects of the assigned screencast. I glad I got a chance to see some of the well-done screencasts, so if I ever feel the desire to create a screencast in the future, I will have some good techniques in mind. I also liked the group work where we came up with definitions. It's helpful for me to be able to work with other classmates, because then I am able to learn other people views, and be able to put what we learn in class into practice.