Hi, Debbie,
A few years ago I began asking teachers if I could do 10 minute lessons when
their classes came in for research. Usually it's a demo, a short video, maybe
slides on a skill that will be useful to the kids as they research for the
particular project they're working on. Sometimes it's a review of what they
know. For instance if they're searching for websites, I'll ask questions about
how they can find good sources looking for answers that touch upon keywords,
authoritative, credible, bias, content, experts, etc. I think you can teach in
this abbreviated way (especially since you typically reinforce it with the
research they're about to do), but I've found that I need to be keeping track
of which grades or classes have done particular lessons so I don't go over them
too many times or lose a group who misses the lesson.
I'm writing a summer grant to try to get funding from our school to work on a
couple projects. One of them is to produce usable content like virtual
demos/tutorials, slide decks, and lessons on how to make better use of our
databases. (The other is to begin a Diversity Audit of our library).
I like the idea of starting with Gale because of the consistency of the
In-Context databases. I like showing the kids the Export to Noodle Tools
feature because they get so excited about how simple it is. However, I always
show them how to copy and paste citations from databases and use the Quick Cite
feature in NT also because only our Gale databases currently will export to NT
so they still need to know the other way. The kids also appreciate some of the
note taking features.
This sounds like a good project. You could even pair the lessons with exit
tickets to see how the kids liked using a new feature.
Jo
Jo Melinson
Middle/High School Librarian & Literary Magazine Adviser
Sacramento Country Day School
https://saccdslibrary.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/saccdslibrary
On Mar 30, 2019, at 2:23 PM, Debbie Abilock <debbie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In my role as a teacher-coach, I’m seeing some librarians do database lessons
in collaboration with teachers that take too long (partly because of doing
them live) and end up frustrating a teacher who came in to have kids “do”
their research. My idea of the moment is to create a generic template of
five slides (so maybe 10-15 minutes of teaching) that “teach the database” –
it could have a live component and it should be related to the specific
research kids are doing of course. Anyone ever tried this? Is it a
reasonable premise that one can teach what’s important in this time frame?
I thought I’d do it in Google slides – so we could all benefit if it works -
also I think I want to a Gale database since there’s some consistency across
them in Context ones…and the cover a lot of topics/disciplines. Insights?
Examples? Chortles? Or, should I go back to the drawing board….?
best,
debbie
Debbie Abilock
Adding Friction, a column @SLC
“Jane Jacobs was forever taking on ambitious subjects from new directions,
marching imperturbably into all she didn’t know. She’d never understand, she
told an interviewer once, how other authors could ‘stand the boredom of just
writing down everything [they] already knew.’ But she paid the price for
indulging her insatiable curiosity. With each new book... ‘I always get
scared to death.’ Caught up in complexities of a new field not at first fully
apparent, ‘I realize it’s too deep for me, but I have to keep on with it.’
Until she gets it.”
- from Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs by Robert Kanigel; Knopf,
2016 p. 322.
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