Second Reference Librarian Observation

My second observation of my school librarian occurred on October 9th. We met a little before school started for the day. Before homeroom began, the librarian fielded a few reference questions, and helped run the circulation desk. (I also checked student’s books out, and discovered that anime really is as popular as everyone has been saying!) The reference questions before school started involved a password management issue, scheduling with teachers, and a phone call that involved a student’s library privileges being revoked. I got the impression that this was a pretty typical reference morning.Once class started, the students began working on the on-line search aspect of their projects. Since we have just covered lesson plans in class, I was able to pick out many of our learning points as the librarian worked. First, she had a quick “What stuck?” session for a brief informal skill assessment. (While she did this, I answered my first reference question and looked up a computer password for a student). She then challenged the students to find a definition for copyright online in 60 seconds. As they did this, she walked around and noted the methods in which the students accepted the challenge. I thought this was a great way to get the students engaged and actively participating. At the end, she told the students how she would have done it (Google define: word), without forcing her way on to them. The students were able to apply this knowledge later to search other terms, but they were given the chance to try for themselves first, and evaluate their own way to search for a definition.Throughout the lesson, the students gained information knowledge on copyright, search methods, creative commons, and saving to a shared file. They were introduced to Wiki-media commons, Flickr, and United Streaming. Every time they moved to a new site, she reinforced to the students that the first thing to do when they found a usable source was to write down the citation. She also frequently did checks to make sure everyone was still together, by walking constantly around the room, looking at the screens, and also engaging the students with questions. At this point, it was a pleasure to observe that the students were really getting into their project- they really enjoyed conducting their search and making independent decisions of what pictures to use in their portion of the movie. The librarian also made a point to remind the students to analyze the pictures to determine how they would be organized. What a great way to help encourage their higher order thinking! The students were also encouraged to continue their search at home and save to a flash drive. At the end of class there was a brief discussion with the collaborating teacher. Both felt that too much time was spent on the information learning aspect and that the students did not have enough time for conducting their own search. They agreed that the plan would be slightly modified in the next period. I realized there may be a difficulty when collaborating with teachers- in some ways, the librarian and the teacher may have slightly separate goals, ie- history lesson versus citation lesson. I asked her if she has run into difficulty with teachers on this, and she felt that any problems she had encountered had been pretty mild. Overall, I felt this was a successful lesson plan, and though both instructors felt the need to tweak a little, in general, the students were able to learn in a rewarding, positive, and fruitful environment.