Fourth Reference Observation

My fourth session on November 3 with the school reference librarian was spent observing during a classroom instruction involving sexting. This classroom work was done in conjunction with the health class. About a quarter of the students take health at a time, so by the end of the year, all students in the school will have participated. Apparently, this is a big issue within the school (junior high, I may add!).The assignment involved creating a public service announcement about sexting. In true information literacy interest, Lindsay started by taking time with the students to evaluate what makes a successful PSA, including knowing the audience, knowing the goal, using “real” language, making it relatable, and emotional.For the assignment, the students were given many choices about the direction they could go. They could work alone, or in groups of two or three. They could create a poster, or an MP3 announcement. The poster could be done by hand or on the computer. All posters were to be hung in the school, and the best MP3 would be played on daily announcements.They were given a Rubrik to clearly show how to get a good grade. They were also given a handout that had room for their brainstorming, which had to be handed in as part of the project. The class also listened to a sample PSA a couple of times and discussed what elements it contained that they had discussed. The librarian applied the Think, Pair, Share method to get the students thinking and involved. All of these factors have come up as topics in our IST605 class. From allowing for different learning types to setting clear objectives, as well as getting the students interacting, the students were given an excellent chance to be both successful at their work, and to learn a valuable cultural lesson also. Much of the remainder of the class was spent working with the students on how to use Microsoft Publisher, Flickr and/or Audacity, depending on which type of PSA they chose. During this time, Lindsay also was clear about using Creative Commons, their own photos or clip-art to avoid copyright issues. Overall, this project served a dual purpose in both information literacy and the issues of sexting. By developing the project in the way that she did, Lindsay was able to really help develop the students in their information literacy, an important goal of the reference librarian of a school.Eisenburg and Brown are quoted “The IL individual recognizes a need for information, engages in information seeking behavior, explores, accesses and locates material, interacts with the information to formulate hypotheses, synthesizes, interprets and organizes the information, and finally evaluates the results. “ (from our Media Library in IST 605). I feel that the librarian provided a fantastic opportunity for her students to develop these goals.