Written by Since our second Face 2 Face at The York School I’ve had the chance to ponder my “how might we.” Following the design thinking process totally blew open the question for me and I’m looking forward to delving deeper into some of the key components and strategies that I identified in our third Face 2 Face at MaRS this week. I remember how I felt at this time last year, going through Cohort for the first time, and it was completely uncertain and like I was in way too deep. It’s helping me to embrace the uncertainly and trust the process.
The gallery share at the second Face 2 Face offered invaluable insights for reflecting on my Action Plan question: HMW ensure that our Grade 9 students end the year feeling like more confident and competent researchers? If we in the library can reach every student during Grade 9 in a meaningful way, it will help set students up with the information literacy skills to be successful throughout high school and curtail problems with academic honesty, such plagiarism and the proper use of citation. Of course there are things that we already do that we will continue to, like collaborating with Grade 9 teachers on research assignments, but I would like to use my Action Plan as a way to investigate further options, including:
- a dedicated information literacy “course” run in conjunction with our student services and wellness office, LINCWell;
- providing flipped library resources to introduce key concepts and gather formative feedback;
- new ways of delivering content to make it more engaging and collaborative; and
- measuring student confidence and competence by collecting self-reported data.
Before the break our principal Martha Perry asked Adam, Claire and me to speak briefly about the Cohort 21 experience at a staff meeting. The presentation included our Action Plan ideas for the year and it resulted in a Grade 9 science teacher reaching out to me. We are meeting this week to discuss how I can help with research skills in her course. I’m excited to have so much momentum moving forward with my Action Plan and I’m looking forward to problem-solving and problematizing some of these ideas on Friday. See you at MaRS!
Grade 9 is such a key year for reinforcement (and sometimes introduction) of research skills. Looking forward to seeing how we can rethink this one – what we have at the moment is not really working as well as it could do!
Great work! I like the idea of flipping – perhaps even setting up some auras around the library among the stacks to get students who are having difficulty? What tools do you think you’ll use to flip? Edpuzzle? Any way Zaption can play a role in your action plan? @ckirsh is a fan!
It’s great that teacher’s are reaching out to you, you’re an amazing resource and so they should! Will there be any assessment of their skills? Reflection? @chazzard will be a good person to bounce ideas off of and I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
I used Aurasma for the first time this week and my students nearly lost their minds! What a great tool but I have questions, I’ll reach out soon! Can’t wait to catch up on Friday!