More Reflections on Instruction

This Spring will be my third semester interning at King. During the Spring '08 semester I served as a Reference/Instruction intern and taught a total of 10 information literacy sessions for English 1B classes. In the Fall of '08, I stayed on as an intern, doing some work for the Social Sciences Team, but mostly focusing on instruction. I actually taught almost 30 sessions last semester (18 English 1B classes and 10 MUSE classes)! Linda has already posted an excellent entry on tips for successful library instruction sessions, but I thought I would add some of my own reflections on the intern instruction experience.

First, here's an entertaining YouTube mockumentary on a library instruction session gone wrong:



Although the video is pretty cheesy, it helps to remind me of some of the finer points of effective instruction, such as:

• You may want to write something on the board like "Welcome English 1B," or even tape up a sign on the door that says "English 1B Prof. Smith." The students are often unsure if they are in the right place!
• If no one has showed up to your class and it's getting close to the time to start, you definitely want to walk around to see if your students are lost. They might be down at Room 125, or standing near the library entrance, or wandering around the 2nd floor. With that said, classes often choose to meet at their classroom and walk over as a group. So, it's possible that your class will all show up at once, a few minutes late.
• Feel free to talk to the students as they come into the room. Let them know that they can sit where they would like, and that they should make sure their computer is working. Sometimes I even ask them if they have their assignment, and what it is (particularly if the professor never sent the topic!).
• When introducing yourself, you may want to let the class know that you are a graduate student. This is totally up to you, of course. In my own experience, I feel that it has helped the students to relate to me more. I usually say something like "Hi, my name is Aloha Record and I'm a graduate student in the Library and Information Science program here at San Jose State. I'll be your instructor today."
• Let them know what they're in for. In your introduction, it is also nice to tell them how long they will be in the class for, and what exactly you will be doing. The professors do not always give their students information about the library session - they might just tell the class to "meet at the library." You definitely don't want your students wondering what in the world they are doing here.
• Try as much as possible to keep your energy level up - especially in your introduction! If you're bored, they will be bored.
• Always be aware that most of these students are freshman - so they may never have been in the library, and they may never have used the catalog or a database before (or even know what those terms mean). Avoid library jargon!!! You will need to explain terms like "keyword search," "subject search," "scholarly journal," "library catalog," etc. A brief explanation or comparison is all that is needed in most cases (i.e. "the catalog is what you would use to find a book, while the databases are what you would use to find a journal article").
• You will have a wide variety of expertise in your students, and it is extremely difficult to please everyone. Do your best! You may need to cater to the least knowledgeable in your general remarks, while instructing the more knowledgeable students in the one-on-one group work time.
• Be prepared! Once you know the topic for the class, pretend you are a student and go through the databases searching for articles and books that would be useful for the assignment. If you are having problems, the students will too. Just be sure that you are familiar enough with the topic to effectively and comfortably answer student questions.
• Some students will just not be interested in the library session, and that is okay. It is usually not a good idea to chastise students or to try to force them to get involved. If they aren't in a "teachable state," I think it's fine to let them be and focus on the other students.
• Don't try too hard to be "cool." For example, you probably don't want to do a sample search on "legalization of marijuana" unless they are actually working on that topic.
  
• Most of all, be excited about what you're doing. You want to express interest in the class, the assignment, and the library resources. Otherwise, why would the students be interested?