Location: Norwich (Grades 9-12) Hours Observed: 2 Before observing this library I wanted to look at their Stretegic Plan to see how diverse and urban the schools population is. Here is what I found out:
My Observations: While at this Norwich school I was able to see a high school Library Media Specialist. While I was there I observed the librarian teach one class as well as general day-to-day library activities. After meeting the director of the library, I was able to see her teach an eleventh grade lesson on databases to help them locate resources for their History thesis paper. The History class is a UCONN ECE course, so students can recieve college credit while in high school. The classroom has 28 computers, HP not macs which was interesting to see. There was some type of smart board as well as a regular white board. During the lesson the librarian showed students how to use NoodleTools to create their annotated bibliography. She started by going step-by-step on how to create a new project within NoodleTools and then began to introduce the students to some of the databases they should use during their project. The first database she introduced was "Oxford Very Short Introductions" which includes hundreds of books in electronic form. These books are about 100 pages each giving readers and researching a very short introduction to a topic. She showed students how to search for a topic within the database as well as how to get the ready-made citation. What I thought was interesting is that I read one of these "Very Short Introduction" books in during my time in Graduate School. I read one about children's literature in one of Renee Hobbs' courses. According to the librarian they are becoming popular and more widly used. After finding the citation in the Oxford database, the librarian then showed students how to add that citation into NoodleTools. She, as well as NoodleTools, reminded and cautioned students that these ready-made citation are not always correct. NoodleTools gives pointers to students to double check those citations, especially with the new MLA 8. Also in NoodleTools you can annotate your citations. The next database she showed the students was EBSCO Discovery. She gave tips on what kinds of limiters you should apply and what kinds of databases you should be searching in. EBSCO also has e-books students can use as well. What was interesting about the e-books was once you searched for your topic and recieved some hits you can choose to look at only the most relevant pages before you open the resource. This helps students and teachers save time and get the information they need. Overall, the style of teaching was that the librarian modeled through her projector while students followed along on their own computers, except they get to try out their topics. That way students were kept engaged by looking for sources on their own topic rather than just watching the librarian or copying what they see on the projector. By having students apply what they are learning they can better understand and remember how the databases work. I should also note that the history teacher remained in the library while the librarian taught this lesson. While the librarian taught the skills, the history teacher connected those skills to their assignment. At the end of the class, the librarian does a short review by having students write down the important databases they should be using for their assignment. She also told students that because they are taking a UCONN ECE course they have access to the UCONN databases as well, so in their next time together they will be going over those databases. I also observed during the lunch block when students have senior lounge or study hall. Students can obtain a pass at this time to go to the library. This part of the day can get very busy. Somedays the library is busy and every seat is filled. Depending on who comes to the library it can also be very quiet and sometimes there are students who are a little more roudy and need reminding they are in a library. When students come during this period they can use computers, tables, phones, and listen to music (with headphones). The point of this time is to get homework done or to work on projects. Other Observations:
Conclusion: I have never used or seen NoodleTools before so seeing and learning about how students can use it for a reasearch project, even if it was just the begining, was good to experience. If I end up teaching higher grade levels or even during my student teaching I will know more than I did before and can try to use it within my lessons. It was also nice to see a lesson being taught about how to use databases. This is a skills that needs to be taught to students because databases aren't all that user friendly and can be difficult to figure out how to use. By seeing a librarian teach this lesson I was able to recieve some ideas and tips on how to teach it myself someday.
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