Teacher and School Librarian Collaboration: Search Strategies for Grade 9 (2 of 2)

Research Packets: MLA and APA Citation Guides

Understanding the teacher's unit plan or lesson plan helps me identify areas for information literacy skills integration. When I read the unit plan of my co-teacher, I had a clearer understanding of her learning objectives, target work study and research skills (for this instance IB calls it ATL - approaches to learning), the coverage of the concepts and skills to be learned, as well as the context of students. As I wrote in a previous blog post, our grade 9 students are gearing up for the Personal Project. The English unit plan tackles on skills in finding topics for PP, thus, the need to know basic search strategies (Boolean), note taking, bibliography and citations.

Using the unit plan, I wrote down the specific skills I can facilitate. I then met with the English teacher to establish connections and clarify scope of topics I would cover during the 30 minute library session. I made a lot of discoveries: tips and tricks to search sources in Google; worksheets that are appropriate for the students; additional sources for citation guides. I recalled past Information Literacy skills activities I had and there I found basic concepts on search strategies that helped me improve my plan. I reviewed the search functionality of our database subscriptions.

Wolfram Alpha Computes Knowledge for You

 Apparently, the English teacher and I were looking for ways to break apart a cognitive activity and repack it in a way that is easier to grasp and use. We both know that we are teaching thinking skills -- critical and creative thinking. And so, I sent her samples of worksheets I found online as well as suggestions in helping students understand their own process when conducting research at its initial stage. I shared with her search engines I found that show numeric data (Wolfram Alpha, well, it's not a search engine, really) and semantic map (InstaGrok). I suggested that students create a visual map of the task. Mapping one's thoughts help in visualizing thinking and seeing the process at work. I like visual maps and mind maps because both are techniques to metacognition.

In research, and in teaching Information Literacy, it is important for students to know where they are in the process, how they plan to meet goals and answer their research questions, and find ways to overcome road blocks. More importantly, they need to be assured that they have companions in their research.

On the day of the session, the grade 9s, eager beavers they are, were able to use the search strategies taught to them. They used the library OPAC, Googled for internet sources and, because they have bibliographic note cards, located information with in sources. It was a productive session, in general. After a week or so, students come to the library to complete the note taking task that the English teacher gave them. As a summative, they made a visual map or a mind map of their initial journey in researching for topics for their PP.

My new favorite search engine is InstaGrok!

I still have to get back to the English teacher as well as the PP Coordinator, because, I am interested to see how the students arrived at choosing a topic. So, yeah... more about research and IL posts in the future!

The Extended Essay as Process and Research as a Journey

Teaching Teens Research: Research as Thinking and Visualizing Information

My rough draft of the Hourglass framework

I like converting information and concepts into visuals. Big ideas can be understood better when presented and communicated into shapes, images and graphics. Also, I find the whole exercise of conversion as highly creative. It's fun.

My last two posts on the research model shows it as an hourglass. The first visual  shows the idea that research is a process. The second one has the Facets of Research by Wilison and O'Regan (2007). Both visuals represent the idea that research is thinking. A thought process.

The kind of thinking that comes into play in research is similar to an hourglass where the researcher begins with macro thinking. Looking at broader concepts and then, narrowing into specifics to tighten ideas that answer the research question and leading to an agreement, an amplification of the thesis statement, if not, then an application of findings into global and real world examples. For high school students, their first foray into research can be an overwhelming experience. Research is, after all, made up of global and unitary skills. It's complicated. 

What teachers and school librarians can do to help teenagers is to pare the global skills into sub-units and put together the units into one big, global thought process. School librarians who are not as involved as teachers in teaching and instruction still have a role to contribute by suggesting and recommending websites and resources in designing visuals and infographic and customizing graphic organizers. So, I am sharing what I discovered online. Here are web apps for designing texts into easy to understand visuals and sites where teachers and students can make amazing infographics.

I will start with my favorites. For infographics, head on to easel.ly and Infogram. For e-posters, look at Canva and Thinglink for interactive boards using photos as platform or information base. I have used Thinglink several times in book promotions and library campaigns.

Here are the new ones I discovered along the way. Haiku Deck is a presentation app like Prezi, except for the magnifying feature of the latter. For the use of graphic organizers to visualize ideas, head on to Creately.

Visualizing texts and ideas can be a lot of fun. Indirectly, when done on a regular basis, it is a study skill that promotes critical thinking, creativity and metacognition. With the use of web apps, technology has upped the notch of developing the said skills.  

The Research Is Over: My Journey as EE Coordinator

Imagine my relief when the hard copies of our seniors' Extended Essays (EE) were sent to the IB examiners last week. Finally, I can ease up a bit; remove myself from the entire process; and think of more library work. You know, the usual ones.

I like moments like this. Thinking of one thing while doing something else. How can that be possible? I don't know. I just find myself effective when, for example, I am cataloging a bundle of books, and my mind wanders off to a standardization of citation conventions or itemizing a set of skills on Information Literacy (IL) and research for teacher training in the summer. It is the same at home. While cooking sinigang or mongo, ideas or a format for a current writing project seeps into my consciousness. Oh, I digress.

Now back to the end of the journey.

I have been the EE Coordinator for two consecutive academic years. It is not an easy assignment. I took and accepted the task because, as a librarian, I know I can help high school students better their research skills. I know my IL. I do research. I read.

It wasn't a walk in the park.

Research skills and IL, to be effective must be integrated with content and applied within a context. Meaningful research is experiential. It is a process too, so a model of research helps the young researcher push pencils to work on meeting deadlines. This kind of thought process is not applicable to all learners though. There are those who fall through the cracks, therefore, a cooperative and collaborative approach to supervising teenagers in research is essential. Research supervisors are the initial go-to people of students, but the librarian is another teacher whom students can trust and work with.

Looking for sources is another challenge. I often wish that the Philippines has the intellectual research structure of Singapore. But. The upside of living in a third world country is that, you have no choice but to be resourceful. By this,  I mean many things. Some cuts corners. Others adhere to the process. Those who know better practice academic honesty the best they could.

Another concept I wish to emphasize with our students (for next year) is that research is a conversation. Reading and writing are the tools employed in this conversation. Teenagers today read very little. Or if they do, it is shallow and superficial. Thus, they have difficulty applying reading strategies in the content areas. Changing reading stances are something they need to learn as well. More strategies in reading must be taught. As for the writing, more models to read and writing prompts to do in between classes.

How can these techniques be done? Teachers and the librarian must work together. This is for another post!

Journeying with our seniors this year in their EE has been mentally stressful. I think with them and, yes, I worry. Am I doing too much? Am I doing too little, leaving them in the dark? The guides are there though. I bring them back always, to universal principles of knowledge creation and inquiry. Often, a good research question is tested when a student and I sit down and sort through sources and process when he or she is at a crossroad or at a road block. Struggles and all, it is a learning experience for me too.

My students teach me to listen more. To look at their perspective and their goals. I am a companion; a cheerleader; a coach; and if need be, an adult who shows them the consequences of their actions and what may happen. For after all, I have been one acquainted with the night (Frost).

Guide Posts and Cornerstones in Research

Reflecting on process and product

As I have written in a previous blog post, we resumed research and EE work the week we got back at school in January. During an EE session with the juniors, I asked them two questions to prompt them to look back at where they are in their EE journey and to push them to look ahead, deadlines and all. After two weeks, I am getting final drafts of the seniors' EEs.

I am swamped.

Not complaining.

Just saying.

What I like about this experience is that, as a high school librarian, I get a first hand experience at seeing research being done by students. I also get to work closely with EE Supervisors as they guide and mentor their students in the process of writing the EE. Now, these are two interesting research topics I can work on in the future.

But, it has to wait a while.

Here are some random reflections, questions and thoughts I have been tossing in my head as I push the idea of an action research or a paper on high school research and collaborative teaching back in my head. For now, I wish to entertain these questions and thoughts before jumping into that research paper.

1. Research and writing are both process oriented tasks that involve a lot of cognitive functions. How can complex tasks such as these can be scaled down or divided in chunks so that, the high school student working on college level work can be guided or taught appropriately?

2. Where in the curriculum can a teacher teach writing and research? Apart from process, the word skills comes to mind when I meet writing and research almost everyday of my working life. So, content is essential as the meat or the substance by which the skills are applied.

3. Research is formative as well. Not only is it a test of intellectual endurance, it is also a test of character. Patience. Perseverance. Commitment to finish a task. How are we preparing our teens for the emotional stamina needed to do research?

4. Writing is listening. To one's self. To one's readers. We may teach writing as a form of communication, but, have we considered teaching writing as conversation and discourse?

5. As the school librarian, I am compelled to model research and writing. And reading! Yes, I need to read the curricular content. I need to know what sources to provide both student and teacher working on such tasks. Designing an environment to support research and thinking is a primary expectation, but going beyond and developing knowledge management systems in the school is another challenge.

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh my.

Where will these thoughts lead me? Or am I misled by my thoughts?