I switched to research log as the main assignment for this class. I'm not sure if the assignment directions will be useful or they will take them seriously but there you go. I have one freshman this semester and she asked me questions after class and seems to be giving it a try so at least that aim of the class is going well. Many of the upperclassmen seemed to be bored or whatever, and two girls were giggling in the back, but you never know why.
Opening with the "typical student research process" seemed to work well. Most of them agreed that that was the typical process. I think I faltered a little bit in conveying how my process was different. So that is something I need to work on. Emphasize that you are NOT going to start searching until you've really narrowed down your topic and done some background reading. I would also maybe rename "topic selection" to "background knowledge."
The handout about the Library Reserach Process in Real Life fell a little flat. I need to rethink this one and decide if it really matters.
It turns out that most of the class have never tried to look for a book on the shelf by a call number before, so that has to be part of the curriculum from now on. They should do that for their assignement, but I wonder if they will. My holding the call number cards up worked ok, at least mixed it up a little bit.
The group exercise of answering questions about the library was a good idea. I would like for next semester to make the questions a little more interesting and delve a little deeper into the library's electronic resources. Most of them had no idea why you would use a database at all. Not good.
So this class went pretty well. I spent a lot of time preparing every little part, so that was really good and helped with anxiety. I stuck to the plan and used a few powerpoints.
Next week the goal is to spice it up a little bit and really try to hammer home that each and every one of them can learn something from this, not just novices.
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