research logs due weeks 2 and 4 -- gives them a week to use their corrections to help with next section and makes it so that not everything is due on the last day.
individual conferences at some point -- chance to talk to the students individually and get to know them a bit. chance to give individual suggestions on topics
have sample assignments for different disciplines. they have to pick one if they're not using a real assignment.
write first paragraph of paper? thesis statement?
lots of time spent learning by doing
citation exercise -- keep
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
changes to handouts
Add a step in the research process -- "Brainstorming" should go between topic selection and research questions
topic selection and research questions
Topics need to be refined: this is the point I need to get across.
Have each student do a 2 minute presentation about their topic during day 2?
Have each student do a 2 minute presentation about their topic during day 2?
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
subject encyclopedias
We need to do this together in class or they will have no idea what to do. The idea is to show them how used adeptly, these can be amazing starting resources. But they are HARD to use, esp. compared with google. I find myself getting frustrated if I have to spend time searching or getting really frustrated when they don't have the variety of articles that for example wikipedia does! I find that they are only really helpful when you're doing a big topic like temperament, but for one student's topic of "stress in college students" it was completely unhelpful. Maybe I shouldn't even bother with them!!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Class 1 Fall 2010
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.
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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