Snapshot impressions #8 – third class of the Winter 2013 term

Once a term, it seems, I have a session that allows me to really bring out my creative side. This session provided a chance to do just that. You may remember my blogging about some of those books I read during the summer that seemed to have little relevance to my research but that had spawned a few ideas for the back burner. Aha—what sources of inspiration they proved to be!

The students in this class had been tasked with a challenging assignment. To help them, Amber and I set out to create a workshop-type session for the students to practice/brainstorm for their assignment. (To see how it was done, check out http://archivallessons.blogspot.ca/2013/03/more-than-just-pretty-face.html). Briefly, we had pre-selected five groups of records that could potentially be made into five, individual displays. The students were asked to review the materials, think about how to use the materials in a display, and prepare to defend their display idea to the class.

I enjoyed observing each group of students exploring their pre-selected materials with the aim to “pitch” their display idea to the class. Every group had only two minutes to convince the other groups to vote for their display idea. After a secret ballot was taken, the votes were tallied immediately and the winner was declared before the session continued with further discussion about important record-keeping issues.

All that said, there were drawbacks with the session too that may or may not be overcome. For example, we divided the room into five groups, each with a different set of pre-selected records. Students sat randomly at tables as they entered the reading room. We did not provide any indication of the topic at each table. This meant that some students were not interested in the records at their table while others found their records fascinating. Amber and I have discussed this “luck of the draw” method and see it as both an opportunity and a challenge for the students. I am not sure if I will change my approach in the future. Another example of a drawback was that only one student was the spokesperson for each group’s pitch. We have limited the timing of each pitch to two minutes. Perhaps there is a way to allow more students in each group to speak or pitch the idea so that we can hear more voices. We want the students to have the opportunity to be heard if they want to speak.

Overall, this session was successful. It was fun to develop and fun to deliver. Perhaps I will make few changes if I have the chance to use it with another class. Generally though, I felt that this was such a successful workshop that I plan to use it as an example when I give a presentation this Spring.

Snapshot impressions #7 – second class of the Winter 2013 term

Nope, I'm not having déjà vu. Almost exactly one year later, this class returned for another session. And, it was just as exciting! This time, I re-used some of the ideas that went well last year and brought in some new and modified ideas. 

As with last year, I used a set of physical exercises to get the class moving. [This exercise is described at: http://archivallessons.blogspot.ca/2012/07/anyone-here-busy.html]. To my delight, the students enjoyed it just as much this year. I also included audio chants, cheers, and music in the session. These audio clips are part of a sports-related web site that is prominently featured during the class. Using audio is certainly worth it and brings in an added dimension to the class.

New this year was a handout, one that acted as a reference sheet for the students and generated a lot of work for me. Let me explain. This is an introductory-level class. The professor wanted the students to understand the difference between primary and secondary sources as well as receive guidance with citation style. I wanted to make this an interactive exercise. So, one side of the handout gave ten examples of sources and provided a properly formatted citation example for each source (i.e., book, home movie, photograph, article, web site, etc.). I had each example in a box and randomly pulled them out while asking the students what type of source I was holding. As the students identified each one, they circled the word “primary” or “secondary” on their sheet, next to the citation. I spoke then briefly about the specific item (i.e., an interesting or funny detail) as it circulated through the class. The other side of the handout asked a few, specific questions about the presentation – key things to remember as we continued along. The handout seemed to give the students a reason to listen to the presentation.

Here’s where I took a risk. The handout also provided a space for each student to write down a question for me. I guaranteed them that I would respond. Am I a little crazy? Perhaps. Why did I do this? It was a large class and I wanted the students to feel that they could ask a question and not feel like it was “dumb”. I wanted every student to have a chance to be heard. I can tell you that there was not a single dumb question in the entire lot. Everyone asked a relevant question, some asked a detailed question, and some asked a reference question. All of the answers required thought, a bit of research, and a little tact. Did I mention that it was a large class? It took me four days to answer them all, but every student received an answer. Will I do this type of activity again? YES. In fact, the revised form is already drafted and ready to print for future classes. When I will use it requires a bit more of my discretion.

This class has returned two years in a row. Improvements and adaptations are being planned for next year. I hope that the professor comes back so that I can implement these new plans.