Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Nothing Blue

At the start of September, I was asked to bring two, large classes of History students to the Archives. Because the reading room can only accommodate 25 students comfortably—up to 40 students uncomfortably, each class was divided into two sections. Fortunately, the History Librarian was able to work with the other section of students each time and we swapped at the mid-point. This is a strategy that works well for me, the Librarian, and the professor. The students especially benefit as they learn about primary and secondary sources in one class.

The first of the two classes was Environmental History. The prof wanted students to be able to evaluate primary and secondary sources through the lens of an environmental historian. I had 45 minutes to excite and educate them. I turned to one of the workshop format lesson plans of last year, modified it to suit the topic and time-frame, and developed a new lesson plan for this class (http://archivallessons.blogspot.ca/2013/11/no-paving-projects.html). I learned several things while this session was in progress and, luckily, had enough time to make alterations during the first session. First, let the students look through the material without having the questions in hand. When the questions are in hand, the students are less focused on the discovery aspect and more focused on answering the questions. The purpose of the questions is to give the students a focus AFTER they have looked at the archival material after all, the instructions are to select one thing from the box, take a good look at it, and then answer the questions. Second, I need to allow sufficient time for student to talk about the sources they found. Some students want to talk more than others so this part is hard to judge, but if I am prepared with interesting details about each collection than I can keep the discussion going. Sometimes the discussion can come back to the questions that the students have been asked to answer. Third, there is merit to allow time for students to go to another table and look at other sources of interest. We have just discussed these sources as a group and I expect something may have peaked their interest. Give the students exploration time at another table.

I tried a new idea for the History classes this year. I introduced music that was relevant to the topic. For example the Environmental History class left the room listening to Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, although I also had Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning ready to go. For the next class, Pre-Confederation Canada, music was more of a challenge!

The second of the two classes during the first week of September was Pre-Confederation Canada. Again, I taught the class in two sections, swapping at the mid-point with the History Librarian. This was class a re-run of the Pre-Confederation lesson plan done in 2012 when I tried speed dating resources (explained here http://classroomarchivist.blogspot.ca/2012/11/snapshot-impressions-4-fourth-class-of.html). I did modify the sources somewhat but the questions and format remained the same with one exception. I asked the students to reflect on how this item was similar to or different from the one they saw before. That question intuitively came out of the Critical Dietetics conference session and, I felt, need to be considered during the exercise. What music did I end up playing? Kastin’s Akua Tuta, as there was a prominent indigenous peoples section and assignment in the course. I also had chosen a song by Susan Aglukark as a backup.

Overall, the introduction of music was not a huge hit for students—not in these classes anyway. In the next class, I used it more effectively.