Lit Review: America's History Through Young Voices

Despite the book's focus on the American curriculum (for which I have few primary sources), America's History Through Young Voices: Using Primary Sources in the K-12 Social Studies Classroom (2005) was extremely helpful to me. The book gives great explanations about primary, historical sources before discussing the five historical thinking concepts used in the United States. The following chapters each focus on one aspect of the K-12 curriculum, giving context about the content, reproducing parts of a young person's primary source, and providing questions or assignments modeled on the historical thinking concepts. Richard M. Wyman Jr. provides a resource that is practical and adaptable to any classroom.

Lit Review: Doing History

I just spent a few weeks reading the 4^th edition of Doing History (2011) by Linda S. Levstik and Keith C. Baton. It took a while to read because of my extensive note-taking and section re-reading. Even though the focus of the book is on elementary and middle school students, the techniques can easily be adapted to higher grades and undergraduates. For me, a person without any background in education, sections of the book helped explain educational theory as it assists in the development of practical applications in the classroom and assignments. (In this regard, Chapter Two was especially helpful.) The book emphasizes these goals to drive instruction, as specified on page 9: ‘to prepare students for reaching conclusions based on evidence; to engage students in deliberations over the common good; and, to understand perspectives different than their own’. To do this, Doing History provides many examples of critical thinking assignments as well as the required assessment tools. All of the assignments demonstrate why studying the past is relevant to understanding the present by making global/local connections, finding themes, creating new ways to represent the past, and/or creating questions and doing the research to find answers.

My favourite example from the book is a chapter about building a history museum because it relates directly to a class that I teach. Now, I have some new ideas to incorporate. I feel that Doing History has a number of techniques that I can use to pull together my archives sessions and make them more effective for students.

Note: Don't have enough to read???  Three books that were also recommended to me are: Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts ; Reading Like a Historian ; and, Why Don't You Just Tell Us the Answer

Lit Review: Broadening Student Understanding…

A good friend of mine recently brought my attention to an article in Social Education 77 (5), pp. 228-231, by Lee Ann Potter entitled “Broadening Student Understanding of Wartime Experience through Original Works of Art and Personal Accounts”. It is a most interesting article that discusses the incorporation of various sources (i.e., oral history, photos, correspondence, videos, etc.) to encourage critical thinking. The author outlines how this is done. Here's my take on what she said.

The students are provided with some sources and challenged to identify if they think any sources are missing. If so, what types of sources? Then challenged again to identify what the missing sources might add to their understanding of the event. As the new sources are provided, the students are asked to speculate on the creator, title, and date of the new item(s) and then create a list of questions based on these sources. After that list is built, the students are given the metadata about these items. As a group, the students discuss how this changes their view of the event. Then, the students are shown a video (or videos) that are directly related to the event, adding another dimension [I would love to do this with my classes]. The group discussion that follows incorporates the newest information from the video. How are the students’ views changed about the event or the items that reflect the event? Finally, the students are asked to read the relevant section in their textbook to build and understanding of the event. [Now comes the best part.] The students were asked to produce their own interpretation of the event based on the more-rounded information, using the various sources. [Are you wondering what my sessions might be doing next term? If I can find a class with which this will work, I will let you know!]

lit review: Defining Relevancy

You might think that I picked up Defining Relevancy: Managing the New Academic Library, edited by Janet McNeil Hurlbert and published by Libraries Unlimited in 2008, just to read the chapter "Opportunities for Small and Medium-Sized College Archives in the Digital Age" by Carole P. Johnson. OK, well I did; but, the chapter was not insightful for this research project. [Sorry, if you want to find out about that chapter, I encourage you to seek out the book.] I did find a few other chapters to be more fitting to my cause and so will discuss them here.

Christopher Cox, "Changing Demographics: Meet the Students and Faculty of the Future" explains Millennials as 'diverse' (p.3). To my surprise, this group was born between 1982 and 2002 (really, I had no idea the scope was that wide). Qualities that Cox explores of this diverse group, with which we are all speaking for the considerable future in academia, are:

• 'they are ethnically diverse and celebrate diversity',
• 'they are nontraditional',
• 'they expect choices and instant gratification' [yeah, I'll say],
• 'they are digital natives',
• 'they enjoy gaming and media', and
• 'they learn best experientially and collaboratively' (p.4-12).

Naturally, I focused on the description of learning experimentally and collaboratively as my sessions have built in more and more of these elements. Cox encourages problem-based and active learning over lecture-based classes. He also encourages using online and offline collaborative spaces.

Section III groups together three information literacy articles worth noting by Sterngold, Lombard and LeVan, and Steffen. Let me start with the case study by Lombard and LeVan.

Emmett Lombard and Sally LeVan's, "Faculty and Information Literacy Case Study" provides insights on two need of faculty--scholarship and teaching support. The cumulative data, harvested comments, results, and appended questions are all included in this case study. If you are looking for the faculty's voice on these issues, this article may provide insights. Perhaps what I took most from this study was the methodology and the questions themselves. In my own survey of faculty, I might have benefited from this short, multiple-choice format, at least to begin the conversation. I will keep that in mind for next time I do a survey.

Arthur H. Sterngold provides some interesting insight with "Rhetoric Versus Reality: A Faculty Perspective on Information Literacy Instruction". I must admit; this fellow had me intrigued from the first sentence. Sterngold proposes that "librarians serve more as consultants to faculty than as direct providers of IL instruction" (p.85). Yes I know, this argument is not popular with my colleagues; but, he does provide a faculty's perspective and it should be heard in order to understand that perspective at the very least. It is only a 10-paged article; get a copy and see what Sterngold says in his own words.

Susan Swords Steffen's article, "Through the Information Literacy Lens: Managing the College Library in the Twenty-First Century", discusses the pressures of reduced resources  to scale-back or eliminate information literacy. She argues that despite this, successful information literacy can be provided and incorporated into other aspects such as serving users, reorganizing library spaces, using technology, and emphasizing the importance of information literacy for students.

Once again, I have turned to library literature for inspiration with my endeavours on information literacy. Although the library does provide a close relationship and some good insights, the archives must find their own path for literacy instruction. In this way, I believe that archives will define their own relevancy within the academic sector and beyond.

lit review: Interpretive Master Planning

Ok, I have gone a bit off the garden path—I know. Seems I can find relevance in most anything.

Interpretive Master Planning by John Veverka (1998) was brought to my attention during some student presentations last week. I took a peek, thinking there might be something of use here. I was right.

Although this book gives guidance on building displays, there is some helpful cross-over advice for teaching classes. After all, displays are a form of teaching. Veverka writes that a display is to “provoke visitor interest and to relate the interpretive message to their every-day lives” (2). I believe that my classes should do exactly the same thing.

The author gives examples of activities and their learning concepts/principles. He also explains the theory and planning behind display design to make the display’s message most effective. He ends the book with a section about making presentations, including checklists for planning and implementation. As a budding Toastmaster, I always find this sort of advice helpful and thought-provoking.

If you agree that teaching and displays are related, take a look at this short book and bibliography. It is an easy read with lots of visuals and point-form text.

Full title: Interpretive Master Planning: The essential planning guide for interpretive centres, parks, self-guided trails, historic sites, zoos, exhibits and programs.

lit review: Past or Portal?

I am reviewing the 2012 publication, Past or Portal? Enhancing Undergraduate Learning through Special Collections and Archives, for Archivaria.  This title is so exciting that I want to say a few words about it here too.

The work consists of 47 short, case studies from 93 authors.  Each case study explores a method of introducing resources in the classroom--either through single sessions or an entire course.  I have discovered many ideas within the book and have started using them immediately in my newly developed sessions this term.

What have I decided to adopt?  Let me just mention speed dating and capturing "cool stuff".  Speed dating is a structured process by which selected items are set out for the students to examine one-on-one.  They answer a set of questions regarding the source and then discuss them as a group.  This has worked so well that I am planning to use it in many of my new sessions.  Capturing "cool stuff" is an attempt to create buy-in from the students.  I have created a brief sheet of questions on which students can tell us about any source that they find cool.  This is purely optional for the student.  Their sheets will be put on the Facebook site.  It's more about raising awareness than anything else, but I hope that students will be excited to share their comments.

lit review: Social Studies That Sticks

Reading this book was like striking g-o-l-d.  The entire book was useful and interesting--full of good stuff.  Much of the text has an immediate use for my own research.  Even more of the text gave me ideas to incorporate into my online Archival Research Guide.

Laurel Schmidt's Social Studies That Sticks: How to Bring Content and Concepts to Life (2007) is aimed at American educators in the K-12 classroom.  But, the "content and concepts" featured in this text can easily be adapted for undergraduates.  In fact, a few sections in this book apply to sessions that I am constructing for History, Education, and Nutrition.

All of the chapters follow a similar pattern.  Each has a section about assignment objectives, assessing prior knowledge on a topic, sources that can be used in an assignment, sample questions to ask of sources, methods of digging deeper into evidence, examples of applications of an assignment, and assessing the actual learning that took place.  I was especially excited to go through the sections about biography, objects, and propaganda.  The detection of bias in records and in the researcher is explored and provides links to online tests for bias detection.  The book strongly supports incorporating textual records, visual records, and literary works not only to build context but to strengthen examples used in the classroom.

lit rev: Integrating Information Literacy into the Higher Education Curriculum

Back to the library literature for thoughts about information literacy.  I strongly feel that we have a lot to learn from our sibling profession, especially when it comes to information literacy.  This book reinforces that feeling and started me thinking about how to better coordinate my sessions with the librarians at my institution.

Published in 2004 by Jossey-Bass, Integrating Information Literacy into the Higher Education Curriculum: Practical Models for Transformation, has helped to both reinforce by research findings-to-date and think on a larger scale for the delivery of sessions.  I took notes from all parts of the book, but the chapters written by Ilene Rockman were the most informative.

Rockman defines information literacy and explains why these skills are necessary to foster in students.  After graduation, these students will require a wide range of skills and use them in all professions and life situations.  She presents many good arguments and cites many studies to support why information literacy should be part of a wider university curriculum.  A stand-alone, undergraduate course for information literacy is explored here and throughout the book.  She encourages a university-wide, non-subject-specific course because she states that students do not always see how to use these skills for other courses; I have observed that too in my research.

Rockman's chapter entitled "Successful Strategies for Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum" had some great ideas. She discusses problem-based learning as a good method for delivery because it results in active and self-directed learning for the students.  Problem-based learning also develops critical thinking skills.  "It is an instructional strategy that takes real-life situations and creates learning opportunities for the students." (page 48)

Susan Carol Curzon discusses "Developing Faculty-Librarian Partnerships in Information Literacy".  She provides strategies for forming these partnerships by: identifying partners (i.e., Senate, teaching and learning centres, part time faculty, department chairs); creating awareness on campus (i.e., talking about critical thinking, meeting the concerns of professors and students, supporting with assessment); avoiding partnership pitfalls (i.e., not dictating curriculum to faculty, involving faculty in the development of a program, offering timely sessions, defining information literacy clearly); and discussing and planning the models of partnering with faculty to teach information literacy (i.e., introductory session, general education session, learning outcomes focus, faculty focus, entrance requirement).

Other chapters were less useful for my research at this time, but I noted their general content.  Chapter 3 discusses online tutorials and how to develop them so that students can learn.  Chapter 4 explores building a literacy program on a university-wide scale and embedding information literacy in the university's curriculum.  Chapter 5 discusses the assessment an information literacy course at a large institution, while chapters 6 and 7 talk about how to do the assessment and resulting program development on a wider scale.  These chapters are all interesting, but are a little beyond my ability and scope.

lit review: Evocative Objects

Sometimes a book just jumps off the shelf as you walk by it.  That happened to me yesterday with Evocative Objects: Things We Think With edited by Sherry Turkle and published by The MIT Press in 2007.  It is just too funny that the editor discusses bricolage in the opening chapter.  That is exactly what I am doing with my sessions.  But I digress...

I looked at the book briefly, wondering if there were any assignment ideas contained within the pages.  The answer?  Perhaps.

On page 7, the editor explains that the book contains autobiographical essays, created by the authors being asked to "choose an object and follow its associations: where does it take you; what do you feel; what are you able to understand?"  I think this is an interesting method for students to get into making sense of historical context and understanding.  I had been considering journal writing as an assignment, but this would take the concept to another level.

The book's brief chapters each focus on an object of the author's choice: a cello, ballet slippers, a laptop, a rolling pin, slime mold, etc.  34 objects in total, all described with a very personal connection.  I most enjoyed the chapter about "The Archive" by Susan Yee, who eloquently describes doing archival research with original and digital documents.  I also enjoyed "The Suitcase" by Olivia Daste, who targets emotion when describing her relationship with her grandmother's objects.

"There is a power of boundary objects and the general principle that objects are active life presences." (page 9)  This is exactly what I need students to experience.  How to create that experience is another matter.

lit review: Hands-On Information Literacy Activities

Although the museum education literature is interesting, I was not finding much in the way of "how to" insights.  So, I have changed by tactic.  Turning away from museum education material, I searched for books about information literacy for libraries.  Here is where I found some "how to" ideas that can be adapted to the archives. 

When it comes time to build new sessions, one book will be most helpful--Hands-On Information Literacy Activities by Jane Birks and Fiona Hunt, published in 2003 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.  This book is accompanied by a CD-ROM of worksheets and activity supplements.  The book itself provides step-by-step examples of activities in the form of games, assessments/reviews of sources, and core activities. 

The "games" section reminds me of an example I have used with grade 7 students.  I printed off several types of primary and secondary sources on individual sheets, distributed them to the class, and asked the students to paste their source in either the primary or secondary column drawn on a flip chart.  I didn't only use "traditional" sources; I included things like an x-box game and the programming code to build that game.  The "games" section also reminded me of the brainstorming shout-out parts of my sessions.  Guess I have been using games all along, but didn't think of it that way.

The "assessment" section gave examples of diagnostic tools, research methods, scavenger hunts, brainstorming ideas, using the catalogue, using web sites, and evaluating web sites and databases.  Of course, I already work closely with the librarians who deliver this information.  But, this book has caused me to think about using exercises to demonstrate how to use a finding aid and digital collection databases.  I also need to think about building into my sessions opportunities for students to learn how to ask for records and explain how I can mediate the research process in a way that makes sense to them.

The "core activities" section demonstrates how the examples can be layered to build a progressive learning session using games and assessment exercises.  To me, this is the most interesting section--albeit too short.  I have been wondering how to layer sessions in a way that will build on skills learned.  Is there a way to create a mock-up session that demonstrates the reference and research processes?  I am certain that there is.

I plan to return to this book.  Today I only made a few notes, but there are ideas in this book that can be adapted to my new sessions.  I need to put some of these examples into action.

lit review: Museums and Design Education

Again, I was taken completely by surprise after pulling a random book off the shelf just to see if I it included anything relevant.  Odd how that happens!  This time I discovered Museums and Design Education: Looking to Learn, Learning to See, edited by Beth Cook, Rebecca Reynolds, and Catherine Speight and published by Ashgate Publishing Limited in 2010.  Because the book has a British focus and is aimed at university design programs, I was not sure it would be relevant.  I found chapters 4 and 6 most interesting, although I read through a fair bit of the book.

In general, Museums and Design Education is supportive of museums and universities working together.  In fact, it gives a brief history of the origins of university museums being specifically created (at least in Britain) to support higher education programs such as biology, medicine, and archaeology. 

The book makes a number of other noteworthy points, such as:
[these points incorporate those included in Chapter 4: "Creative Differences" by Jos Boys, and Chapter 6: "Student Use of a University Museum" by Rhianedd Smith]

• that not a lot of theoretical research has been done on support for university students from museums--I would argue that for archives as well;
• the co-operative work between universities and museums is ad hoc and not done through a formal program supported with policy and procedure;
• undergraduate students find it more difficult to determine their research needs as they are still learning their style, skills, etc.  They cannot easily shapre their learning experience.  This comes with time;
• museums cannot meet the needs/teach the skills without assistance, partnerships, staff, and money;
• grade-school curriculum is standardized and so museums can find an easier fit than with the less-structured university course.  This makes a "one size fits all" session difficult to create;
• the museum's sessions are one-offs and about short-term goals that enrich the visitor's experience.  Universities build activities in layers, at different levels of difficulty, with long-term goals; and,
• museums do not teach in a way that anticipates outcomes; it is more about inspiration.  A display cannot really provide any outcomes.

lit review: What Does It Mean to Think Historically...

Bruce A. VanSledright published a short article entitled, "What Does It Mean to Think Historically... and How Do You Teach It?", in the journal Social Education 68(3) 2004: 230-233.  Aimed at social studies teachers, the article explains the historian's role in researching the past, making it obvious that this involves the use of archives, museums, and libraries.

"Source work is a complex undertaking, requiring a form of critical thinking." (230).  He supports this statement by explaining how to work with historical sources by identifying the type of source and how it can help with research; understanding context and authenticity of sources; searching for bias in a source; and, corroborating sources for their reliability.

He argues that teachers need to empower students with the knowledge of how to assess sources.  (I would argue that these skills are required far beyond historical thinking.)  Students who are trained in critical thinking have an advantage.  The author briefly discusses engaging students with sources to build on the critical thinking skills.  He suggests that, to guide this engagement, teachers should apply well developed questions and assignments.

lit review: Museums and Education: Purpose, Pedagogy, Performance

What does museum education mean?  How can it be applied or adapted?  Do museums have an educational responsibility?  If so, what does that look like?  What is learning?  Is museum learning considered "real" learning?  These are questions addressed by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill in her 2007 book, Museums and Education: Purpose, Pedagogy, Performance, published by Routledge.

This book is based on research done to obtain British government funding for museums and, hence, additional research.  I didn't read the entire work because I felt that it was not all relevant.  But, I did like what parts I read.  The book was focused on learning and understanding with respect to cultural institutions.  Archives and libraries are brought into the discussion at various points throughout the book.  The challenges of squeezing in formal learning outcomes for museum public programming are front and center.

I felt as though the author tried to explore how informal museum learning fit into the formal classroom learning.  Considering the audience, the author seemed to explain not only the differences between the two learning types, but the benefits of supporting both.  She goes into great detail about learning, understanding, and knowledge, clearly demonstrating the process by which the researchers attempted to measure each aspect.

Studies found that school teachers valued the enjoyment, inspiration, and creative thinking that was involved with their students after a museum visit.  They valued the ability to open the minds of students to explore new ideas.  Knowledge was absorbed by the visit.  Teachers discussed how the experience can shape attitudes and value for history, people, institutions, and themselves.  They did not see much worth in assessing the direct learning done by students in the museum, only the entertainment value.

Student comments mirrored the teachers', but with much less depth.

Overall, the book did not provide any clues about how to enhance learning.  It did, however, provide a theoretical framework for learning based on a solid research method.  The book supported my own research more than it gave me new ideas to explore and incorporate.

lit review: Perspectives on Object-Centered Learning in Museums

I have been looking for ideas and examples of good practice within the museum literature.  I turned to this book, Perspectives on Object-Centered Learning in Museums, edited by Scott Paris and published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates in 2002.  At first I thought the book may not be of much interest due to the focus on children and museums, which is not my user-group for this research.  As usual, I was surprised.  Yes, the child-focused examples are prominent, but the discussions were more broadly based.  I found ideas that can be borrowed/adapted/considered along with words of wisdom from the various articles included in the book.

Here are some of the observations I made:

• suggests that guided exploration works best in the museum context (is this true of archives?).  What is the right balance of guidance and exploration to enhance learning?
• lots of strong arguments about the place of museums in the context of learning.  Objects help researchers understand, challenge, and communicate in a non-traditional, learning environment.
• digital falls far short of the experience with the original.  This is explored in chapter 5.
• interesting concept of a "talk back area" for comments and responses that enhance a museum exhibit.  This is a process that shares the learning and experience of other researchers.
• John H. Falk, of the Institute for Learning Innovation in Annapolis, Maryland, has written a number of articles/books that may be of interest.  He is frequently cited in this book and in others.
• there are three overlapping contexts--personal, sociocultural, and physical--that contribute to and influence the interaction and experience with objects for learning and meaning-making.  These are all exlored in chapter 1.
• the impact of the physical environment on learning is also explored in chapter 8.
• chapter 9 includes an interesting discussion about history museums vs. science museums and the use of objects to enhance understanding.  The role of literacy and interpretation is brought into this discussion.
• first-hand investigation (self-interpreted) vs. second-hand investigation (museums interpreted) of objects is part of chapter 10, which is about inquiry and the use of text.  This is mostly discussed within the context of an exhibit, but may be applicable to archival instruction.

Of course, the book was not entirely relevant to my research, but I liked the small nuggets of ideas that I may be able to consider as the research continues.  Much of what was said supports my own way of thinking about instruction.  As an example, I leave you with a quote from chapter 16:

"Encounters with real things--be they from the natural or cultural environment--ignite curiosity, imagination, memories, and questions.  Encounters with objects provide an opportunity for dialogue, inquiry, and conversation through which individuals find deeper connections not only to the world around them, but to each other as conversations twist around the object, the content, and the thoughts and experience of each individual." (Morrisey, 185)