Blog Post #4
Unfortunately, I had a really bad cold for the last class and had to miss. However, I could tell you all about what I did at my house during class time... worked on 506 homework and went to bed. Classic night. A little bit of The Golden Girls might have been tossed in there too, the nights a blur.
In the Bergson piece I thought it was very interesting how the author was looking at close reading from a librarians point of view rather than a teacher's point of view. Ever since I decided to major in English, everyone and their brother has asked me if I am going to be a teacher or not. The answer was always no and they were so confused but even with all of the proding about assuming that I wanted to become a teacher, I do think from a teacher's perspective sometimes, which is why the librarian aspect of what a close read is was an interesting difference between how a teacher would view it. Learning the differences between what a novice and expert is was also something I have not really thought about all that much, however, I would say that most students (teens included) are novices in almost everything they do.
Reading through the rest of Bergson was not fun, let me tell you, same with the Markey chapters. I feel like because I just graduated from undergrad in May I have a pretty good grasp on how to research and what to research about. Also, when I hear the word 'statistic' I cringe because I think of math and that's all they kept talking about! And the graphs! Gross. The story-telling method vs. just a pure informational paper is an interesting one and something I would much prefer to read! I can't say that in undergrad I did the story-telling method unless it was something I was writing in my own opinion and voice.
The google search article was another interesting thing that I had not considered. I remember in one of my classes we had to search for scholarly sources on google with the + and ""... I wasn't taught about how to search google, I was taught how to search on databases. Databases are so much easier to scroll through because they have specifically what you need and what you are looking for in a nice contained little box, while google is just this mass source of crazy information.
I definitely read all of these pieces through novice-like eyes, which I think you should do when you are first finding and reading a new piece. That way you don't miss out on any important details that you might read about if you thought you knew it all already. I definitely got more substance out of the webinar and excerpts then I would have if I believed myself as an expert on the subjects.
In the Bergson piece I thought it was very interesting how the author was looking at close reading from a librarians point of view rather than a teacher's point of view. Ever since I decided to major in English, everyone and their brother has asked me if I am going to be a teacher or not. The answer was always no and they were so confused but even with all of the proding about assuming that I wanted to become a teacher, I do think from a teacher's perspective sometimes, which is why the librarian aspect of what a close read is was an interesting difference between how a teacher would view it. Learning the differences between what a novice and expert is was also something I have not really thought about all that much, however, I would say that most students (teens included) are novices in almost everything they do.
Reading through the rest of Bergson was not fun, let me tell you, same with the Markey chapters. I feel like because I just graduated from undergrad in May I have a pretty good grasp on how to research and what to research about. Also, when I hear the word 'statistic' I cringe because I think of math and that's all they kept talking about! And the graphs! Gross. The story-telling method vs. just a pure informational paper is an interesting one and something I would much prefer to read! I can't say that in undergrad I did the story-telling method unless it was something I was writing in my own opinion and voice.
The google search article was another interesting thing that I had not considered. I remember in one of my classes we had to search for scholarly sources on google with the + and ""... I wasn't taught about how to search google, I was taught how to search on databases. Databases are so much easier to scroll through because they have specifically what you need and what you are looking for in a nice contained little box, while google is just this mass source of crazy information.
I definitely read all of these pieces through novice-like eyes, which I think you should do when you are first finding and reading a new piece. That way you don't miss out on any important details that you might read about if you thought you knew it all already. I definitely got more substance out of the webinar and excerpts then I would have if I believed myself as an expert on the subjects.
Just a thought, but I don't think you need to think of the librarian's role as being all that different from a teacher's. As I'm learning from this class, the skills certainly transfer, and all librarians, through the reference interview and other interactions, perform one of the essential functions of teachers: they mentor patrons/students through an exercise of empathy, giving them the skills they need to advance their own interests in the real world. You certainly don't need to tell others that you're a teacher, of course. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know what it is, but I've already found myself more frustrated by databases than by google. I'm not entirely sure why, but maybe my initial failures with databases (searching for the wrong terms, etc.) when I was early MA student turned me off to them. Now I don't really need them because I know all the important names in my field, and I can turn to the bibliographies in their works or ask them personally for advice. I probably should have asked a librarian when I was first encountering difficulties and that would have changed my relationship to databases.