We want to send a HUGE thank you to listener, Megan Ondricek, for volunteering to help us catch up and create transcripts for our past episodes (starting with episode 9 below) and provide this important resource to our community! Jessica: Welcome to episode number 13 of the Librarian’s Guide to Teaching podcast! I'm Jessica,
Amanda: and I’m Amanda, Jessica: And on today's episode we're going to be talking about using storytelling in your instruction. But before we get started with our conversation, how are you doing? Anything going on this week? Amanda: Week two of working from home! The added layer of also watching my child alone, so that's been interesting. A lot of Zoom you know, bombing, you know, I know there's like this article going around about other “real” Zoom bombing, but like, she loves to come into the camera now so whenever my laptop is on, she actually waves at it and says “Hi!” you know, expecting someone to be there. Jessica: [chuckling] Oh my gosh. Amanda: So um, but other than that I think it's been going good. Um, we actually started this new initiative where we're doing drop-in research hours through Zoom with students who are used to face-to-face, you know, reference support. We just started promoting it, so we haven't had any students come in yet, but I'm hoping you know we'll get some more students, we're going to do another email blast to our students next week. And hopefully we'll have some students drop in for some one-on-one support. What about you, what's going on? Jessica: Same here. Week two, pretty much two and a half, working from home with a three year old, and same thing - he loves when he sees me talking to the computer, he comes over and pops his head up and everybody's like, “Oh my God, he's so cute!” So, you know, it's fun, and everybody understands that he's home so I don’t have to hide him or anything. So, it is definitely a lot, and I'm definitely just trying to balance the productivity and screen time and being with him, and just accepting all the emotions going on with everything. It is a lot to handle, but it hasn't been too bad. This is week one for us, actually, of our spring semester so last week was spring break and it was super quiet. This week it's ramping up a little bit but obviously chat and emails from faculty are much quieter than they normally would be week one because it's an adjustment for everybody coming back to specifically online classes so we're hoping that next week we at least get a little more interaction with students. Chat has been busy, but not as busy as we were expecting, I think we were expecting to be a little more slammed. So, we'll see. One day at a time. That's all I can do. I can't do any more than that. Amanda: Are you guys doing all asynchronous, or are you allowed to do, like, live Zoom things with the students? Jessica: It's a little bit of both, depending on what the faculty's requesting. I know, before there were all these calls for avoiding the synchronous. Some faculty had already scheduled stuff with some of our teaching librarians to do synchronous stuff. So some of the librarians have done those timed classes and they went well, but I think going forward a lot of the faculty are probably going to avoid that and start just having us put in tutorials, make LibGuides, do email reference and support with students. I've emailed two professors so far about April sessions that I had scheduled in as on-sites and I haven't heard back yet to see how they want me to handle that. So we're doing a little bit of both. Amanda: Oh okay. Interesting, yeah I think we're going to be doing all asynchronous, which is something we're used to. So, I'm not concerned that we don't know how to manage it, it's definitely, like, you kind of talked about last semester, last episode, it's kind of disheartening that you know your, your instruction is going to get a little less dynamic. So, I'm trying to balance it, like a part of me wants to be like, “Okay guys let's strategize and we can make all these interactive tutorials and we've got, you know, four weeks til the semester is over.” When another part of me is like everyone is just trying to maintain like, stop trying to like, you know, go crazy, I guess. I don't know but - Jessica: Yeah but well I was watching one of the ACRL webinars about, you know, transitioning your instruction online in this pandemic and you know one thing that the first presenter mentioned was just, you know, thinking about how, if we're trying to adapt with our personal lives, students are doing the same thing so they're, they may be caring for a child or a sick loved one, or they may not have strong Wi-Fi, or a good laptop and so we just have to remember that they may have access issues to these great things and I think what she said, actually I wrote it down, she said, “Don't create materials that are master works of instruction, because they may not even get used,” and I thought that was a really good way to put it. Amanda: Yeah, yeah, it's definitely hard because you want to be dynamic, but then you have a little bit more of a, you know, realistic expectation. Jessica: Yeah, exactly. So, I think that was part of what they talked about was just balancing it out, you know, making it something that students will get the point. So really identifying the most important learning objectives and just making something that you know everybody can see, everybody can read, everybody can understand, making it accessible for everybody, and going from there and cutting ourselves some slack. Amanda: Yeah, I was absolutely...it's interesting because I feel like this is such a big conversation now about learning, and you know, for people who are non-academics, and I was watching a TV program yesterday, and they were on talking about how all these college students are gonna want to do online instruction now because of what they've experienced and I'm just like, I don’t know, you know? I don't think I agree and then like, they're like, oh, and you know it's gonna be cheaper, and people are gonna, you know, not want to go to on-site classes but like we kind of talked about in the last episode, online learning doesn't necessarily equal cheaper learning or less expensive learning, you know? Jessica: Right. Yeah, right. Amanda: It's great that people are talking about higher education and the costs and, you know, what it takes, but like, I don't think they get the whole picture of what it means to have effective online learning. Jessica: Yeah, right, it's not going to be...this is not going to be what real online learning would be. So I don't think that everybody's going to be swarming to online learning from this. Amanda: No, I don't think so either. Yeah. So on to our topic for today: so as Jessica mentioned, we're going to be talking about storytelling and your instruction, and just a little bit of intro about the topic. There was a Harvard Business Review article that said, “Visual learners appreciate the mental pictures storytelling evokes. Auditory learners focus on the words and the storyteller’s voice. Kinesthetic learners remember the emotional connections and feelings from the story.” So storytelling can be informational, it can be memorable, and it is a great way to reach novice learners. So just to get things started, what is your experience, Jessica, with storytelling in your instruction? Jessica: There hasn't been as much as I'd like, but one thing I do remember doing was just asking students at the beginning of the class to reflect on a time that they struggled to find information for something, and I didn't get any responses, most likely because it was my first time in that class and it was a one-shot. So I had no rapport with them yet, so starting the class with that I think made it difficult at first, before I realized that I think it kind of turned me away from doing it a little bit, but I would definitely try it again in a class, either maybe a class that I'm seeing multiple times a semester because I can try it one of the second or third times I'm seeing them because I can develop a rapport at least a little bit, or maybe at a different time in the class, maybe later on in the session when we've at least gotten to do something else first, or giving my own examples, instead of asking them for examples. But I’d definitely like to try it, and preparing for this episode was really helpful in giving me ideas that I want to try to use in the future, because I think information literacy is really ripe for storytelling, it's very relatable we all use information there's so many different stories that we can pull from. What about you? Amanda: Um, so I have a little bit of experience in the classroom itself. I mostly have done like a scenario base that's kind of creative, or I create very very brief stories to set up an activity. We do this thing in our English 101 class where we talk about why information literacy is important and I always use real life personal examples. And it's funny because my examples change as I get older, so I know I've talked about this before, I've been, you know at my institution for almost 11 years now so I've gone through a lot of major life events. And when I was looking to buy a new car, I would use that as a story to tell about using information seeking skills. When I was looking for a house I used that example. When I had my daughter I used her as an example. So, as I grow my, my stories also changed as well but I think they're relatable, I think the way I tell them because it's so authentic they become relatable to some of our students, you know, whoever are in those stages of their life. Jessica: So how do you actually use the examples like from buying a house? You'll talk to them about how to pick a mortgage company or how do you talk to them about it as a story? Amanda: So, um, what I've done in the past is I've said like, you know you need these information seeking skills to make important life decisions. And I'll say for example, when we were looking to buy a house there are a lot of things that we needed to think about and, you know, some of them might not be at that point, but like they can kind of make the connection so I say to them: what do you think one thing would be that we would want to look for in the area? And some of them would say crime rates and some of them would say, school districts and then I would say yeah you're absolutely correct. It was important to me that, you know, we picked a good school district because I believe in public education and I went to public school and so like, I kind of asked them and then also weave in my, you know, real opinions on these things. And they, they get it, you know, they kind of get the connection and then I think one of the things that I think most of them can relate to, because when I'm speaking to a younger student population, is the buying of a car. And they always say, Oh, you know, you have to look at the Carfax or you have to see if it’s been in any accidents or the gas mileage and so I always kind of tell them the story of when my car got stuck in the parking lot at work, and I was forced to buy a new car, right, that night. Jessica: What?! Amanda: Yeah! Oh yeah, so my car would only drive in reverse. And I was leaving from work, I was gonna go home and I - it's funny because I had just moved out so I had no choice. I literally that night I went to the dealership and I bought a new car and I was freaking out because not only did I buy a new car, but it was the first brand new car I ever bought! So, I like to tell that story, and like, I get really into it because it’s so unbelievable. And I talk to them like, how like I’m at the dealership and I'm googling things and I'm trying to make sure that I'm getting the best deal possible and I'm looking at the car and the safety reports and, you know, and they just, they pay attention. Jessica: Right, yeah because you're acting dynamic, you're really into it so they're into it, and it's a funny story so it's like who wouldn't be into it, it's crazy! Amanda: Totally crazy story but it's a true story so, I've used those kinds of examples, but the one time where I was able to give a really like, a long storytelling project was for our library orientation. We have an online library orientation, where we have two characters: one who's used the library, and one that hasn't. And each module in the orientation follows the students as they learn about library services. And it was so exciting because we named the characters and we gave them personalities and we gave them funny lines and we're like, Oh, I don't think Carlos would say something like that, you know, he doesn't know a lot about the library. So like we really took the time, I mean we did this for eight months, this was an eight month long project. So this was like the most dynamic type of storytelling, and it was intense. It was a lot of work, I mean we must have met like 30 times over the course of, like eight months to get this done, but I think it's still one of the most rewarding and dynamic things I've ever done as a librarian. Jessica: Yeah, I do like that, that orientation was great. [14:15] Amanda: Yeah. So those are some of our experiences, so why don't we jump into some examples that we have not tried? When I was doing some research for this, one thing that I found was interesting, and that I'm kind of interested in doing more with, is using infographics and telling a story with data. So, you know, I've always been fascinated with visuals, even when I do PowerPoint presentations, I'm very visual, but I liked the idea of using an infographic. So in the past we dabbled with using infographics to promote some of our services but I think it would be great to do it to explain how students can get started with their research. You know you can almost see this as a bite-sized instruction resource you know? Like, you could put it in your LibGuide. So I was reading this really great book called “Infographics: The Power Of Visual Storytelling.” And it just really dives into why people like visuals, and why we gravitate towards this version of storytelling and I just think that that might be something interesting, I mean, it's, like I said earlier, it's bite-sized. It would be something small, like if you were a student how to brainstorm keyword terms and then it would be like, you know, different graphics to kind of chunk the information together, and that's one way it could be a visual. Also maybe it could be, we could be using our data to tell a story about how we previously supported students. I did this once where I put together an infographic of how librarians supported students in the previous semester and it was like different data points, we had this many chat, we had this many one-on-one instructions, we were in this many discussion boards, so it's all in a way, a story. We're telling a story of our support. Jessica: Right, yeah, exactly. I love infographics, I mean, I've always been into marketing in libraries and I'm always into using them, either within the marketing or afterwards to show what we've done through our marketing, to show our value to our stakeholders, and stuff like that and I'm just a visual person in general. Thinking about infographics and storytelling it reminded me of this book that just got published this past year. It's by Michelle Rial, it's called “Am I Overthinking This?” She has a great Instagram page where she does like cute little, they're more, I guess, they're kind of sometimes infographics, sometimes just cute visuals where she'll use a Venn diagram and what she does is she uses the graphics to tell cute little jokes and things about everyday life. And so they're super relatable. And so I could see using something like she does with maybe using humor, and the infographic and information literacy and kind of combining it all together. I'll link it in the show notes because people may be inspired and they'll do something fun before I do it, but I think it could definitely be interesting and it also teaches data literacy at the same time that we're teaching information literacy because we can show them how to read the graph and how to show them if there's problems with it so it could be a lot there to do with. Amanda: Absolutely, absolutely. I think it's just, it's a gravitational pull, you know what I mean? They get sucked into the image and they're engaged and it's memorable and it's, you know it's, in the book that I just mentioned about infographics and the power of visual storytelling, it was talking about how it's memorable in a sense that they will store that information differently than they will if someone just gave it to them. Jessica: Exactly. Amanda: So um yeah, that was one way that - I am not using it consistently - but I think I'd like to, I mean especially in my LibGuides. I'd love to kind of make my LibGuides more visual. It's always something that I strive to do. I was actually just in a meeting yesterday, we were revising our SWOT LibGuide. We have this like, really great text explaining the different aspects of SWOT, but it's so text heavy and I'm like, we have to visualize this somehow, we have to tell it in a better way. So, visual is always important to me. Jessica: Yeah we're going to be going through our LibGuides this year and making them more teaching focused, like actually making them teaching tools instead of just a guide, we were going to start that project right before everything happened with the virus so it's like now it's getting pushed back again but I'm super excited about it because we are probably going to make it more visual. And I hate to make generalizations but I'd like to see some research on whether or not it's true that the past generation and current generation are more visual creatures anyway. I'm wondering if that's, I think that's a generalization that goes around these days, but I'd like to see some research to see if that's true, and it would [inaudible] using infographics in the classroom for a lot of reasons. Amanda: Yeah, you know what the interesting thing is, I love visuals, but I also like written instructions. So like, in our last episode or maybe the one before that we were talking about YouTube tutorials, and I like to do both. I like to watch the tutorial, but then also look at the printed instructions. So I like to do both. Now I don't know, like, if that makes a difference in the storytelling process but like, to me, I just like both. [20:16] Jessica: And now that you are saying that about the written instructions too it also brings in the accessibility component of if someone can't see the infographic there needs to be alt text and does the alt text do enough to explain what's going on in the infographic? So there is that aspect of it too, of making sure there's some type of written record that a screen reader can read of that graphic to make sure that people would be able to understand it, too. Amanda: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Another idea that I had was to have the students be the storyteller. So, I think, as a former student and as you know, in my experience providing instruction, I think students like to tell their own experiences, and I think this could be easily done by just asking students to reflect on an experience. I think that's a big part of the learning process. When you give a student an opportunity to reflect on their prior knowledge and build upon that knowledge, and I think we forget, but that is a part of the storytelling process. So anytime you say to a student, “Oh, think back to a time where you had a challenging research project” or “think back to a time where you needed information and you couldn't find what you were looking for.” Whatever they're thinking about or whatever you have them write down, that's their story, so they are using storytelling techniques to reflect and learn and improve in some capacity. So I think, you know, I, again, I don't do that enough. I think that would be an easy thing to explore. It's just a matter of remembering to incorporate it into my instruction process. Jessica: Yeah, and even though I, when I tried it, I didn't have a positive experience of all these students wanting to express their ideas, I mean, I'm just even thinking of transitioning from asking an open question and asking them to respond to making it a think-pair-share. That's an easy pivot that could just make them a little more open to talking to the person next to them about it and then sharing together as a pair, might open them up to it a little bit more. Amanda: I think in my experience, they're a little more forthcoming in a discussion board. Back in my instructional design program, a lot of us were professionals who were already working in the field, and we would reflect on what we were currently doing at our jobs and that's how we told our story and that's how we reflected. And that's how we learned from each other. So I think it also depends on the types of experiences and your audience so I think that’s another thing to think about is your audience, you know what type of experiences do you think your audience will have at that time. So sometimes you can be really specific and other times you might have to be, you know, a little more simplistic in your quest for getting the students to quote-unquote “tell a story.” Jessica: Yeah, you know, that's funny that you say that. I'm thinking back to a lot of the discussion boards I've facilitated and I feel like they are so much more open about giving personal details and things like that about their research and about how they're doing in their lives when they're doing it in print. Which is just funny I don't, I'm not psychoanalyzing it right now but I just find that interesting. Amanda: Yeah, yeah, so you kind of already talked about a little bit of what your barriers might be with storytelling in the classroom. Are there any other barriers? Jessica: Yeah, I think my big one is kind of knowing what to tell. I know we talked about, in a couple episodes, is kind of talking about our own struggles of researching in school and things that we've gone through, you know, even if I'm researching for creating the class. I feel like I never have a good example of, because either I can't remember it or I feel like it's not going to be relatable, at least my own examples. So I think I probably would shy away from those because they just don't feel natural to me. But I think I could definitely get better at when I come across something from real life or you know my real life or social events that are going on in the world, I just need to get better at finding a place to log them like, this would be a good example for class as a story. And so that I could have some type of record of them that I could pull from. Yeah because I think using history, current events, stories from even student disciplines, because I mean, nurses are going to have so many stories to tell from everything going on right now. Even marketers might have it or business students or history students, environmental students, they may have great stories from their disciplines that I could pull from. And like we talked about before, you know, student stories. So I think I'm just gonna have to overcome my memory barrier by shifting to other types of storytelling. [25:21] Amanda: Yeah, I definitely agree with that, I think my stories are great when I could think of them. And I think that's my problem - I don't think it's a problem, but I think I don't gravitate to storytelling that often because I want it to be authentic. I don't want it to be rehearsed. I don't necessarily say okay and this is the point of my instruction where I'm going to talk about this story, you know? Like a lot of the times, it'll just come up naturally in the conversation, like there's only one or two times like I kind of talked about earlier, in that English class where we introduce information literacy, where my stories are kind of canned. You know they're my tried and true stories, but like I said they change as my life moves forward, but I use them like, I'll be in like five or six instruction sessions for that class in a semester so I'll stick with the same story. But you know for my other classes I want it to be more authentic, so it's not consistent. It's just when the occasion arises. Jessica: Right and that's definitely something that I struggle with, and that I've always loved about your teaching, is that you can just like pivot on a dime and that's just not a strength of mine. Like I don't read from a script, but I do need to have all my examples labelled out, I need to have all my points labeled, and I'm not very good at just coming up with something on the fly. So that's something that I work on, and I think it's why I really liked that podcast episode I brought up in our online teaching episode with Flower Darby, she's an educator who talks about being an introvert in the classroom. And I think it's just part of who I am and I have always put myself down about it, that like, I'm never going to be a great teacher because I can't, I can't be like an actor and an authentic person like that in the classroom. But hearing her speak about being an introvert in the classroom as a professor, it's just my personality, and that doesn't make me a bad teacher, it's just not a strength that I have. I have other strengths and that's totally okay. So, I think maybe I won't be that person who comes up with examples on the fly but there's other ways that I can incorporate storytelling to still seem authentic, just in a different way. Does that make sense? Amanda: Absolutely, yeah, yeah, so, um, let's move on and talk about some pie in the sky storytelling techniques that you might want to try in the future. Jessica: So, a pie in the sky idea that I have that totally isn't fleshed out in any way, but for a credit bearing class or if a professor wanted to think pie in the sky and work with me on it, would be like a podcast episode for a semester project where students had to maybe do research on how to storytell in a podcast and it would have to be about their discipline or about a topic that they really wanted to talk about. I think a lot of what I've been reading about storytelling and information literacy, a lot of stuff comes up about digital storytelling. And I think that counts as kind of a digital storytelling format so I think that could be a cool way for them to be the storytellers, about the information that they're researching and learning about, so that could be fun. Amanda: Oh my god, that would be so amazing. I could just see it like where you're, it's almost like instead of a student doing like a boring PowerPoint on a topic, they could make it more dynamic, with a podcast where they could, you know, they could use video or choose not to use video, have interviews or not have interviews, and they could tell a story in some sort of way. So I think that would be so fun. And I think you know what, at this point, students are using Zoom. So, they have the technology to do it, and I'm not saying all students, but I'm saying with what we're going through right now, I think we're stretching all of our capabilities in terms of what technologies we have or have not used. So, I think it would be an interesting project especially if it was like a semester-long project where you train the students to use the technology. You know you could even like start small, where you could say okay, get on Zoom, record yourself and tell me a two minute story about yourself, you know? Almost like an online version of like a public speaking class, you know? And then, like, they just grow and grow and grow, and it becomes like a full length podcast episode of some sorts. Jessica: Yeah, that would be really cool doing all that kind of scaffolding up to the full episode. Amanda: That would be really cool yeah for sure. Jessica: So another idea for a credit bearing class which is kind of simple, and I guess could be done in a one-shot, maybe, if you had them continue to do it after you leave, is to ask students to keep a research log for the entire semester. And they could be given prompts to reflect on their process, and then at the end of the end of the semester kind of look back on their log and come to one final story about how their research process went. I saw something like that in one of the articles that we’ll link to in the show notes. It was about using a research log in a psychology class like for graduate students, and they had to reflect on their own research process but then connect it to their discipline. But it could be used for any level by just getting students to think about their research story, and how they're writing this, this paper. [30:59] Amanda: That is interesting. I did something kind of like this in a way, I was really interested in focusing on growth mindset questions, and I was in a discussion board where they did three sets of questions. The first question was, they had to pick from a list of research things that they struggled with, and they had to say why they struggled with it. And then the second part of the discussion board is where they applied what they learned from the lecture. And then the third part was they go back and they say whether or not they think they grew, and that they, if they learned something new from, you know, the part one of the discussion board so it was like a full-circle reflection. So that would be, you know, that was one of my experiences and the students really liked it, they really liked that, um, the reflection part. Jessica: Yeah, they're like writing their own research story. Amanda: Right, right. Jessica: The other article that I liked was one that you found about a library orientation that someone created that used stories to explain why information literacy skills are important. So, they had the opportunity to kind of start from scratch with this library orientation from a program and so they picked out historical examples of where information literacy should have been used more effectively. I think one was about a presidential campaign that was called too early. And so it was something about reading data and making assumptions about information. So they took the historical event, and then pulled out what those people should have done for information literacy wise, and they said at the end students were really engaged and interested in information literacy because they were seeing it through this lens of story, and I thought it was super interesting because I could definitely bring that idea to my department, as we redesign our University 101, hopefully for the fall. And we don't know what's going on. But I thought that was a really cool idea. Amanda: That is such a cool idea! I love stuff like that, I think it's engaging, I think, like I said, you know, earlier, it's those real life examples that students really connect to. And even if it's a historical example I think it's, you know, it's fun to reflect back on something that happened, and really kind of just be like well how did it go, you know? Jessica: Right, right. And the last one that I saw was on, actually recently, in the keeping up with digital storytelling from ACRL, they sent around an email newsletter about it, which was interesting timing because we had already scheduled to record this, but there were some great examples of digital storytelling assignments, and this would especially be interesting in higher level classes where students are getting really engaged in their discipline area. But I watched this whole video because it was so interesting, the story that they were telling. It was about, I guess they were kind of marketing this archive that they have, and they told the story about an author who got in touch with their department in the library, because he was researching for a book about Italy and World War II. And this author had traveled to Italy, to this town, and found a man's name on the wall, and the soldier turned out to be someone who was there who wrote his name there on the town wall that he was there in World War II. And this archive happened to have an interview with that soldier, telling about his time in Italy in World War II. So the story that they were telling in the video was about how they helped this author find this real life interview. So, it was super cool and it was created by students and it was marketing the library's archive and so I could totally see that being something that they could, that the students could do. It's kind of like the podcast thing but using a video. Amanda: Yeah, yeah, that does sound like a lot of fun. I'm just listening to you tell it reminded me that one of the things that I loved when I was reflecting back on my experience of being a student, like, four years ago, was every week we were required to watch a video, and most of the times the video started off with someone telling a story. And then once that story was told to introduce the topic then they got into like the nitty gritty definitions. So I think that's definitely dynamic for sure and I think it's an easy way to get people interested in certain topics. Jessica: Yeah, right. [35:48] Amanda: So I have a few ideas. One, it would be some type of LibGuide where, I guess it goes along the sense of library orientation that I talked about earlier, but maybe less labor intensive. Each page or each video, a student, you know, you'll follow a student completing a research project, but like the same student will be with you along the whole way of the research process, and that way you're like following a student. So I think it's doable, but it definitely like takes a lot of coordination to get it done but that would be something interesting to do. Jessica: Yeah, definitely. I like using LibGuides because it’s a platform that we know how to use, it's easy to teach students how to use. There's a lot of different components that you could incorporate in that, a lot of different types of technology you can use. That would be interesting. Amanda: Yeah, and then another one that I thought would be interesting is, like, if you have like a standardized learning experience that you know happens every semester, or you have like a cohort learning, perhaps get some testimonials or interviews of students as they're going through a particular experience, and then have those students share their experience. So for example, I know I previously talked about, I support our Honors Program, and every year it's a different cohort. So like one example could be an interview, like a brief 30-second or minute long interview with a student and say, I'm saying to them, “What's one piece of advice that you would want to give this cohort on working on your annotated bibliography?” What did you learn, what should they focus on, etc. It’s just this idea of students learning from previous students, you know, in a storytelling way. Now that would be a lot to coordinate. I think if you have those particular learning cohorts where they're used to being tapped for, you know, events, or promotional stuff, or they want to pay it forward. I think with our Honors Program, it's very much a pay it forward kind of thing. We do have a lot of our previous cohorts, they'll come in as guest speakers or in a sense they’re doing that but I was thinking almost like a virtual version of that. That might be an interesting way for the current cohort to learn from the previous. Jessica: That's true, it's kind of like student ambassadors when you start a new program or you go to a new college or whatever, there's the students that have been there for a while and they tell their story to get students comfortable and it's less of a teaching thing more of a psychological support thing, but I think it could definitely work as a teaching thing too. Amanda: Yeah, yeah, I think because also they relate to each other a little more. And they might have some insights on the process that we might not have. So, I think it would definitely be a worthy thing. Like I said it'd be a lot to coordinate, very pie in the sky but I would love to explore that idea. So, do you think storytelling is an effective instruction technique for one-shots? Jessica: I mean, as I mentioned I had trouble asking the students to openly share their experiences because understandably they didn't know me yet. Perhaps they didn't feel comfortable sharing their experiences, you know, the rapport that the faculty set in the class too, before I even get there makes a huge difference. If the faculty member hasn't created an environment where they feel open with one another then I'm just walking into that and they're never going to open up. So I think that makes a big difference for one-shots, but I think there are ways to do it kind of how we talked about maybe doing think-pair-share first or just having them write it down whereas even if they're not sharing it with the class they're at least reflecting on it themselves and thinking about it and incorporating it into what they're thinking, or using the, building the scenarios or historical examples into, into the lesson itself would probably be the best way to do it. Amanda: Agreed, I think, to kind of piggyback on your comment about that you've had trouble with students getting to tell their story and experiences, as being from a librarian perspective if, again, we can remember to incorporate it into our instruction, a student might remember us and be comfortable with us if we share our stories. I can't tell you how many students I've had come to me and say, that car story is unbelievable. And then start a conversation with me and come back to me for other class support, because I shared that one story with them. So I think it also breaks the ice with, you know, humanizing us as librarians. So I think it can be effective. I think if we remember to use it, if we feel comfortable using it, and I don't have all the answers of how to get myself more comfortable being a good, effective storyteller, but I definitely think it's something that I would like to work on. Even if it is a little planned out, I think it's still a worthy, worthy cause. I think I could see myself focusing more on the digital storytelling aspect of it, because I think I can control it a little more, and make sure that I’m like, you know, being dynamic by storytelling. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Right. Amanda: We have a few suggestions of small ways you can incorporate storytelling into your instruction. One example is to share your searching experience and we've talked about this a few times. You know, provide an example of a specific time where you as a student or librarian struggled with a research problem and how you overcame it, or maybe a situation in real life where you needed to use information to, you know, like debunking misinformation that your aunt posted on Facebook. I know I've tried to do that before where I'm like, I don't think that sounds right, I'm gonna go and find and prove them wrong. So I've definitely shared those examples before in my instruction. Share a time that you've helped a student, you know, we talked about this too, we help our students so often but like I think, because we're so like, on to the next thing we don't necessarily always think back and remember every single interaction we have. Another example is to share a short story that introduces a topic, like I mentioned already with my buying a house or a car, etc. Create a case study activity: so this is a little more involved, but I think it's something to consider. Role playing activity: where the students kind of take on certain narratives. Have the students be storytellers: we talked a lot about this, I think they like reflecting, and I think it's one way to break the ice. Jessica: Right. [43:35] Amanda: Yeah so those are just a few examples and this isn't an exhaustive list, this isn't, you know, exhaustive examples or ideas but we definitely have a lot of great links in the show notes to more in-depth resources. I think I actually linked to a book that is explicitly teaching information literacy through stories so that's like super on point, super targeted, so I would definitely recommend people checking it out. I haven't had a chance to get my hands on a copy of it, but I was able to kind of skim through some of the chapter headers and stuff like that and it looks really interesting. Jessica: Yeah, I think I want to check that one out. That sounds really interesting. Although I haven't finished reading all the articles that I had planned yet for quarantine time so once I get through those first, then I will move on to some of the new stuff. Amanda: I feel so jealous, like everyone's going through their reading pile and I don’t feel like I’m doing any of those things! Jessica: I haven't gotten there yet, I'm trying to weed through it little by little, but you know, working at home with a kid is like, plus I want to read my own stuff, I want to get through my Goodreads challenge and of course I picked like the longest book on Earth to try to get through first which wasn't smart. Amanda: I haven't picked up a book, and I think my problem is that my Kindle is by my bed, and like I read it, I get through like four pages and then I pass out. And so I think that’s my problem. But um I haven't been, I feel like I haven't been taking advantage of any of the free anythings. Like I'm not bingeing any shows, I'm not using any of the free resources that are out there, like I'm just maintaining like, that's it. Jessica: Right. Well, nothing has really changed other than like, I don't have a commute anymore, so I don't listen to audiobooks, so that's out the window. Otherwise I'm still working eight to four, I, my husband still comes home at five o'clock because he's still working, and it's our same evening as if nothing has changed so it's like, you know, I don't feel like I have any extra time like, maybe some other people do. But at the same time, maybe those people are not employed, and I'm praying for them, because I'm blessed to, you know, still be employed, honestly. Amanda: For sure, for sure, yeah, but I'm definitely not, you know, I don't have a stockpile of articles I think I'm going to get to. Jessica: Right. They’re there, but you're not going to get through them. [chuckles] Amanda: Maybe I need to ease up on myself and like actually take the time because like we've talked about this too like that professional development guilt that I have about reading or watching a webinar during work hours. So, maybe I should ease myself, you know, take it easy and actually take some time to do that. So, we'll see. You know what's interesting, the one thing that I have been doing while I've been home that I haven't been doing since about a year now is taking a lunch break. I have not, like since I went back to work after I had my daughter, I would not take a lunch break and I would just leave early. Now that I'm home with her, I need that lunch break. So I'm taking it and it’s so weird, it’s so weird! But, I like it, I like the lunch break. Jessica: Yeah, that's true. I mean I never took a lunch break for years and then at this current job, I finally really started doing it because it was something everybody did and I'm definitely doing it now that I'm home because by noon, little boy needs a walk outside, so it's like noon to one is still my lunch break and we go outside for a walk, because we have to. Amanda: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Jessica: Well that was a tangent. Amanda: Tangent but moral of the story is, if you have the time to read these extra articles or books that we're linking to please check out the show notes because they are exhaustive, you know, heavy reading material but they are, they really dive deep deep deep into the art of storytelling and teaching. (End tangent.) Jessica: [chuckling] Right. Amanda: All right, so we're moving into our weekly segment of triumph or fail, or both. Jessica, you want to start? Jessica: Yeah, so the triumphs and fails are a little, they're a little different this time obviously because things are different but my triumph this week was making a LibGuide! I have not made a LibGuide in what feels like such a long time but I happened to get lucky and get this professor on chat who asked if we had any resources about historiography, which I did not even know about. It's apparently writing about historical perspectives about an event, you're not writing about the event you're writing about what people have written about it. Which is super interesting and he sent me a LibGuide from another college, and he said, Do we have anything like this? and we didn't have a LibGuide. So I put together something that was just our Pace resources with some resources he gave me, and it was just fun to make a LibGuide after a while. Especially since I guess it's not really a fail because it's not my fault, but my fail is that I'm feeling kind of out of sorts not teaching, because I have no teaching to do right now, so it was nice to have a LibGuide to make and feel like I'm still teaching in a little bit of a way. So, yeah, I'm kind of, I kind of wish I was doing some of these synchronous classes because everybody's like planning things and making PowerPoints and I'm like, oh just over here. I'm planning lessons for like standardized instruction for the future, but I'm not going to get to use it until I don't even know when. It’s sad. [49: 24] Amanda: Yeah interesting times for sure. I think I have a triumph. My triumph is that I think being in this situation has forced my group to completely think again about our outreach messages to faculty and students, and even departments. We even had a conversation about how can we get our message out there to departments about what the library does and our services. So I, I guess the triumph is that I feel re-energized to, you know, come up with new ideas on how to provide outreach, whereas in the past if we weren't going through this current situation I would just be like, alright we have projects to get through, let's go. I feel like we have a little bit more time and space to kind of think about some of these other, other things. My fail is that my team now we've met, this the second week we met, and I feel like I'm still trying to get back to “normal” with our meetings, and like, kind of talk about projects that we were working on before we all went remote, and I think it's failing because we're still in this, “Alright, how do we support students remotely?” And I think I'm forcing it too hard, um, because I had a lot of pushback. But I think I kind of like, I found a balance. So the first meeting, like I said, which was, which was a triumph was, we only got to, “Hey how's it going?” And then, this week's meeting, we talked half, like coronavirus update, and then the other half was instruction, like project related. So I think next week, we'll be in a little better place to talk more about some of our instructions. Yeah, we'll get through it. So I feel like we're still moving our services and our programs forward. Jessica: Yeah, I don't think you're alone in that. I think that's probably going to be what everybody's trajectory is going to be. It's like week one is like, what is happening? Week two is okay this is feeling normal and then the later weeks will be a lot more, I hate the word “normal,” like, at least functional, let's call it functional. Let's stop calling it normal. Amanda: I like that idea, it’s functional, right? We're functioning in this new forced work setting, right? You know I think it's a fail because I'm so concerned that it'll turn into a bigger fail that these projects won’t get completed. Because like we have deadlines, and I feel like these deadlines are out the window. And I'm flexible but I don't want them to not ever get completed. So, I'm trying to prevent the fail from snowmobiling into another fail. Jessica: Right yeah and I'm super nervous about that too, like, when I first started working from home I made a list of the projects that I couldn't work on anymore, because they were either tied to an event that was canceled or something like that. Like I'm really sad that our Qualtrics assessment of all our English classes is kind of up in the air right now because we had finally gotten the ball rolling on that right before everything went online and I feel like we're gonna have to start again. And we have half of good data, and that we may not be able to do anything with. So it is kind of sad that certain things are just kind of like poof, they may never materialize. Amanda: I know! Just before this happened, I was having really great conversations and making meetings with chairs to talk about information literacy in their programs, and then this happened. So I just emailed a professor, I felt like enough time had passed where things had calmed down and I emailed him and I said, hey listen, are you comfortable with picking up this thread and meeting for Zoom because I don't want to drop our progress. But if your workload has changed or you want to wait to be back on site that's fine, but I'm game to do it via Zoom. So we'll see if he responds, I don't know, but those are the kinds of things I'm kind of worried about like dropping like threads on the progress that we were making beforehand. Jessica: Yep, exactly. So I guess we are just kind of up in the air for a while. Amanda: Yeah, yeah. All right, so that wraps up another episode of the Librarian’s Guide to Teaching. Here's where you can find us. You can find the podcast at @Librarian_Guide, you can find Jessica at @LibraryGeek611, you can find me, Amanda, at @HistoryBuff820, and you can email us at [email protected]. Don't forget to rate and subscribe to our podcasts wherever you listen, we love to hear from you in the reviews as well. Summary keywords: students | storytelling | visual | instruction | infographics | story | dynamic | information literacy | learning | reflect | discussion board
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About the podcast:The LGT podcast is hosted by two instruction librarians interested in sharing their experiences teaching information literacy, discussing current trends, and having meaningful conversations about librarianship. Archives
May 2021
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