Wondering at work - mystery

When creating a book display showing "Mystery" books we created a tagxedo word cloud using synonyms for mystery. I like how so many of the words also apply to wondering. 

This week I was paid a huge compliment by a colleague when he was discussing some course readings on a forum. The reading was an article by Barbara Fister entitled "Playing for Keeps: Rethinking How Research Is Taught to Today's College Students" My colleague shared about how we use the Wonder of the Week and invite our school community to answer the question we post on the library door. This week's question "How do hibernating animals know when to wake up?" 

Anyway here are some responses to my colleague's post:   The example of the post it note allowed students to engage without the pressures of the right answer or proper procedure which brings learning back to one of its essential properties, inquisitiveness. Setting a challenge but not prescribing the path to success enables students to find their own way, in their own time, allowing for ownership of the process."

"I also really appreciate the examples you gave of incorporating play into the library. The post-it example facilitates intrinsic motivation by piquing students’ curiosity through an interesting question. It also creates a version of the collaborative research environment Kuhlthau describes by allowing students to see other approaches and responses to the question."

Simmons, Michelle. "LIBR:287: Information Literacy." Lesson #5 Discussion. San Jose State University, 2013. Web. 3 March 2013.

I was so delighted by these responses. I had never thought of the wonder door as achieving these things but it really does. Inquiry at play. My kind of inquiry learning. Barbara's article is worth the read as well.

So we continue to encourage wondering, mystery and play in our library. It is a learning process for us and the students at the same time.

Wondering at work - the inside of the wonder door

So each week we have a new 'wonder' on the wonder door of our library. We put the new question on the outside of the library door - it is also right beside the print/photocopier and often there are people waiting for their printing. When we see a group and we have a moment spare ourselves we grab the post it notes and markers and ask the students to add their answers.

What happens to the answers when the week is over and there is a new question? They all go to the inside of the wonder door, inside the library. We show the question from last week, the answers AND some books from our collection that would help people find the correct answer. Here displayed is the question "What makes the earth go round?' - a question one of our grade 10 students suggested. There are many answers - some very serious involving gravity, the sun and so on and others a little more light hearted - love, money and certain people. Below are a few books which would contribute to the answers. So our wonder door is current for two weeks. On the outside with the new question of the week and on the inside with all the answers contributed and some sources of information for the answers.

Loving being an Inquiry Librarian working in our Inquiry Library....

Wondering at work - language

In our library we have many columns to support the building in case of an earthquake. Here is the column beside our work area. We have started to create our "Wondering at Work" area. It is thoroughly appropriate that we use this supporting column as we are adding questions and words which support our quest at becoming an Inquiry Library.

One question we asked ourselves was what does an Inquiry Library sound like? It was inspired by this blog post 'Inquiry is an approach, not a subject' by Kath Murdoch. She asks these great questions in her post How might I re-think my language to better reflect the reality of a day in the life of an inquiry classroom? Our learning involves us inquiring as readers, as writers, as mathematicians, as scientists, as historians, as musicians – as team members and as self-managers.  How to I let my students know that they are inquirers more often than when they are simply “doing” a unit? So we decided one way we could add to the language of Inquiry in our library was to have a word of the week. We would try to use it as we speak, as we blog, as we think and we would encourage one another and our students and colleagues to adopt the word as well. 

So far we have had the words; peruse, browse and now bibliophile. Each week one of our library teams selects a new word and in our Monday morning team meeting she let's us know what the word of the week will be. This is a small step in the process of ensuring that we sound like an Inquiry library. We want to encourage questions, reflection, thoughtfulness and we are trying to ensure our language assists this process.

Wondering at work....

Last week we had our first question on our new wonder door - "What makes things glow in the dark?" This question came from wonderopolis and if you register with them they will send to your email a wonder each day. So here are some pictures of the wonder wall at work....

As the week went on not only did we get more post it notes on our door but also many people were stopping and commenting on the ideas. Our students liked it so much that one of the grade 10 boys asked if he could set this week's wonder questions which is - "What makes the world go round?" 

This is one step we have taken to be an Inquiry Library after Kath Murdoch's workshop. More will follow....

Wondering at work...

After our day with Kath Murdoch on Monday, my colleagues - Serife and Pla and I spent an hour dreaming about these question - how can we make our library an Inquiry Library? If our colleagues are Inquiry Teachers how can we be Inquiry Librarians? We thought of lots of great ideas and many of them you will see through this blog.

For some of our inspiration we will using wonderopolis

Lose a weekend, gain renewed passion

I just spent my whole weekend at a workshop. Friday night arrived and I was tired. Construction work in Taksim had added a few hours to my usual long hours of weekly commutes. I was holding off a cold. I had a week of extra school meetings. The days are getting shorter and.... well I think you get the picture. So the prospect of spending my whole weekend in a seminar room in a hotel was not very appealing. Then Saturday morning I was challenged to rethink my entire professional practice.

Kath Murdoch is a leading light in the area of learning by inquiry. Right from the start she invited us to think of ourselves as inquirers. I started to wonder how to be an inquiry teacher and then more than that how can I be an inquiry librarian? I would love to have inquiry at the heart of everything I do. How can I invite more student voice? How can I change what I do in the library to invite more student discovery? What thinking routines should I include to enable my students to grow as thinkers and inquirers? 

Slide showing some great questions

Two kiwi librarians learning together

 I have had the rare opportunity to think carefully about my professional practice and the invitation to redesign it, refresh it, renew it to be more inquiry focussed. Not only that I was able to do this with a fellow librarian and Kiwi - Kelly Blackwell, who works in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

I am not tired any more. I am excited to try as many strategies and ideas as I can. I have challenged myself to try out one new idea a week. Take one step no matter how small towards being an inquiry librarian. Get ready to share this journey, the successes and the mistakes that will lead to more learning. I can't wait to get started. I can't wait to chat with my colleagues who will be at a one day workshop Kath is running at our school tomorrow. I am curious to see how I can change, learn and grow. 

Thanks so much to Kath and Kelly  for helping me get started on this learning journey. 

Reference Interviews and Personal Project Exhibition

I am a learner when it comes to good reference interviews. This year I am trying to see every student in grade 6 to have a reference interview with them about their Exhibition research. The topics are wide and varied, each student has linked their passion to a global issue. We are looking into illiteracy, leukemia, animal rights and Kony. Each interview is about 10 - 15 minutes long. We start with what is available through our school collection and Destiny webpath express, then we look at EBSCO Middle Search and then .....
Each interview is different and each has been for me very rewarding. To see students smile with delight when we find relevant information is a joy. To have them leave the library with search strategies, sources and ideas is wonderful. We even found articles about lego and autism - the exact topic for one of the students. These reference interviews are fun.

This slideshare from Kaukauna Public Library Staff Training Day was useful : Reference Interview 101
Iowa Library Services includes some body language tips

I created a reference interview record sheet - so I can remember what we did, some guiding questions to help me through at first and an interview sign up sheet. The guiding questions are below for other resources just email me.

Reference Interview Questions for the interviewer

ASK OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS

Please tell me more about your topic

What additional information can you give me?

How much information do you need?

What kind of information are you looking for? Please explain that in more detail

Please tell me more about the resources you may use for this assignment

ASK CLARIFYING QUESTIONS

What have you already found?

What type of information do you need?

Do you need up to date or historical information?

I don’t know much about XXXX can you help me understand?