SHOW, DON'T TELL
by Jeff Stanzler, Lecturer and Director, Interactive Communications and Simulations,School of Education, University of Michiganand Kristin Fontichiaro, Clinical Assistant Professor and School Library Media Coordinator School of Information, University of Michigan
Together at the University of Michigan, we teach a Teaching with Technology course for preservice secondary teachers. We encourage students to test out not only a variety of technology tools, but their growing pedagogical muscles. We want them to test drive, kick the tires, and ask about the warranty. Most importantly, we want them to see educational technology integration as a series of questions, not answers. How do we make valuable instructional choices for students? When are virtual discussions more valuable than face-to-face ones, and vice versa? What are the affordances and constraints of social media in the classroom? While our students usually know our personal preferences, we encourage them to decide which tools and technological strategies will
yield the most fruit in their classroom.
We build on a tradition of team-teaching between Jeff's home in the School of Education, and Kristin's in the School of Information. We talk about information literacy, instructional design, copyright, and resource selection. We think about when Wikipedia might serve students well and when a scholarly resource might be better. We look at Lexiled and differentiated database articles, as well as machine-read text and autotranslation features, as means of reaching diverse learners. We share what we believe: that librarians and teachers make great teammates.
The students listen respectfully. But it wasn't until we showed them the power of librarians that they believed us. We invited nine savvy school librarians to join our class in the not-even-open-yet Brandon Center for the Study of Educational Practice, a space designed to support several configurations of large- and small-group collaborations. Each librarian worked with a trio or quartet of our preservice teachers. Each group had the same task -- to imagine that they are planning a daylong teach-in about the tsunami in Japan, a lesson they could not teach from a textbook -- but each group approached it from
the perspective of their teachable major or minor.
Immediately, the teams got to work. One group looked at New York Times before-and-after photos and wrangled with how to teach about the liabilities of nuclear reactors. An English team looked at translated survivor blogs, a 21st-century primary source. One team learned how to look up national and world headlines at the Newseum online. A science team pored over teaching standards; a language group considered how their students might interact with “ancient Romans” on Twitter. Conversations flowed from backward design questions to how they would quickly transition groups to how there could be a methodology to assigning those groups in the first place.
"Take a break when you need one," we nudged repeatedly. It was a hot day, and the Brandon Center's thermostats had yet to be calibrated. They nodded absentmindedly at us and kept talking. No one moved for two hours.
Later, we asked our students to debrief about the experience on their blogs, and some graciously agreed to share their reflections with us on the following pages. And what did we gain as instructors? With the luxury of getting to watch others interact with our students, we could see different glimmers than we could from the front of the room. We heard doubts and worries we hadn't heard articulated before. We saw students learning the power of team planning.
We are deeply grateful to the librarians who joined us that day. To Jeanna Walker, Addie Matteson, Sue Lay, Jan Toth-Chernin, Jan Dohner, Carmen Pianko, Julie Rick, Sarah Sindelar, and Rachel Goldberg, thank you for showing, not telling.
Reprinted with permission from "Show, Don't Tell" by Jeff Stanzler and Kristin Fontichiaro in the free e-book, School Libraries, What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come, edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton. Smashwords Edition.
by Jeff Stanzler, Lecturer and Director, Interactive Communications and Simulations,School of Education, University of Michiganand Kristin Fontichiaro, Clinical Assistant Professor and School Library Media Coordinator School of Information, University of Michigan
Together at the University of Michigan, we teach a Teaching with Technology course for preservice secondary teachers. We encourage students to test out not only a variety of technology tools, but their growing pedagogical muscles. We want them to test drive, kick the tires, and ask about the warranty. Most importantly, we want them to see educational technology integration as a series of questions, not answers. How do we make valuable instructional choices for students? When are virtual discussions more valuable than face-to-face ones, and vice versa? What are the affordances and constraints of social media in the classroom? While our students usually know our personal preferences, we encourage them to decide which tools and technological strategies will
yield the most fruit in their classroom.
We build on a tradition of team-teaching between Jeff's home in the School of Education, and Kristin's in the School of Information. We talk about information literacy, instructional design, copyright, and resource selection. We think about when Wikipedia might serve students well and when a scholarly resource might be better. We look at Lexiled and differentiated database articles, as well as machine-read text and autotranslation features, as means of reaching diverse learners. We share what we believe: that librarians and teachers make great teammates.
The students listen respectfully. But it wasn't until we showed them the power of librarians that they believed us. We invited nine savvy school librarians to join our class in the not-even-open-yet Brandon Center for the Study of Educational Practice, a space designed to support several configurations of large- and small-group collaborations. Each librarian worked with a trio or quartet of our preservice teachers. Each group had the same task -- to imagine that they are planning a daylong teach-in about the tsunami in Japan, a lesson they could not teach from a textbook -- but each group approached it from
the perspective of their teachable major or minor.
Immediately, the teams got to work. One group looked at New York Times before-and-after photos and wrangled with how to teach about the liabilities of nuclear reactors. An English team looked at translated survivor blogs, a 21st-century primary source. One team learned how to look up national and world headlines at the Newseum online. A science team pored over teaching standards; a language group considered how their students might interact with “ancient Romans” on Twitter. Conversations flowed from backward design questions to how they would quickly transition groups to how there could be a methodology to assigning those groups in the first place.
"Take a break when you need one," we nudged repeatedly. It was a hot day, and the Brandon Center's thermostats had yet to be calibrated. They nodded absentmindedly at us and kept talking. No one moved for two hours.
Later, we asked our students to debrief about the experience on their blogs, and some graciously agreed to share their reflections with us on the following pages. And what did we gain as instructors? With the luxury of getting to watch others interact with our students, we could see different glimmers than we could from the front of the room. We heard doubts and worries we hadn't heard articulated before. We saw students learning the power of team planning.
We are deeply grateful to the librarians who joined us that day. To Jeanna Walker, Addie Matteson, Sue Lay, Jan Toth-Chernin, Jan Dohner, Carmen Pianko, Julie Rick, Sarah Sindelar, and Rachel Goldberg, thank you for showing, not telling.
Reprinted with permission from "Show, Don't Tell" by Jeff Stanzler and Kristin Fontichiaro in the free e-book, School Libraries, What's Now, What's Next, What's Yet to Come, edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton. Smashwords Edition.
