Last week marked my first foray into information literacy instruction. I took over the Scout portion of one of the EN102 classes. Not so bad, but I was again amazed at how much information Karlie can pack in there and how seamlessly she moves from one subject to another. I am thankful we are preparing one topic at a time, but am wondering how all of it will be melded together for an entire class. I enjoyed the experience, though, ESPECIALLY after the lecture was finished and we got to talk one-on-one with students. There are some impressive kids out there…you know, with like, deep thoughts and stuff. It’s odd to say, but one of the things I will need to get past as I’m instructing is feeling like I am “one of them”. I still feel like I belong in the same age group with all of these students who are, quite literally, less than half my age. It changes the dynamic when I pull myself out of that mindset and force myself to recognize adulthood.
This week’s assignment: narrowing a research topic. This presentation has been hard for me to pull apart from one centered on narrowing search terms (after a topic is chosen). There is so much overlap when researching, and again it’s hard to place the process into a stepwise format. Something to start thinking about: a logical progression of instruction that both shows how circular research can be and also gives students a chance to wrap their minds around each aspect.