One thing I have learned since starting the Teacher Librarian Diploma program, is communication is vital for effective research skills between teachers, teacher librarians and students. During this lesson I learned about the different forms of research or reference interviews: "Ready-Reference, Research projects, and Readers' advisory interviews" (Riedling, 2005, 104-105). The Ready-reference refers to a quick conversation that will answer questions using facts. The Readers' advisory is used to help suggest books of interest to students based on their reading preferences or personal interests. The Research projects, which got me thinking the most, is a series of questions designed to help both the teacher librarian and the student select materials and resources from several sources on a specific topic.
As I read Riedling's details regarding the Research project interview 'time' kept popping into my mind. Riedling (2005) states, "These questions involve in-depth coverage of a topic, often requiring the use of multiple sources of information. Research project questions may necessitate several interactions with the student over a period of time to achieve the desired results" (104). I am concerned that as a teacher librarian I will have a class that will all being doing research at the same time. If I follow her model of questioning this will most certainly require a great deal of one on one interviews. From my observations in libraries, the teacher librarian always has questions flying at her from six students. How am I to focus and 'listen' if I have an entire class looking for assistance?
I wonder if setting up interview times would be logical? There are also problems with this potential solution. I will most likely be covering PREP for most of the teachers, so if I am set up interviews with the students, where do I fit that into my schedule when I will have several classes a day to work with too. I wonder, when do I fit them all in, as well as all my other responsibilities?
References
Riedling, A. (2005). Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist: Tools and Tips, 2nd Ed. Worthington, OH: Linworth Publishing.
Lunch time, recess....however, it's often on an "as needs" basis and will work itself out.
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