Week 6 Reflections

In class last week we discussed the survey for the gaming talk in terms of whether we would hire McGonigal back and what we would change if we were McGonigal. I originally would have said that a library should for sure hire her back. I thought she was a good speaker, interesting, and very enthusiastic. However, after talking with my group, I'm no longer completely certain. She did not really explain her ideas clearly and, based on the survey, did not make huge impacts in people's personal or professional lives. It's kind of sad how easily impressed I am and how easily I am persuaded to completely change my opinion. We also got into our cohort groups to discuss the bloggers we have been following. It was interesting to hear about some of the issues that came up in other blogs and to hear different interpretations of the blogs I did read. The best part for me was discussing the Librarian in Black with some of my cohorts. I knew there was something about her I didn't quite like but I couldn't put my finger on it. I guess a lot of people got a bad vibe from her because she is self-promoting and comes across as slightly full of herself. That made me feel better about not liking her. The rest of the time was mainly spent on transfer, which is interesting but not my favorite topic.

I loved this weeks readings about book clubs and Socratic Seminars. Barbara Hoffert's article ("The Book Club Exploded") had great ideas for book clubs. From author participation to having participants read different books, the suggestions all seemed like good ways to add excitement to book clubs, especially for patrons who don't normally like book clubs. They were also very doable for a public library. I love reading about new ideas that will attract more people to the library. The only thing that I didn't agree with was the implication that the "old" book clubs are no longer a good choice. Personally, "chitchat about beloved beloved classics or recent best sellers" sounds like fun to me, and not just because I am a library student. I think a lot of patrons would still like this type of book club and getting rid of it just to attract new patrons seems a little unfair to them. I think trying new types of book clubs is a great idea, but not at the expense of the traditional book club.

The other two readings focused specifically on Socratic Seminars. Lynda Tredway explained the idea behind Socratic Seminars, while Margaret Metzger showed how it could be put into practice. I had no idea what a Socratic seminar was before this, but the idea is actually not that complicated. It's basically a discussion where students respectfully question themselves and each other to get at the meaning of a passage (or whatever the discussion is about). I was very impressed by the success of Margaret Metzger's seminars with her freshman students. I would have loved having an experience like that in my high school English classes. Well, probably at the time I would not have liked it, but based on the improvements the students experienced in thoroughly analyzing texts, expressing themselves, and accepting constructive criticism, I think I really could have benefitted from it. I am kind of looking forward to our demo Socratic Seminar in class and kind of dreading it.