Today my class had a research presentation at the library. That was sort of a relief for me, as I did not have to prepare a class, but in the case of one of these presentations, it set the students back rather than helping them because the presenter clearly did not understand the topic my students must research--modern slavery! The students have to choose particular manifestations of modern slavery relating to the U.S., whether they are here or abroad, such as slave workers in another country who are making products that will end up being sold here or components of products sold here. She told them to use search terms relating to 19th century slavery in the U.S., while this is not appropriate for their topics, and spent an age on Lexus Nexus, when I specifically said I wanted them to use only professional journals and government/NGO reports and documents.
I sent material to the librarians in advance, and explained what my students were being asked to do, which was a short definition of the problem they had chosen. This will be followed later in the semester by a cause/effect essay on the problem and a proposal relating to the problem, then a big researched argument where they put these elements together.
I had to email the students after the session and tell them to disregard a sizable percentage of what was said.That is discouraging.
2 comments:
I'm sorry about this--discouraging indeed. some who teach research techniques handle the instruction themselves in the classroom.
I should have done that. But Jayne Sinegal did a great job, and in the past, Fred Forbes has done it well. They have both taught me some tricks.
Post a Comment