Oh Why Do Things Have To Be So Complicated?

I noticed the last two weeks of discussions have brought up a common theme - simplifying language. Beginning with the discussion on definitions and the terminology used in the library system, Lori Ingles made the comment "there are so many fancy ways to describe what we do and the ways we do it. I find myself wondering whether we are trying to distinguish ourselves from teachers (not necessarily a bad thing), or justify ourselves as librarians (again, not necessarily a bad thing). I am concerned that some of the terminology makes us less accessible to the people we are trying to serve" (May 13, 2011). This comment resonated with me, not only because I was feeling overwhelmed because I was unfamiliar with many of the terms in this activity, but also because I can remember feeling the same way when I began my Special Education Diploma program and being faced with challenging, new terms and acronyms. Although I am comfortable with the language of Special Education now and can carry on a conversation with colleges in my field with confidence, we are trained as Learning Assistance Resource Teacher's (LARTs) to use Laymen terms and simplify language when speaking to parents in order to reduce anxiety and promote a sense of ease - we are all working together to help the student.  I wonder if Teacher-Librarians take this into consideration when working with not only their students, but with their teacher colleagues that may not be familiar with how a library runs. Would this make the TL more accessible...I think so.

In the second discussion around research models,  a frequent comment was on the language used to describe the different stages within each model. Although, each of the models were fairly similar in process, each author named their steps differently. Brooke Muir mentioned when describing BCTLA's Research Quest  " I...like that there are 5 steps in the research process and all of them have student-friendly language. Although many of the stages are similar to the Big6 model, I liked the language of “Communicate” rather than “Synthesis” for presenting the information. I also preferred “Reflection” to “Evaluation” for the last stage of the process" (May 16, 2011). I am a believer that the research process should be taught at an early age, just not as a mini lesson two weeks prior to assigning a grade six social studies project. This way the students are familiar and comfortable with the process and the language involved, so they can proactively begin the process independently, and be able to effectively ask for assistance when needed; not just state, "I don't know what to do". With this in mind, going back to Brooke's comment, how would you begin to explain the word "synthesis" to a grade one class? I think communicate is much easier to comprehend and put into practice. All in all however, no matter which research model you choose to use as a TL, I think the most important things to remember would be to be consistent by having a universal, school wide model and starting to teach students that model at a younger age.