Engaging Students in Active Music Research: The Research Race Approach

1. Research as Process and Play:Active Learning Approaches for Music Instruction in One-Shot Settings Ann Shaffer, University of Oregon ashaffer@uoregon.edu Music Library Association Meeting Orlando, FL Feb. 25, 2017 Libraries

2. One-Shot Instruction Sessions The challenges: Teach new tasks and concepts Teach discipline-specific research tools Will students retain information/skills? Are students engaged? Will I ever see these students again?

3. Models for Engaging Students • Misti Shaw, “Instruction Activities Aimed at Performers” (MLA Conference, Denver, 2015) • Scenario-based research activity framed around real-life performance issue • Variety of resources used • Specialized resources used • Small group working together • The Research Race: Miriam Rigby, Yen Tran, Annie Zeidman-Karpinski, (University of Oregon Libraries) • Multi-leg research activity that guides students through research process • Teams of 2-4 students • Each team has to complete a leg of the race before moving on to the next leg • Game theory: team members work together & problem solve to complete each stage • Competition: first team to finish wins a prize

4. Active Learning Elements Little to no lecturing! Students learn by doing Models the research process

5. Gaming Elements Teamwork & Problem Solving Complete task in order to gain a tool and move to next level Competition!

6. My Goals Apply the Research Race model (multi-leg activity, small teams) Create a realistic research scenario or performance problem • All legs of Research Race deal with same topic Lecture as little as possible!

7. Instruction Scenario 1 Freshman Interest Group (FIG): Hip Hop & the Politics of Race “20121129 hip hop-75” by Marnie Joyce is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

8. Instruction Scenario 1 Skills needed: • Navigate the physical and virtual spaces of the library • Search the catalog and correctly read results • Use reference sources and research databases to find scholarly publications about a song or artist • Use combinations of terms and filters to find research related to song/artist and race/politics

9. Instruction Scenario 1 Rules of the Game: Complete current leg before moving on Each team member has to contribute They can ask me for help, but no other librarians or staff

10. Leg 1: Library Basics

11. Leg 2: Starting with Reference

12. Leg 3: Finding Books

13. Leg 4: Finding Scholarly Articles Continued on next slide….

14. Leg 4: Finding Scholarly Articles (continued)

15. Leg 5: Getting Help

16. Instruction Scenario 2 Voice students from one faculty member’s studio Amy Beach, Three Shakespeare Songs, no. 3: Fairy Lullaby (Boston: Arthur P Schmidt, 1897.) UO Historic Sheet Music Collection, accession number 177.

17. Instruction Scenario 2 Skills needed: Finding/using repertoire bibliographies • Parsing the information presented Advanced searching combining multiple search fields • using subject headings • filtering by material type

18. Instruction Scenario 2 Finding Repertoire You’re interested in programming some settings of Shakespeare songs, but aren’t sure what’s out there, or where to start. You’re going to try using some of the published bibliographies to track down repertoire.

19. Instruction Scenario 2 Go to the Music Reference area, and locate the Index to Poetry in Music, by Carol June Bradley, with the call number ML128 .S3 B68 2003. Turn to page 724 to see a list of settings of Shakespeare’s sonnets and play texts by various major composers. Who composed a setting of “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind”? Does this source tell you which play it comes from? What about the opus number or other publication info for this musical setting?

20. Instruction Scenario 2 2. Still in the Music Reference area, find A Shakespeare Music Catalogue by Gooch and Thatcher (call number ML 134.5 .S52 G6 1991), to try to find more information on the setting of “Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind” that you identified in question 1. Hint: use the Index (volume 4) to look up the song title, and use the entry (not page!) numbers provided in the Index to find the volume of the catalogue that actually lists musical settings of this song. Which volume lists the settings? What play does this text come from? What is the complete title and opus number for the musical setting you identified in question 1?

21. Instruction Scenario 2 Now that you know the full publication information for this piece, use LibrarySearch to locate it in the library. Hint: use the Advanced Search option to search the composer’s name and the title or opus number, and limit the material type to scores. What is the call number? Go find this piece in the music score shelves and bring it back.

22. What I Learned What Worked Well: Students were engaged • Professors were happy about this! “I’ve never seen a class this excited about the library session before” Students got to do research steps themselves Students came back later

23. What I Learned What Worked Less Well Location matters Over-programming? LOTS of work in advance LOTS of paper to manage Sometimes a little lecturing is okay

24. Further Information Misti Shaw. “Instruction Activities Aimed at Performers”, Music Library Association Conference 2015, Denver: http://www.musiclibraryassoc.org/mpage/mla_2015_slides Miriam Rigby, Ngoc-Yen Tran, Annie Zeidman-Karpinski. “The Students Run The Session: Hands-Off One-Shots With a Library Game,” LILAC Conference 2016, Dublin: http://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/the-students-run-the-session-ngocyen-tran-miriam-rigby-annie-zeidmankarpinski

25. Thanks! Questions? Ann Shaffer ashaffer@uoregon.edu