[CALIBK12] motivating student assistants

[Miranda Doyle]

I'm a middle school librarian too, and also often get student "assistants" sent to help me in the library. I'm afraid I haven't had good luck with asking them to shelve, so I generally don't. When I've tried, they finish much too quickly and I find books shoved everywhere but where they belong. So I find other tasks, like stamping, labeling, cleaning, and so on. Even those tasks need to be supervised, and a good job perhaps rewarded with a little free time on the computer.

However, I do sometimes ask students to sort the cart of returned books onto my sorting shelves. I have an area where I've labeled each shelf  (200s, 300s, fiction, reference, etc). Students don't need to be as accurate when they are sorting by hundreds rather than actually shelving. Also, if they make mistakes, I can see and correct them easily, with no harm done. It does help me because when I'm ready to shelve the books are already sorted. Also, if I go for awhile without shelving, I can easily find the book I'm looking for on the sorting shelves.

You could try using slips of colored paper in the books so that you can check their work, but that's really better for making sure they understand HOW to shelve before you turn them loose.

I rarely even ask the students assigned to my elective class to shelve -- I have 4, all very motivated and hard workers, plus I give them a grade, and still they lose interest in shelving after a very short time (not that I can blame them, as it's not my favorite task either). I have many other jobs for them that they enjoy -- from checking in books to typing book reviews for the student book blog to making posters and bulletin board displays -- and so I can keep them busy in other ways. They love anything related to the computer, even if it's just scanning barcodes. Sometimes I will ask them to shelve for 10 minutes at the beginning of the period, with my help and supervision, before starting the more enjoyable tasks. I also emphasize to them that the skills they are learning may eventually help them get a job at the public library.

I would love it if students would shelve all of my books and do a great job, but, at least for me, it doesn't seem to work out that way. I'm also reluctant to push them to do a task they don't enjoy, especially since my secret plan is for all of them to become librarians someday (okay, enthusiastic library users, at the very least!). 

Hope that helps,
Miranda Doyle
Teacher-Librarian
Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Middle School


______________________
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2008 20:52:23 -0800
From: "marcy drexler" <marcy.drexler at gmail.com>

Anyone have any suggestions on motivating 8th grade assistants (randomly
assigned for "service," mostly uninterested in libraries, reading, etc.) to
care about shelving books accurately?  Thinking of bribes, but afraid it's
illegal.