Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
—Pablo Picasso
One is not an embedded librarian as much as one becomes an embedded librarian. This is a process that is ever evolving and will change based upon a large number of factors. Faculty, students, subjects, and settings can all change from semester to semester, so it is good to be flexible, but flexibility does not preclude the planning and setting of goals. This became painfully evident to me the first time I embedded in a class. Things went much better in so many ways once I was clearer about what I wanted to learn, know, and achieve for myself and, as well, what I wanted and expected in student outcomes. Despite so much of the literature on embedded librarianship (including this book), success is still very much dependent upon the way in which any particular librarian wishes to envision him or herself in the classroom experience.
After evaluating myself after a few years, I realized there were certain aspects of the embedding practice that either required or benefited from formalized personal goals. While so many of us carry expectations of ourselves around in our heads, it is helpful to write down your goals—indeed, your personal vision for the work that you will do, because most of all, doing so concretizes these goals, making you more likely to do what you need to do to see them through.
In my own case, I even went as far as to write my own mini-mission statement which kept me focused and inspired me during the times when I felt that things were not going as well as I wanted them to—or as well as I thought they should. Guided by the pioneering work of Latham and Locke, who cited the five aspects of goal setting as clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback, and task complexity,1 have set down some strategies and goals for goal setting (yes, goals for goal setting!) that will help in the formation of your teaching plan.
Meet with the professor early and often in the process. Team teaching at its best is difficult to get just right. And students can always tell when it isn’t working. Team teaching implies just that: teamwork, with both professors coming to the class with the same agenda. In an embedded classroom, things work a bit differently. There will be times when you may feel as though you are just another student in class. You may be reluctant to interject comments or suggestions at critical moments—that is understandable. Discuss this with the professor and state exactly how you envision your participation in class. Will the professor assign time to you at the beginning or end of the class? Will you lead discussions, in-class brainstorming sessions? In other words, is it your goal to be fully “functional” in the class, and if so, how?
GOAL
Open and honest communication with the professor in class is important, with expectations placed front and center.
Meet with each student in the class individually. Ideally, this should be arranged during the first two weeks of classes in order to establish a connection. I do five-minute sessions that are non-threatening because I seek an exchange of information. I ask students certain questions, such as what their concerns are for their thesis, what text they may want to use, and how, specifically, I may be able to help them in class. In the beginning, sometimes a student and I would simply brainstorm. They can ask me questions, too, which they often do, one of which is “Why do you need to attend class with us?” This is an interesting yet disappointing question, as it placed me, the librarian, in a passive role—as “one of the crowd.” It also alerted me, early on, that while I was very clear in my own head about what my role was, it was largely a mystery to students who only encountered me behind the reference desk or in a 45-minute information literacy session.
GOAL
Recognize and attempt to understand students’ goals for the class individually, and communicate how you can help them in their process.
Keep a file of notes on each student. This strategy helped me tremendously, especially since I was embedded in two classes each semester. Each time a student met with me, I was able to keep notes on what particular research concerns they had and what progress they made, if in fact they had made progress. I also wrote down the recommendations and mini-assignments I would give them, usually in the form of how to progress with research, and then I held them accountable for it. I never forgot what we’d discussed, because I had everything written down!
GOAL
Understand student learning as a process and identify areas of difficulty and success.
What is it exactly that you’d like to accomplish? When your goals are specific and directed, you are able to deviate from them, and refocus if you need to, but if you are not specific at the outset, your actions will feel rudderless. Be as intentional as possible. The librarian in the classroom has any number of challenges. Visualize those challenges and set your goals in contrast to them.
GOAL
Be as specific as possible when deciding what you seek to accomplish in the classroom.
When something is not working, don’t be afraid to change course. While we are often urged to “stay the course,” it is unnecessary and often detrimental to the class to continue in a manner that feels awkward and to which students or the professor are not responding. This could be anything at all. Being able to recalibrate after what might feel like an unsuccessful class is essential.
GOAL
Be flexible with plans. Dispel fixed ideas.
Take notes during each and every class. Note not just subject content, but also student and professor reactions, student comprehension, and process. In fact, write down anything at all that is going to help you to gauge what is working and what is not working in class. This strategy may not be all that intuitive to librarians who are used to going into a class with a lesson plan or notes and then doing student assessment (in some cases), but unless they are embedded, they do not have the opportunity to observe “process.” Putting your thoughts and impressions into a narrative is crucial to a practice that will be ever evolving. Keeping a process journal has been indispensable to me because I was able to see patterns, warning signs, and successes that, in retrospect, I was not cognizant of when they were happening.
GOAL
Be reflective of your practice.
Goals set should have a measure of complexity. Without a challenge there will not be much to motivate you, though conventional wisdom might dictate that setting simple goals would ensure success by being easier to achieve, but the opposite is true. Attempting to perform a task or achieve a goal breeds motivation, which will keep you focused and intent upon succeeding.
GOAL
Set complex goals, but not so complex as not to be achievable. Go beyond your reach.
It is easy to lose perspective on your own performance in the class. When you are in the thick of the semester and knee-deep in research strategies and student meetings you may not feel as though you have the time for self-assessment. Those notes you are taking and that journal you are writing in will make so much more sense to you in retrospect. In meetings with the professor in the class, ask for honest feedback by asking specific questions about areas that may be of concern. In my own experience, the professors that I have worked with and I both had similar learning outcome goals for the class—and in nearly every instance, they were willing to help me with my personal goals, as well, because they too would impact the class.
GOAL
Ask for feedback.
Embedded librarians are largely committed to the unknown. This means that we are constantly recalibrating and readjusting as we go along in the process. This implies more than just the regular commitment, because we are outside of our regular routines, and while we are tasked to teach in the class and the students are ours, they are not “ours” alone.
GOAL
Commit to the unknown.
Setting goals for what you want to achieve will not only help you to visualize success, but will give you something to strive toward. So much time and energy go into the role of the embedded librarian in the classroom, and the setting of goals helps one to be strategic, intentional, and ultimately, successful.
NOTE
1. Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance (Upper Saddle Brook, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990).
RESOURCES
Eccles, Jacquelynne S., and Allan Wigfield. “Motivational Beliefs, Values, and Goals.” Annual Review of Psychology 53, no. 1 (2002): 109−32.
Locke, Edwin A. “Toward a Theory of Task Motivation and Incentives.” Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 3, no. 2 (1968): 157−89.
Locke, Edwin A. and Gary P. Latham. A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance. Upper Saddle Brook, NJ: Prentice-Hall College Division, 1990.