AALL’s Continuing Professional Education Committee presents the AALL2go pick of the month: So You Think You Can Teach:Keeping the Audience Awake and Learning Alive.

Legal research instruction can be interesting, engaging and fun! Five experienced and dynamic academic librarians present 10-minute mini-lessons, highlighting five different teaching tools to capture the audience’s attention.

The mini-lessons cover such topics as secondary materials, cost-effective case law research, locating federal statutes using popular name, federal administrative materials, and D.C. materials.

The teaching tools that are demonstrated include:

• showing movie clips that connect a legal research concept with an example from pop culture
• using imagery to create a personal legal research scenario
• creating a screencast lesson (with Camtasia and PowerPoint)
• presenting an interesting or funny example or anecdote to engage the audience
• utilizing props and games to capture the audience’s attention and to encourage participation.

The five different learning styles and the importance of teaching to those learning styles are also discussed. The mini-lessons are followed by a Q&A session where the panelists discuss in-class assignments, research logs, textbooks, CALI lessons, and the importance of creating relatable research examples.

Everyone from the beginner to the experienced legal research instructor is sure to discover innovative techniques that they can use to engage their audiences.

Find this and more free continuing education programs and webinars for AALL members on AALL2go!