Sometimes you try something and it just doesn’t work out. Sometimes you look at your creations so much that you can’t see them the way others would see them. I can be really hard on myself for these kinds of things, but I am trying to learn from my mistakes and “get back on the horse” when they happen so I don’t lose confidence.
This past couple of weeks my colleague and I have been giving tours of the library and informational presentations to grade 7 students. We still have more to go- there are 7 tours in total. My manager asked if I could give the students a mini-version of my “There’s a Graphic Novel For Everyone- Yes, Even You!” presentation since the teachers had been asking about it, to which I of course said YES!!!
So each day, my colleague starts out the tour, bringing the group around both floors of the library, doing a scavenger hunt, exploring some online resources, and then she hands them over to me for the final half of their visit.
I altered my original presentation for the grade 7 students, shortening it and changing some of the language and content to be a bit more suitable for their age. I was excited to present it, but as I was going through it with the students on the first tour and they were reading out the character cards i’d designed, I really began to realize how advanced some of the vocabulary I had used was. I also noticed that some of the titles featured, while perhaps acceptable for their age group, were not really as thrilling to the grade 7 kids as they were to me. Oof, gr. 7 is a Tough crowd, I couldn’t help thinking for a moment as many of them sat staring at me with glazed faces, picking at their shoes.
On the second day, after our second tour, my colleague asked if she could talk to me- “I don’t want you to be sad…” she said kindly, “…but the teacher who organized the tours called me, and she said the presentation is too advanced for the grade 7 kids.”
Although I had also been thinking that the altered presentation might still be too in-depth, to hear it coming from the teachers gave me a sinking feeling of anxiety and reminded me suddenly of my hell practicum .
However, as soon as I heard the feedback the teachers had given, it became very clear to me what the problem was with my presentation- I was trying to make the kids fit into my presentation and not the other way around. I put a lot of time and effort into the first version of the presentation, including original characters and artwork, and because of my attachment to those pieces I didn’t truly consider them through the eyes of a grade 7 kid like I should have.
Sure, lots of people in other situations enjoyed the creativity of my original presentation, but it was made for an audience of adult library conference goers! Yes, there were a few kids who answered my questions eagerly and were genuinely interested in what I had to say, but those were the kids like me who already loved books in grade 7- if the point of my presentation is that comics are for everyone, I needed to convince the OTHER kids. Yes, I had already edited my presentation a bit for the classroom tours, but it was clear I had to start fresh.
I assured my colleague that I could whip up something different that would be much better suited for the grade 7’s. “Are you sure? The next tour is Monday afternoon…” (this being Friday merely half an hour before our work day was ending). Yes, I knew what I needed to do.
So, I put together a completely different presentation- shorter, simpler, with a bright new PowerPoint style and carefully selected title recommendations. I planned a group activity with the help of my colleague that would get the kids’ energy out a bit before they sat down again for my presentation.
I’ve gone through this new presentation and activity with 4 tour groups so far, and I’m very glad to say it is working out much better. The teachers complimented some of the changes we made to tidy up the flow of the tour, as well as the changes to my presentation about graphic novels. Overall the groups have been more engaged. More kids have started coming up to me after presentations to ask about certain books that were featured.
I’m glad the teachers reached out with their concerns instead of letting me stumble through all of the tours- it’s not often I work with kids in that age group, and the teachers know their students’ interests and capabilities best. I’m also glad that they gave me a chance to alter the presentation and give it another try. Once again my respect for teachers grows, because although I enjoy doing the tours, being in charge of a large group of tweens for only one hour is extremely draining on me- and teachers have them all day for the whole school year!
HideNGoShauna 
I used to work as a teacher, and I was often quite surprised what young kids were expected to know these days — particularly when it came to things like grammatical structures and such like. I don’t remember ever learning what a conjunction or a clause was in primary school, yet apparently now 8 and 9 year olds are expected to be familiar with this sort of thing.
You’re right that adapting your material to your audience is important though. The challenge can be understanding exactly “who” your audience is beforehand! When working in an environment like education, you at least have an idea of age group, but you might not know things like interests, ability levels and prior knowledge before you step up to present to them. Finding that perfect balance of accessibility without condescension for this kind of age group is difficult, but it can be very rewarding.
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Thanks for your comment Pete! I totally agree, I find that in my interactions with students, especially tweens and teens, I worry about my content being too childish or lame, so in this case I went too far in the other direction, surpassing the ability level of much of the class. On the other hand though, I think that adults often underestimate the capabilities of kids. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but a while back I read an author’s thoughts about writing for kids, and they stressed the importance of not underestimating young readers capabilities for understanding concepts and vocabulary, or, if they don’t understand, formulating the mental schema to make a good guess (which is an important part of building vocabulary). When reflecting on my own habits as a young reader, I never enjoyed the books that fed everything to me and spelled it all out perfectly (just as big Hollywood movies are often a bit of a predictable bore after a while)- I appreciate it when authors trust readers to put things together for themselves.
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At least you listened to the teacher’s input and learned something in the process. Too often people do not listen, or are too attached to their opinions. I loved this.
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Great advice, I really enjoyed reading this, and look forward to reading more of your posts in the future 🙂
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Thanks so much!
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