Maker Culture in the Humanities

Interest in makerspaces and hands-on activities in libraries has spread dramatically. “Maker” has become a word that represents projects that students enjoy and value, and STEM connections that stakeholders deem important. When school libraries carve out makerspaces and involve students in do-it-yourself activities, there’s an energy that feels like a wonderful reversal of those passive learning activities of the past. With all the push for STEM education, it can be easy to focus on engineering and coding, but the underlying value of making is found in the bigger picture. Colleges and workplaces want to see critical thinking and innovation. Making is one way to accomplish this while keeping the process playful; making keeps learning "human."

How can this work for humanities teachers and curriculum? How can librarians collaborate with English and social studies teachers and honor the spirit of maker culture? What is truly helpful and worth doing?

Hands-on learning has always been a part of good lessons, and traditional activities in the humanities have always centered on making—from making textual connections and constructing arguments to translating and making meaning. Constructivist principles have informed educators’ professional toolkits in all subject areas, even with the huge pressures of standardized testing and canned remediation programs. And, teachers and librarians have always carried on the best of past practices and traditions, while looking for new ways to make learning relevant.

We offer three main points of entry in this work:

1. Comfortable and material-rich spaces offering tinkering experiences in the library.
2. Supporting teachers with collaborative options and resources to bring maker culture into their classrooms.
3. Helping teachers with their methodology as they incorporate new ways for students to demonstrate understanding and make connections.    

In the Library

There are a lot of helpful sites, blogs, and informal learning options for librarians looking to start or improve makerspaces. From the beginning, it’s good to include items such as a writer’s corner or "maker tubs" for checkout that include simple how-to’s and raw materials aligned with writing, poetry, mapping, data literacy, or video projects. Plan for ways students can contribute new ideas for maker tubs or suggest needed materials.

We are lucky to have “WAHS” Squad, a student-run help desk in our high school library. Building on the “log it and fix it” core activities, Learning Technology Integration coach Gene Osborn is helping us find ways to invite other students to rotate through this part of the library. As students demo projects and creations and invite others to try new things, part of the library becomes a tinkering gallery, showcasing things that are happening in classrooms or clubs. We are purposefully including humanities-based options, from a blackout poetry maker tub to Free Design Advice days, in which digital imaging students help with visual presentations.

In the Classroom: Collaborating

In K–5, it’s often standard to have art supplies and maker materials at the ready. In secondary classrooms, the ready availability of these materials is patchy even though high school students still need access to a rich variety of materials in the classroom. Librarians can help teachers by sharing sources and researching cheap options. Look beyond Donors Choose to seek funding; try having students make a Smore online wishlist (https://www.smore.com/) or have them put ideas on a school Instagram account. At the elementary level, teachers can use design charrette outcomes and students can write or blog about their vision and the supplies they need.

Build on existing library practices of promoting and publicizing opportunities and resources, like the new Smithsonian Learning Lab (https://learninglab.si.edu/).

Keep teachers and families in the loop but add local flavor. For example, send home information about the Library of Congress’s Letter about Literature contest (http://read.gov/letters/), but have your own library version in which students choose formats or platforms. A good competition for secondary grades is the Digital Public Library of America’s Gif It Up contest (https://dp.la/info/gif-it-up/), in which students use public domain materials to make their own gifs, as one of our students did with an image of Kaiser Wilhelm, giving him a “flying mustache” (https://goo.gl/9o3yrh).

Librarians can offer to come in and help with projects: using art to inspire writing via the University of New Hampshire’s art-based literacy lessons (K-5) (http://www.picturingwriting.org/combined.html), or paper circuitry and LEDs as part of notebook hacking, as in NEXMAP’s video on 21st Century Notebooking (https://vimeo.com/87692782, grades 2 and up).

Making and doing project-based work takes time. Librarians can tap into and share knowledge that comes from a “higher altitude” view of possibilities for connectivity and authentic assessment. In some cases, faculty can work toward efficiencies by sharing their content and pacing guides, with an eye to spotting the common domains and themes in order to schedule cross-curricular projects. Librarians can be of assistance, applying knowledge from all grades, departments, and curricular topics.

In the Library or Classroom: New Approaches for Communicating and Assessing

One useful way to assist teachers is by focusing on the assessment side. Latin teacher and maker consultant Emily Silverman uses a final exam equivalent that students look forward to, in which part of the exam period allows for 3D construction to show understanding and appreciation for deeper themes.

As students get older, it’s important to take advantage of increased abilities to work with physical materials in metaphorical ways, to explain complex thoughts through metaphor and abstraction. Share with teachers examples of how maker options can tie in with symbolic representation. As digital humanities ideas move from higher education down to K–12, it may be helpful to show faculty what these projects look like—and to begin talking to students about how they might envision new technology tools and media.

Also, maker activities can help keep literacy methods flexible and open. Cross-curricular projects offer tremendous chances to work with students on planning, descriptive and persuasive writing, and presentation methods. Students need to know that image-based communication has an important place in school, just as it does in their online lives. Teaching about communication and presentation skills should encompass more than text and formatting. Some projects might include playful possibilities from students’ own knowledge such as memes, gifs, or emojis.

With teachers who are change-averse, talk about some fresh approaches to complement the solid work they are already doing. And try a reverse workflow—start with the students. As you help them research, ask what they are interested in. Ask, “Do you think your teacher would allow you to create _____________ to demonstrate understanding?”

There are amazing things happening in humanities classrooms, but the huge focus on STEM means that humanities teachers and their librarian partners need to get better at communication, advocacy, AND including students in designing and documenting. The goal is to not only honor humanities-based learning, but also to enrich the more traditional STEM maker efforts. Ultimately, we want fluid thinkers and makers who can integrate across domains.

Further Reading:

Adams, Molly. Illuminating Thinking: Using Circuits to Teach English? January 14, 2015. http://www.slideshare.net/themadams/illuminating-gatsby-nwp-webinar

Adams, Molly. 7 Ways to Get Your Literary Mojo Back. August 13, 2013. http://www.slideshare.net/themadams/slide-share-7-ways-to-get-mojo-back-2-pdf

Presentations from Molly Adams, National Writing Project leader and literature teacher at a STEM HS

Ryder, Dan. Wicked Decent Learning (blog). May 31, 2016. http://wickeddecentlearning.com/making-meaning-out-of-empathy-anything/

Design Thinking guru, teacher Dan Ryder, on making meaning out of “empathy and anything”

Stockman, Angela. Make Writing: 5 Teaching Strategies that Turn Writer’s Workshop Into a Makerspace. http://hacklearning.org/make-writing-5-teaching-strategies-that-turn-writers-workshop-into-a-maker-space/

Angela Stockman talks about renovating writers’ workshops, with making in mind (free preview)

Union College. “Mellon Foundation Awards Grant to Support ‘Our Shared Humanities.’” October 2, 2015.
https://www.union.edu/news/stories/2015/10/mellon-foundation-awards-grant-to-support-our-shared-humanities.php (accessed June 30, 2016).

One example of new investments in “humanities labs,” this Mellon Foundation grant to Union College supports the college’s Strategic Plan: Integrative Thought and Action for the 21st Century.