- DENIAL: "I know Brenna says this is dense, but please- I'm a good reader."
- DISBELIEF: "What? It's a pdf?! I can't open this on my Kindle; how will I take notes? And is there such thing as a lexile 4,000?"
- DELAY: "Clearly I need to put this off for a day while I order a printout from Kinkos. There's a ten minute video too... I'll definitely need to spend a day watching that."
- HUMILITY: "There are only two sentences in the first paragraph, and I don't understand either of them."
- RESOLVE/EXASPERATION/EXHAUSTION: "Just move forward. Make notes in the margins./ I still have how many pages left to read? Maybe I printed double.../ Break time." Repeat.
- ACCEPTANCE: "I get the gist. I don't get every detail. I took notes."
While what Dervin ultimately accomplished was putting me back in the "student" seat, her purpose for writing was to explain the unique position and importance of sensemaking methodological approach. The approach is both qualitative and quantitative- and sits nicely between several other research approaches- but more importantly, it is an effective way to study how people seek answers to their "gaps" or questions. According to Dervin, the situation in which someone looks for information is a better predictor of outcomes than is that person's demographic profile.
If I had to teach this same reading to a high schooler, I'd employ video to break it down into smaller chunks. The Lego librarian video embedded in our iCare was helpful, so I'd start with that. But afterwards, I might show three short video examples of situations a high schooler could identify with, overlaid with narration explaining how it relates to sensemaking. I'd use two examples from Dervin's piece: blood donors, and an everyday situation- like waiting in line at the DMV. I'd also use a third example, examining a common teenage "gap": "Does she like me?"- this last example could show, with humor, that demographic is not as important as situation in predicting gap-defining and gap-bridging.