As promised yesterday, I’m going to start tracking my daily work productivity, mostly to help me realize that yes, I’ve actually done stuff. First we’ll get a macro picture of everything I’ve written as part of my doctoral program, and then I’ll get into the work I’ve been doing for my comprehensive exams, where I will detail more than just words written.

I have written the following items as part of my doctoral coursework:

  • The Maker Movement and Learning in School Libraries. Literature review. 8,000 words.
  • The Role of Archives and Special Collections in K-12 Instruction. Literature review. 7,000 words.
  • Organizing and Describing Information for Children. Literature review. 5,000 words.
  • School Librarians as Leaders. Literature review. 5,000 words.
  • Special Education Training for Preservice School Librarians. Original research. 4,000 words.
  • "A Real Fun Scene": Learning Improvisational Comedy in Community. Original research. 7,000 words.
  • Everyday Life Information Needs of Adolescents. Literature review. 4,000 words.
  • Designing Information Retrieval Interfaces for Children's Use. Literature review. 5,000 words.
  • Libraries, Tabletop Roleplaying Games, and Teen Identity Development. Literature review. 6,000 words.
  • Cultivating a Community of School Librarian Scholars. Literature review. 6,000 words.
  • Unlocking the Door to Adventure: Cultivating a Community of Practice in Improvisational Comedy (and related assignments). Original research. 10,000 words.
  • Expansive Learning, Third Spaces, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (and related assignments). Literature review. 5,000 words.
  • Learning from Library Escape Games. Research proposal. 1,000 words.
  • Decolonizing and Participatory Research with Youth in Library Makerspaces (and related assignments). Literature review. 7,000 words.
  • Possible Selves. Literature review. 6,000 words.
  • Teen Participation in Library Makerspaces: A Grounded Theory Study. Research proposal. 5,000 words.
  • Youth-driven School Library Services. Research proposal. 1,000 words.
  • Racial Equity Initiatives in North Carolina's Public Schools. White paper. (Co-authored.) 6,000 words.
In the two and a half years of my coursework, I wrote 98,000 words.

Not bad. (Please don’t ask how many I published.)

Now, let’s talk about the work I’ve done on the comprehensive examination literature review package.

I identified 179 studies that were potentially of interest. Of those, I have identified as useful, read, and reviewed 35 studies. I have written synthetic notes for 33 of those; at an average of about 250 words each, that’s a total of 8,000 words. This is a marked drop-off in word count output. There are several non-writing reasons for that. I’m going to ramp it back up in the near future.

So that’s where I was as of yesterday. Look for another update after today’s work session!