The ideas below were generated during our workshop presentation at the 2015 ACRL Conference in Portland, Oregon.
Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Learning Outcomes:
Information Creation as a Process
Learning Outcomes:
Information Has Value
Learning Outcomes:
Research as Inquiry
Learning Outcomes:
Scholarship as Conversation
Learning Outcomes:
Search as Strategic Exploration:
Learning Outcomes:
Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Instruction Activities:
Students are presented with a source (eg.an article about Facebook privacy) and brainstorm ways the source might be used for school, for work, and personally
Groups are given a source (book, article, blogpost, ad, etc.) and examine it to determine what it is; who is responsible for it; it’s purpose (ie why it exists, not their purpose in using it) ; how it was created (eg was it reviewed by experts); what makes it credible or not for different kinds of uses
Jigsaw method: in groups of 4-5, students will analyze the authority of their assigned article, groups will break apart and share their knowledge with the other group
Brainstorming: in groups students will brainstorm criteria of authority with entire class
Chalk talk where students write adjectives describing scholarly articles on one board & popular on the popular.
Case study: look at an article to have students vote with clickers on what type of source it is.
Distinguish news from editorial article (pre-college students)
Pair students. Give printout of short news and editorial article from same source (for example New York Times) on same topic. Ask pairs paraphrase article & identify purpose
After discussing/presenting idea of evaluating information resources, give pairs or groups of students a resource/website and ask them to come up with criteria for determining if it is reliable.
Jigsaw groups have 1 popular and 1 scholarly source with question prompts to examine characteristics re: authority re-group with others to teach.
Provide students with sample resources (using different formats) and have them develop authority criteria together using Padlet.
Brainstorming in small groups on why they think a source is credible and use that as jumping off point for discussion
Give students articles on the same topic. Have them examine how the author affects the content. Include scholarly, magazine, Wikipedia, newspapers, etc., Also consider including articles from multiple scholarly disciplines.
Students can share in pairs, groups, as a class, etc.,
Students in groups brainstorm evaluation criteria; share out and put in a Google Doc.
Back into group - use criteria to evaluate an article; share out findings
Information Creation as a Process
Instruction Activities:
Chalk talk: have students in small groups write various formats of sources for a given topic, outside of peer-reviewed, and then discuss their thoughts on how useful these formats would be to their literature reviews
Evidence-based research in nursing (1st quarter nursing students) - have groups determine different types of evidence-based research on either articles given to them or they find - what type of evidence-based research it is (case study, double-blind, systematic review) and share with one other group or report out to group
Groups will each get an item, (citation?), newspaper, academic article, book, magazine article, webpage or blog. They will try to understand the “role” of each in the research process by defining its format closely, even though online it is harder to define.
Information Has Value
Instruction Activities:
think/pair/share on consequences of NOT using and benefits of using recommended resources
think aloud: why do library databases exist?
contest between two groups (Google and Academic Search Premier)
brainstorming how using and citing information sources will help with their individual paper topics - various ways
jigsaw - small groups become expert on assigned format (reputable blog, scholarly journal, magazine…) Might provide example of each format or assignment ahead
jigsaw - each group is assigned to evaluate based on a particular criteria (authority, etc.) of that source
Research as Inquiry
Instruction Activities:
Use research article to model research process used by experts.
Jigsaw groups each tackle one part of a research article summarizing what that section says what purpose that section serves then students disperse & share with new formed groups
Chalk talk have students list out resource they use & branch out with experiences, feelings, facts, etc.
Concept mapping, give class a topic, brainstorm keywords. Use Prezi to have students create a visual map with a list of keywords.
Evaluate sources cited in an article, review sources. Decade what value thing add to the article. Sort sources into types (books, articles, reports, statistics) using clickers
Individual group brainstorming, using Padlet, students share as many synonyms as they can for research question concepts, then as a group we group them by concept in preparation for boolean searching
Keyword brainstorming students write down presentation idea and pass around. What questions do their peers have about the topic ( review to create keywords), roundtable writing.
Scholarship as Conversation
Instruction Activities:
Jigsaw- Looking for demographics, 1 table searches usa.gov, another Discovery, another census.gov, another? Then mix and have students teach each other.
Distribute a diagram of citation chaining:
Then, have students “chalk talk” the value of citation chaining and any questions they have.
Learning Outcome: Students will understand how to understand and analyze a scholarly peer-reviewed article and identify and understand all the parts of the article
Online
Discussion Board
3 groups each has a different research article
create concept map of theoretical concepts - each offer their own concepts
2 short sentences to discuss each section
2 peers respond.
Blended Course
4 groups
each get an article
group discussion
group get large sheet-work on concept map
Context: they need to find 3 relevant and scholarly articles for their topic. After demonstration and time to find articles, each student shares and article in small groups to get feedback on its level of authority and relevance.
Think/pair/share as an introductory activity. Have students think about what questions they would have to ask to determine a health claim’s validity
Padlet.com - contribute words or pictures on the topic of cited articles, citing articles and citation chaining.
Search as Strategic Exploration:
Instruction Activities:
Roundtable paired with concept mapping
Jigsaw to learn facets; regroup to find resources meeting different facet-based criteria on different topics (compiled in Google docs)
Brainstorm possible search terms in pairs
Paraphrasing
Create a search strategy log using article database. Start a search with the knowledge you have. Identify 1 relevant article. Locate new keywords and authors from citation abstract, subject terms. Revise search and rerun search. Continue.
Pass out different types of information sources and have students work in pairs to identify types and sources. Have students introduce the source they analyzed.
Develop a concept map of topic, keywords, synonyms.
Sadly, our time was cut short on the assessment part of the workshop. Send us your ideas and we'll add them here! And remember that many of the instruction activities can be used as assessment.
Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Information Creation as a Process
Information Has Value
Assessment:
Rubric to evaluate brainstorming responses
Reflective writing at the end of the lesson
Research as Inquiry
Scholarship as Conversation
Search as Strategic Exploration:
Assessment: