Information Literacy Instruction

This warm up can be a lot of fun. It gets people thinking about their process and the discussion lets them see how other people experience the process.  As an instructor, you may see themes that you'll want to have a discussion about. 

Time: 15 minutes

Materials: 

• Half sheets of paper & writing utensils

Directions:

1. Give Instructions: "Draw your research process aka how you do research. This could be literal or symbolic, portray a moment or the whole thing, a feeling or an image. Be creative. If you finish quickly, write 2-3 things you know about research on the back of your paper." (Some people always finish early, so this keeps them busy). 
2. Walk around and observe til you notice most people are done (5-10 minutes). You can also use this time to ask students if you can call on them to share theirs as a backup if no one volunteers. 
3. Have people break into pairs if a big class, groups of 3-4 for a small class and explain their drawings to each other. Warn the class that you'll ask for a few volunteers to share. 
4. Come back as a group. I usually share my drawing (see below on left).  I put mine on a Google slide, but you could also draw one on a white board. The worse you draw the funnier it will be. This step creates rapport with the class, so I would encourage you not to skip it.  Ask 2-3 people to share theirs. If it's a big class, try to choose one from each side of the room & you may have to repeat what people say so everyone can hear. 

Left: My drawing. Research feels like an infinity iceberg -- I can see the above see part, but I know there's a lot more I can't see (it feels infinite). 

Right: Student drawing as example. 

This activity leverages what students already know about their topic to develop keywords. 

Time: 15 minutes

Materials:

• Half sheets & writing utensils 

Directions:

1. Give instructions: Students will free write about their topic for 5 full minutes (set timer).  It's important to tell them that you won't be looking at what they're writing -- it's just important that they keep writing because it will help get us in a research mind set.  I put up some questions on the board to give people something tangible. "What is your topic? What do you think you already know about this topic? What don’t you know about the topic? Why did you choose this topic? What questions do you have about the topic?" 
2. Once the 5 minutes are up, have people re-read what they wrote and circle the words they think are important/will use for searching. I explain that the databases we'll be using are finnicky about the words people use. 
3. Ask people to give examples of words they circled and write them on the board. This is also a way to hear about topics. Once you have a good selection, you can talk about database hacks (like quotes), synonyms etc. Once you've done enough examples as a group, have students take another minute and add search words. 
4. Reinforce that these short words/phrases are what they'll use in the databases 

The Wikipedia Game is a race to see who can get from one Wikipedia page to another the fastest using only the blue hyperlinks.  It's a fun warm-up that is a good entry into talking about keywords. 

Time: 5-10 minutes 

Materials:

• Computers with internet 

Directions:

1. I have students shout out nouns and then choose two (for example "Peanut Butter" and "Yellowstone." 
2. Verify they have Wikipedia pages that are somewhat developed (i.e. don't choose pages that don't have much content). 
3. Students then will try to get from the "Peanut Butter" Wikipedia page to the "Yellowstone National Park" Wikipedia page using only blue links within the articles. 
4. Have a couple of people who finish first walk the class through their steps. 

Time: 15 minutes

Materials:

• Video of something (usually better if the video is somewhat related to their topic; i.e. video about artist if it's a humanities class etc). 
• paper & writing utensils 

Direction:

1. Show them a bear video (1 min) -- it's not that exciting a video, but it's got some stuff going on. You can show them whatever you like, so long as you know a lot about them.
2. Prep them to ask questions about it and show it again. Tell them to think of as many questions as they can about the video and write them down. 
3. Then, pair up with a partner and sort their lists of questions into close-ended and open-ended. (Give them examples of each kind of question.) After that, each pair should pick their best three questions (rank them) and then choose one of those to share with the group. Walk around and talk with them while they are doing this.
4. Bring back to the group and solicit sharing of questions, talking about close and open-ended throughout (because they will probably get it wrong). Answer the questions as you go through.
5. Now, tell them to go back to their pair and come up with new questions based on what they now know. Prepare to share new questions with the class. Walk around and talk with them while they are doing this.
6. Wrap-up with tying this to research questions and this process being the same you can use throughout the research process to come up with good questions. And the K-12 folks really liked it when I said that means you have to READ the sources you find in order to develop a good research question.

This is an activity suited to students who have worked a little bit with their topic or who are more advanced.  

Time: 10 minutes 

Materials:

• Paper & writing utensils

Directions:

1. List key concepts/terms related to the topic
2. Elaborate with sub-topics. Ask relevant questions. What sparks your curiosity about your topic?
3. Identify links between concepts

This brief warm-up is an easy way to introduce the idea of format and document.  Students are *briefly* shown a receipt and told to examine it. Next, they collectively answer a series of multiple choice questions about it. They are shown the receipt again and the instructor situations this as a format that conveys information. Information formats are many different places in our lives, although we tend to focus on a few distinct formats in university.  The last slide introduces the three Ps: purpose, process, product. 

Time: 5 minutes 

Adapted from Laguardia Community College. This activity is especially pertinent after a library tour.

1. Have the students form groups of 2-4, with 1 chaperone (depending on age).
2. Set the stage: the zombie apocalypse is imminent and the hoards of brain-eaters have already gotten to the other libraries on campus. They are 20 minutes away from reaching us! The Internet has collapsed.
3. Task: Students must go into the library bookshelves, and without using a librarian or the catalog, find a book that will help us survive. They can use the Library of Congress handout for tips on where to go. Make sure you go to a section that has Zimmerman library listed.
4. Timing: Students have 15 minutes before the zombies get to this room, and if we are to survive, you must bring back a book before the timer goes off.
5. Once the 15 minutes are up, have each group explain why they chose their book. Make the point that all the selections are correct, and interpretations of the research question are different. To go one step further, make the point that if we put all the groups' choices together, we have more resources and a deeper well of knowledge from which to draw. The more sources you incorporate into your research, the better!

*Note: Depending on maturity level, you may need to emphasize that the students stick together and let the chaperone see them at all times. Another tweak is to limit the floor they are allowed to use (ie 2nd floor if instruction is in Zim 254).