Information Literacy Instruction

Instruction Activities

These activities are good for breaking up lecture with hands-on work. Feel free to use and modify any activities. Please let Glenn know if you have any activities or modifications that have been successful, so she can add them here. 

Each activity has been tagged with an audience. To avoid too much repetition, please try to keep activities to their level.  If you'd like to use a Freshmen/Sophomore level activity in an upper level course, please modify it to increase challenge level. 

Want more ideas?

ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox 

Project CORA 

TeachArchives.org

DPLA Primary Source Sets

Activities

This activity introduces students to different formats and asks them to compare, contrast, and rank the credibility of different sources (authority gets mixed into this as well). Students can read the case study on their own, but this also works as a read aloud asking volunteers to read each paragraph so the class is on the same page. Next, students work in pairs (or solo if they prefer) to answer the guiding questions and rank the sources. Finally, the class comes back together and the instructor facilitates a discussion of how everyone ranked the sources, including a quick demo of how to access the case study sources. FYI -- there is no correct ranking, but this is a helpful way to stimulate some debate in the discussion. 

In this activity, student break out into groups and play one of three roles: researchers, journalists, or students. There's a slide presentation and handouts to guide each group through their task.

Credit goes to David Hurley.

Time: 10-15 minutes 

  1. Keyword activity – Show them the Beyonce pic (or one of your choosing), and ask the class: how would you search for this? What words would you use?  Talk about how one of the challenges in searching is communicating your topic to the search engine or databases.
    1. Can do this collectively. OR, if it’s further along in the semester, divide the class into groups and have them choose a scribe and take the other person’s topic to brainstorm keywords.
    2. While you’re brainstorming, think of related and/or synonyms.  Draw a map if it helps, or write down words.  Take turns with one another’s topics and be prepared to share. 

Metacognitive Search Strategies Lesson Plan 

Time: 50-75 minutes 

This is one of my favorite exercises  - especially because it can lighten the mood. 

Audience: 

  • 100-200 level 

Materials: 

  • Whiteboard & marker 

Directions: 

  1. On the whiteboard, draw a pot leaf (green marker adds a nice touch). Ask students to identify what you draw (usually people start giggling). 
  2. Once it's identified, ask students to list as many different terms for this as possible & list them on the board. 
    • Some terms: pot, weed, marijuana, cannabis, mary jane, gas (my students swear on this one), Maui Waui, Purple Haze, reefer, ganja, hash, hashish, dope, grass, bud (It's fun to ask the instructor if they can add any). 
  3. Identify these as synonyms with different contexts.  Next, ask the class which word they would use 
    • to talk to a doctor 
    • to talk to your hippie uncle
    • to talk to your friend
    • in a newspaper 
    • in an academic journal 
  4. Make the point that our databases function similarly.  Different words will return different results. Sometimes we don't always know what words people will be using, so we should think about the variations. 
  5. Next, identify one of the terms from the board that is a narrower term (i.e. Medical marijuana, Maui Waui, Purple Haze). If none on board, give one example and see if people have others. 
  6. Then, identify one of the terms from the board that is a broader term (i.e. drugs, plant, medicine) and do the same activity. Make the point that sometimes we need to broaden or narrow our terms depending on what we're finding.  No results?  Try broadening. Too many? Try narrowing. 
  7. Finally, talk about related terms and put a few on the board. 
  8. Give everyone a few minutes to jot down terms they want to use in searches, encouraging them to create their own trees.  

This activity could easily lead into a Boolean search activity as well. 

"Look See Think Wonder" Adapted from an exercise from Ohio University Libraries. Time: 50 minutes. This would be a good activity to modify challenge level. 

Audience: 

  • 300-400 level 

Materials: 

  • Enough interesting CSWR items for every person or pair (student should be able to handle the items)
  • "Look See Think Wonder" Handout 
  • Computers with internet access 

Directions: 

  1. Set out items around the room. Everyone should visit each item, looking, touching. 
  2. Once everyone has seen all the items, each student should choose an item for their worksheet.  There should be no more than 2 people per item. 
  3. Go over worksheet -- may need to explain primary/secondary/tertiary sources & Researching about the item on UNM library website. 
  4. If time, briefly discuss 

This is an abbreviated version of Look See Think Wonder. It would be a good complement to an archives visit where you might have a speaker, tour, other activity etc. 15 minutes. 

Audience: 100-300 level

Materials:

  • At least 10 items from the CSWR (a variety of objects is better & items should be able to be handled) 
  • Archives Short Worksheet 

Directions: 

  1. Arrange the CSWR items around the room and encourage students to look/touch items.
  2. Pass out worksheet & explain. Ask students to choose two items to use for the worksheet. 
  3. Come back together as a group to briefly discuss. 

 

Please use and modify . . .

These activities and handouts are meant to be used, shared, and edited!  If you modify or have a new activity, please share it with Glenn, so she can add it to the options!