LibGuides: Spartan Savvy: Integrative Model for Information Literacy: Activities

Activities

These activities cover information literacy topics and have been curated or developed by Castleton librarians. These activities are meant to be incorporated into your courses and can be delivered by a librarian or on your own.

5 Ws of Evaluation
Students will ask and answer questions about the characteristics of a source in order to critically evaluate it.
Argument Reflections
Students are asked to reflect on the usefulness of an outside source in building an argument.
Authority is Contextual and Constructed: Class Discussion of Authorship
Students read two very different sources from the same author and discuss which is more scholarly, which has more authority, without knowing they are from the same author.
Choosing and Narrowing a Topic
Provide examples of how to choose a topic and narrow it down to something appropriate for a college project. Students practice with their own topics.
Connections between Information and Scholarship
Using one popular and one scholarly article, students will identify the information or outside sources used within each article and discuss the connections between information and scholarship.
Considering Tweet Credibility
After watching a video on credibility, students are presented with two tweets on the same topic to compare and the credibility of the tweets and creators is discussed.
Constructing An Argument
Using segments from different sources, students will reflect on how to use sources when constructing an argument.
Constructing our own Authority
Using a handout, students are asked to reflect on their own authority.
Cost and Value of Information
Self paced tutorial that helps students "identify the characteristics of information, which contribute to its value".
Creation is Iteration
Students will brainstorm the process an information source took from its original idea to the final published version.
Creator Perspective
In small groups, students are asked to develop "rules" for the use of something that they have created. After considering an information source they have used in an assignment, students will reflect on the source's rules of use and the perspective of the creator of that source.
Discipline Expertise
Students will research experts in the discipline to identify the formats they use to share information.
Discovery Tools Are Like Shopping For Jeans
An analogy and demonstration to help students feel more comfortable using library databases by showing how they are like shopping.
Ethical Use of Sources
Students watch a video on plagiarism and then complete a worksheet covering examples of source use.
Exploring Expertise
Students will research the validity and credibility of claims made by experts quoted in different popular news sources.
Format Process Cards
Decks of "cards" are distributed to small groups of students with instructions to discuss and arrange the seven information cards (such as Tweet) by whatever the process card says (such as Time).
Hashtags and Headings: Mind Your Metadata
Discussion of hashtags and subject headings as metadata to help locate information.
Information Creation as a Process
Students will watch a short video on how information is created and for what purpose, and then critically analyze the purpose of the format for a variety of information sources.
Joining the Scholarly Conversation
Discussion of video and quote on how scholarship is like a conversation.
Mapping a Topic
The class contributes to the creation of a concept map that shows how a variety of sources contribute to robust learning of a topic.
Map the Conversation
Students will use reference lists to map and reflect on a scholarly conversation.
Pin the Source on the Spectrum
Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey activity and discussion using Vanessa Otero’s Media Bias chart.
Probing Curiosity
Students will reflect on curiosity by outlining the process they took to learn more about a topic.
Research Process and Research Questions
After watching a video on the research process, students are asked to develop a research question and determine next steps in their own research process.
Responsibly Using Online Images
Students practice searching for and citing images found online.
The Scholarly Conversation: Reading & Applying Scholarly Research
Students learn how to read scholarly articles and how to use them as evidence for claims.
Scholarly to Popular
Students will assess how the findings of a scholarly article were presented in the popular media.
Search Techniques
In small groups, students explore a search technique and then demonstrate it to the class.
Social Justice in Information
Using clips from the “Just Google It”: Algorithms of Oppression video and searching activities, students are asked to "critically examine results of google image searches as an illustration of inequities". Students created a shared file with images and thoughts that represented what they learned.
Source Formats & the Creation Process
Students locate and identify 3 sources on a topic and reflect on the creation process.
Standing on Shoulders
Students will discuss and search for examples of scholarship refuting previous knowledge.
What it is & How to cite it
Provided with a packet of sources, students determine the source format and create citations.
What Makes Someone an Expert?
Students will identify someone who is an authority on a subject and examine the aspects that make that person an expert.
Which Search Worked Best?
Students will practice using Boolean operators.
Why Cite?
Discussion of purpose and value of citing sources in academia.

Unless otherwise noted, all activities and sessions are shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.