Spartan Savvy: Integrative Model for Information Literacy

Synopsis:

After watching a video on formats, students will complete a format activity and reflect on the information creation process.

Activity Time:

45-55 Minutes

Learning Goals: 

Students will be introduced to the information creation process and to the value of information and its place in scholarship. 

Description/Lesson Plan:

• Introduction and Video:
  • Show the Format Matters Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQSQgdUAu4
  • Ask the class:
    • Why does format matter?
    • Why would we want to know the format of the sources we use?
• Process Cards Activity (adapted from Kevin Seeber's Process Cards Activity)
  • Break the class into 6 small groups and give each group a "deck" of cards - each deck includes sets of process cards (Ease, Time, Research, Editing or Length) and information cards (Blog Entry, Encyclopedia Entry, Magazine Article, News Article, Scholarly Article, Scholarly Book, and Tweet).  Ask each group to arrange their information cards by the process cards (ex. For Ease, arrange the cards in the order of how easy you think it is to create or publish each one, from easy to hard.)
  • Ask each group to briefly describe to the class how they arranged their information cards.
• Source Activity:
  • Provide each group with links to 3 sources (or a packet of printed sources) centered around the same argumentative topic:
    • Ask the groups to review each source and answer the following questions:
      • For each source:
        • What is the format of the source?
        • Do you think you could use the source to make a point in a paper?  If yes, give an example of a point you could make using this source as evidence.
      • Which author has the most expertise on this topic?
      • Which source took the longest to create?
    • As a class, discuss the conclusions from each group.
• Reflection:
  • Ask students to spend a minute writing their response to the following question:
    • Now that you know something about formats and have seen an example of how different formats might cover the same topic, what does this mean for you when you select sources to use for assignments?

Resources and Attachments: 

• Format Matters Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQSQgdUAu4
• Editable Variant set of Process Cards (doc): http://libguides.castleton.edu/ld.php?content_id=43827892
  • Before session, print out and cut down to create decks of cards
• Kevin Seeber's Process Cards Activity: http://kevinseeber.com/processcards.pdf
• FYS Session LibGuide (used by Librarians to teach this session): http://libguides.castleton.edu/fys2017

Teaching Tips:

The video could be assigned as homework prior to the session and the reflection could be assigned as homework after the session.  

Topics and Concepts:

• Topic: Value of Information, Information Creation, Information & Scholarship 
• Concepts: Information Has Value, Information Creation as a Process, Authority Is Constructed and Contextual