Information+Literacy+Kristine

Information Literacy


 * Challenge : ** Before you read this, complete this Information Literacy Quiz on the following site to see how much you already know. []

Information Literacy Defined
Information Literacy is defined as being able to: recognize when information is needed, locate a variety of sources, evaluate the sources critically and then synthesize and use the information effectively for a specific purpose.

I found the following image on []. It was created by a group of OISE s tudents as part of their research component. The site has a lot of great information and I found it summoned up Information Literacy perfectly!



Implementation ideas specifically designed to leverage the potential of library spaces and resources
__** Evaluating Sources **__ – Students are surrounded by information and have access to many different sources. In order to use these sources, they must be able to critically evaluate the sources and their content. > > Some of the really good sites I have used with middle school students in the past are: >> >>
 * [] – Consider the Source Lesson Plan By: Bobby Hobgood. In this lesson students learn that they can not always trust what they read on-line through the analysis of a number of different hoax websites. They then use a checklist to evaluate different sites.
 * Hoax/Spoof Site Resources and Links
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 * Students then use a checklist or a graphic organizer to evaluate other web-sites and the sites they will be using for their own research. There is a good checklist at : []


 * __ The Research Process __** – Students often find the idea of doing research very daunting because they often do not posses the skills required to locate a variety of information and synthesize it into a final report. This often leads to procrastination, plagiarism and final products that do not demonstrate what was truly being assessed. For this reason, teacher need to guide their students through the research process. The Toronto District School Board has developed what they call “The Inquiry and Research Process” that guides teachers and students through the process, through a series of lessons. You can see an overview of the process on the following site: []

TDSB has also developed two documents called __Imagine the Learning @ Your Library__ and __Research Success @ Your Library__ – They have posted selected resources and worksheets from these documents at: []. The worksheets guide students through the research process and provide them checklists to monitor their own work and rubrics to evaluate every part of the process. The lessons are divided up into 4 stages:
 * Preparing for Research – exploring topics and developing research questions
 * Assessing Resources – locating different sources, online searching, skimming and scanning
 * Processing Information – evaluating sources, plagiarism, note-taking process, synthesizing and organizing data
 * Transferring Learning – revise, edit, presentation ideas (copyright laws, using web 2.0)

__** Creating Bibliographies and Citing Sources **__ – Students often need to be taught how to create a bibliography and cite their sources. This will not only help them keep track of the different resources they used, but be useful at the end of the project when they have to create a bibliography to be handed in.
 * One lesson idea is to provide students with examples of how to record the bibliographic information for different sources. Then provide groups of students with a variety of sources that they then have to create a bibliography for.
 * Other teachers demonstrate how to use software such as EasyBib which creates a bibliography for the students. http://www.easybib.com/

__** Process versus Final Product **__ – We need to design more assignments that focus on the research process versus final product fact reports. The skills that students will need in the future all revolve around the process of collecting, evaluating and synthesizing information for a specific purpose versus the specific facts they learned about a specific species. Instead of having students create factual reports on something instead have them create: >
 * an annotated bibliography on their topic - http://www.lesliepreddy.com/Inquiry/bibliography.htm
 * a pathfinder - []
 * a web-quest - http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech011.shtml

Resources

 * [] – Informational Article: Understanding Information Literacy Author: Barbara Humes In this article Humes defines information literacy and its implications on teaching, learning, the school and workplace
 * [] – Information Literacy defined and Lesson Ideas
 * [] – This website provides information literacy lessons that are easy to use. The lessons are divided into 6 areas: General Information literacy lessons, the Dewey Decimal System, Reference Books, Worksheets, Research Methods/Reports and Miscellaneous lessons.
 * [] – Macrorie's I-search model is a research project model that focuses more on the process versus the end product. It is based on the premise that students select their own topics so that they are motivated, develop their own guiding questions and then the teacher guides them through the research process through a series of lessons. Lessons include how to access and use a variety of resources, how to prevent plagiarizing, citing sources, organizing and synthesizing data and creating a final product to that demonstrates their own ideas and opinions. Students are evaluated on the process as well as the final product.
 * [] – Informational Article: Information Literacy: not just for students Author: Diane Kester K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education
 * [] - Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education defines information literacy and how it relates to Information Technology.