Month: December 2015

Lesson Plan: Research as Inquiry

~ kdiamondinfolit ~ Leave a comment

Information Literacy Session Lesson Plan

(Initially Developed for English 103, Accelerated Academic Writing, with Dr. Laura Brady).
  • ACRL Frame: Research as Inquiry and Authority is Constructed and Contextual
  • ACRL Standards: Evaluate information and its sources critically

Lesson Overview

  • Purpose: encourage students to critically examine the production of information and as well as how authority can be created and manipulated
  • Audience: Undergraduates
  • Convention: Discussion, Active Learning
  • Duration: 40 minutes
  • Materials: Blog article, whiteboard markers

Homework

Students read the ACRL Frame: Research as Inquiry and  focus on Knowledge Practices.

Discussion

Put students into groups.  Ask them summarize the important concepts behind the ACRL Frame, particularly the Knowledge Practices.

Have groups report: write their summary and points on board / project on screen.

Next, have students browse John Bohannon’s article, “I Fooled Millions into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss.” (Students can also be assigned this reading as homework depending on time constraints.)

Using concepts from the ACRL Frame, ask students to:

  1. Outline, using specific examples, the system breakdown that lead to Bohannon’s hoax being disseminated and popularized.
  2. Decide if perpetrating this hoax was unethical and defend their answers.

Write or project students’ points on board / screen.

Additional Discussion

Ask students to reflect on how they critically examine information that they search for on their own:

  • What was the last two times they looked up information for their own needs?
  • How did they decide that the information was “good enough”?

Lesson Plan: Research as Inquiry and Searching as Strategic Exploration

~ kdiamondinfolit ~ Leave a comment

Information Literacy Session Lesson Plan

(Initially Developed for English 103, Accelerated Academic Writing, with Dr. Laura Brady).
  • ACRL Frame: Research as Inquiry and Research as Strategic Exploration.
  • ACRL Standards: Determine the extent of information needed

Lesson Overview

  • Purpose: teach students that different publications have different research agendas, purposes, and audiences.
  • Audience: Undergraduates
  • Convention: Discussion, Active Learning
  • Duration: 50 minutes / 75 minutes
  • Materials: Newspaper and  journal articles, whiteboard markers

Group Work / Discussion [50 minutes]

  1. Show students definitions of peer-reviewed, trade, and popular sources on the board / screen and briefly discuss.
  2. Put students in four groups
  3. Give each group either a sample peer-reviewed, trade, or popular article on the same topic.
  4. Ask students to determine the following, using evidence from the articles to support their assertions.
    1. Was the article published in a peer-reviewed, trade, and popular journal?
    2. What is the purpose of the article?
    3. Who is the audience for the article?
    4. Publication conventions of the article? (Is the language formal, informal? Are their citations? Pictures?)
    5. In what circumstances can each article be useful? Not useful?
  5. Each group shares responses with class and librarian notes answers on board or projects on screen from a computer.

Sample Articles

Chart

Publication Type?
Publication Conventions?
Audience?
Purpose?
Research Usefulness?
Article 1
Article 2
Article 3

Follow-up Activity [15 minutes]

  1. Students write down their working research question, thinking about the types of information that they need. Briefly work on revising their list and where they can find that information, based on what they have learned from the activity.
  2. Pick two or three students to share revisions with class.

Lesson Plan: Authority is Constructed & Scholarship as Conversation

~ kdiamondinfolit ~ Leave a comment

Information Literacy Session Lesson Plan

(Initially Developed for English 103, Accelerated Academic Writing, with Dr. Laura Brady).
  • ACRL Frame: Authority is Constructed and Contextual / Scholarship as Conversation
  • ACRL Standards: Evaluate information and its sources critically

Lesson Overview

  • Purpose: Understand how authority is created through the use of outside sources and how research affects credibility
  • Audience: Undergraduates
  • Convention: Discussion, Active Learning
  • Duration: 40 minutes
  • Materials: Newspaper / journal articles, whiteboard markers

Homework

Before class, students will read three short articles about same topic but from different perspectives or in different source types (popular, trade, and peer-reviewed) and brings a short summary of each.

Three Sample Articles:

Discussion

Put the students into three groups and assign each group an article and have them answer the following questions.

  1. How does the author establish his / credibility and authority with his audience? Consider the use of supporting evidence and genre conventions in the article. Look at how author describes or positions himself in the article. Also examine word choice and diction used in the article.
  2. How well does the author use and engage with outside sources? How well does s/he contribute to the scholarly conversation regarding this topic?

Each group reports with a brief summary of their assigned article and answers to these questions.

It’s helpful if the teacher has a grid on the board / projected on a screen and writes / enters students’ answers.

ARTICLE Authority Scholarship
“People Analytics ‘Moneyball’ for Human Resources” Washington Post
“The Geeks Arrive In HR: People Analytics Is Here” Forbes.com
“In ‘People Analytics,’ You’re not a Human; You’re a Data Point” WSJ

 

This activity shows students how writers can create their supposed authority on a subject and to be skeptical of a writer’s claims. It also shows how a writer’s authority and credibility often relies on his use of outside research.