Information Literacy Program at Decker Library

About This Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is for all sections of HMST 101 and is designed to be co-taught with faculty member and library instructor.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this session, students will be able to:

• Develop search strategies, utilizing keywords
• Evaluate diverse information sources

Before Class:

• Determine if the class already has an assignment they are working on with research topics already selected. Library Instructor and faculty member discuss topics for concept mapping and theoretical frames that students might use in their research. If students have selected their paper topic, they can work individually on those. If they have not selected paper topics, faculty member and library instructor select a topic for the students to work on that is related to their course material.
• Arrange space in 3 pods with six or seven chairs each (if you have 20 students, otherwise adjust)
• If they don't have an assignment and research topic selected, print out 10 group worksheets and have all students work on the same topic.
• If they do have an assignment and research topic selected, print out 20 individual worksheets and have all students work on their own topic.

1. Collective Concept Mapping (10 minutes): Library Instructor demonstrates concept mapping with a topic related to their coursework. This set of sides offers some good examples. A good topic would be something they covered in class the previous week, so it is fresh in their memory.

2. Group Activity (40 minutes): Students break into groups of two to fill out the group worksheets OR have them individually fill out the individual worksheets on one of the three information sources (each table should have at least one group working with each of the information sources):

• Library Catalog
• Academic Search Premier
• Google Scholar

Student groups then present their findings back to each other in their small groups. 

2. Share Back (10 minutes): Do a larger group share-back. It's helpful to come up with some questions about what they learned and examples of stuff you overheard during the work time.

At the end of class, collect the group handouts for assessment. Fill out this rubric for each handout and return it in a folder with the instructor's name and class number to the Information Literacy and Instructional Design Librarian.