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Presentation
Meat and/or Potatoes: Information Literacy Instruction à la Carte
FTLC Fall Conference on Teaching and Learning
  • Kathryn Waggoner, Grand Valley State University
  • Nicholas Johnson, Grand Valley State University
Session Location
Eberhard Center 421 A
Session Start Date and Time
24-8-2011 1:15 PM
Session End Date and Time
24-8-2011 1:45 PM
Session Abstract

Do you have a class with diverse information literacy skills and needs? Do you want to customize information literacy instruction to meet those needs? Come hear about one approach that a WRT 150 instructor and a research and instruction librarian took to do just that. You will learn about the Information Literacy Core Competencies and come away with ideas for using them to customize information literacy instruction and integrate it into your course.

Session Description

“Information literacy is a set of skills which includes finding information effectively; managing the abundance of information available; thinking critically about resources; synthesizing and incorporating information into one’s knowledge base; creatively expressing and effectively communicating new knowledge; using information ethically; and using knowledge to better society.” [from the GVSU Library website at http://www.gvsu.edu/library/information-literacy-core-competencies-168.htm] The Information Literacy Core Competencies (ILCCs) have framed these skills into a set of six goals with tiered objectives, all of which taken together represent what an information-literate person knows how to do. The competencies are not linear. As the ILCC document states: “The order in which information literacy skills are learned is dependent on one's specific information needs and existing skills.” In a freshman WRT 150 class, students come from diverse educational and home backgrounds. Therefore, those information needs and existing skills are different for every student and, consequently, for the class as a whole. That is why Nicholas Johnson, WRT 150 instructor, and Kathryn Waggoner, research and instruction librarian, teamed together to decide which ILCCs should be taught in Professor Johnson’s class. This session will focus on how they chose the ILCCs that they chose, how these were integrated into the overall class experience, and the benefits students derived from such an approach.

Additional Comments

FTLC Fall Teaching Conference

Citation Information
Kathryn Waggoner and Nicholas Johnson. "Meat and/or Potatoes: Information Literacy Instruction à la Carte" (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kathryn_waggoner/2/