Rationale
As a School Library Media Specialist, one of my roles is to help encourage and promote information literacy skills. This can be accomplished by collaborating with teachers and developing lessons that support the ALA Information Literacy Standards and the Big 6 Skills:
Kent State University Libraries developed an assessment tool called TRAILS (Tool for Real Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) that helps teachers and librarians identify student strengths and weaknesses in information-seeking skills. It was initially developed for high school students but has recently expanded down into the 3rd and 6th grades.
At the 2010 OELMA (Ohio Educational Library Media Association) Conference, I attended a session about the administration of TRAILS in the Upper Arlington School District. The results of a TRAILS assessment administered to 12th-graders indicated students seldom:
As a result of these findings, the researchers recommended that teachers and librarians:
This unit is meant to address all of these needs (and more) by scaffolding the Big 6 research process into twelve manageable steps. The knowledge gained from these lessons will guide students throughout their future academic careers and help increase their information literacy skills.
- Task Definition
- Information Seeking Strategies
- Location and Access
- Use of Information
- Synthesis
- Evaluation
Kent State University Libraries developed an assessment tool called TRAILS (Tool for Real Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) that helps teachers and librarians identify student strengths and weaknesses in information-seeking skills. It was initially developed for high school students but has recently expanded down into the 3rd and 6th grades.
At the 2010 OELMA (Ohio Educational Library Media Association) Conference, I attended a session about the administration of TRAILS in the Upper Arlington School District. The results of a TRAILS assessment administered to 12th-graders indicated students seldom:
- took detailed notes on information
- had a clear focus before using the library
- used the library on their own
As a result of these findings, the researchers recommended that teachers and librarians:
- help students with knowing how to get started with research
- provide good sources
- suggest books
- teach students how to find books
- show good search engines
- have more assignments that require citations
- teach students how to cite without using electronic resources
This unit is meant to address all of these needs (and more) by scaffolding the Big 6 research process into twelve manageable steps. The knowledge gained from these lessons will guide students throughout their future academic careers and help increase their information literacy skills.