Developed for the University of Connecticut's "Research Now!" online curriculum. This worksheet is a tool for students to take notes about the sources they find. Based in Carol Kuhlthau's Information Search Process.

Developed for the University of Connecticut's "Research Now!" online curriculum. This worksheet is designed as a tool to narrow a student's topic in order to write a refined research question.

Developed for the University of Connecticut's "Research Now!" online curriculum. This activity is designed to provoke critical thinking about information sources throughout the research process. Students begin by recalling any prior knowledge of the subject, then consider what they would like to learn about it during their research. The activity then prompts them to consider how they will find information on their topic, and finally to describe what they have learned about it having completed their research.

Developed for the University of Connecticut's "Research Now!" online curriculum. This worksheet is designed to work as a "Think, Pair, Share" exercise. Students begin by writing their research question, break their research question into concepts, come up with keywords, and brainstorm with a peer.

This is a visual resource you can use to show students how to start research and the steps they should follow along the way.  This is applicable to all discplines.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at samkennedy@gmail.com

These .pdfs offer students examples of three different search strategies.  Students can then construct their own on the 2nd page.  These exercises can be used to assess student understnading of keywords and Boolean operators.

This chart is the result of a partnership between campus Writing Coordinator,  First Year Seminar Coordinator, and myself (Information Literacy Coordinator) to create a customizable assignment structure for our first year seminar class. It offers a template for integrating information literacy into the course and links threshold concepts of writing composition to the Framework. Composition threshold concepts are those outlined by Kassner and Wardle (2015) Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies.

This lesson asks students to create their own visual representations of the research process and introduces them to the idea of research as a circular process rather than linear. Learning Outcomes: Students understand research as a non-linear process of explorationStudents acquire strategies for moving through the research process effectively Students plan for successful completion of research assignments

This lesson starts with a simple question: "Who knows the most about (topic of your choice)?" In my experience doing this lesson with first year students, a majority of students will identify personal experience as knowing the "most" at the outset. It is common for them to say something along the lines of: No one understands what it’s like to be homeless more than someone who has been through it. Starting from that firm conviction, this lesson is designed to help students think about different ways of “knowing” and what secondary sources (particularly scholarly) are able to accomplish in providing analysis, context, and scope. Learning outcomes: Students will be able to articulate multiple ways in which authority can be ascribed [Authority is Constructed and Contextual]Students will be able to identify primary and secondary sources / scholarly and popular sources and how they are linked to each other [Scholarship is Conversation]Students will seek a variety of source formats and perspectives in their own work [Information has value]

A one-shot or seminar class on fake news tied to source evaluation. Examination of the factors at play in the creation of misinformation; insight into how to select sources; tools and strategies for evalutating content of stories, authors, and news outlets.