Community or Junior College

Why is Metacognition Important to Information Literacy?

Four short screencasts under 90 seconds about the role of metacognition in information literacy instruction.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

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All Rights Reserved

Revisiting Metacogntion and Metaliteracy in the ACRL Framework

In the early drafts of the Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education, metaliteracy and metacognition contributed several guiding principles in recognition of the fact that information literacy concepts need to reflect students’ roles as creators and participants in research and scholarship. The authors contend that diminution of metaliteracy and metacognition occurred during later revisions of the Framework and thus diminished the document’s usefulness as a teaching tool. This article highlights the value of metaliteracy and metacognition in order to support the argument that these concepts are critical to information literacy today, and that the language of these concepts should be revisited in the language of the Framework. Certainly metacognition and metaliteracy should be included in pedagogical strategies submitted to the newly launched ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

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All Rights Reserved

The Gossip Activity

This is a lively small-group activity suitable for intro-level classes in one or two-shot sessions, but easily adaptable for use with high schoolers. The goal of the activity is to demystify information evaluation and get students to generate their own criteria by which to evaluate the reliability of information and information sources. Students will also discuss the ways in which these criteria are contextual and may vary by situation.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC

Alien Babies and Angelina Jolie: Evaluating Sources Using Tabloids with a Taste of News Literacy

The following activity is meant to demonstrate the concepts of authorship and authority to first year writing students. Students will use their prior knowledge and everyday experiences with subpar information to draw parallels between evaluating academic and popular sources.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC

Outcomes, Performance Indicators, and Dispositions

This document lists the outcomes, performance indicators, and dispositions developed for the Threshold Achievement Test for Information Literacy (TATIL). This test has four modules inspired by the six frames of the Framework: Evaluating Process & Authority; Strategic Searching; Research & Scholarship; and The Value of Information. 

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Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC

What to Do with What You Find

A guide to helping student know how to use (or not to use!) the different kinds of information they may find.

Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-ShareAlike License CC-BY-SA

Questions for Understanding Information Artifacts

This resource introduces students to rubrics for evaluating information, including SCARAB, CRAAP, and Reuters Source Guide. Furthermore, it provides a framework of questions to ask about a piece of information under consideration. 
Discipline(s): 
Interdisciplinary
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC

Writing a Summary in Three Steps

This example of an article summary, as one might find in a literature review of annotated bibliography,  enumerates the steps to ethically and accurately complete a typical research task.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Multidisciplinary
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC

Discussion Activity for Visual Literacy

This exercise asks students to respond to two videos, sharing with their classmates what feelings and ideas the images and music evoke in them.  The first video is an ExxonMobil commercial and the other is a humorous critique of advertising stock footage.  Be warned that the critique does contain one mild swear word.

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Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed:

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution License CC-BY

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Sources: a Brief Introduction

This libguide will help students distinguoish between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. It includes examples and links to other libraries that provide clear instruction on the matter.

Resource Type(s):

Discipline(s): 
Not Discipline Specific
License Assigned: 
CC Attribution-NonCommercial License CC-BY-NC

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