Tips for Educators
Only a few months separate a student’s high school graduation ceremony from college move-in day. It is not uncommon, therefore, for high school seniors and first year college students to have many of the same questions about college and very similar research needs.
For this reason, this site has been designed for use with both high school and college students. The site can be included on a list of resources compiled for university orientation students or it can be used in a more structured way as part of lesson plans to teach college preparation skills. Some of the activities and tips on this site will help students understand what to expect when they get to college; some will help them do more effective research.
Below are a few suggestions for activities that correspond to the content on this Web site. Please provide us with feedback on how you integrated the materials into your curriculum. We value your opinion and appreciate suggestions for improvements.
Activity 1: Comparing College Libraries
Activity 2: Creating a Search Strategy
Activity 3: Web Site Usability
Activity 4: Detecting Plagiarism
Activity 5: Comparing Search Engines
Activity 6: Verifying Wikipedia Information
Additional Activities
There are many lesson plans that already exist related to the above topics. Check out the database of lesson plans collected by the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education. The ILILE Web site (www.ilile.org) also provides links to other useful Web sites.
In addition, you may want to investigate TRAILS (www.trails-9.org) an easy-to-use test that can be used with transitioning populations to assess basic information literacy skills or SAILS (www.projectsails.org), a more comprehensive test used with undergraduate students.