Painter’s taPe

Pedagogy Three information literacy instruction sessions using active learning techniques

(and markers, crayons, bright paper, and painter’s tape)

Lauren Wallis Reference & Instruction Librarian

Class:

Children’s literature – English 310

Assignment:

Annotated Bibliography

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy Activity: In groups, build a concept map related to a selected topic (The prof had a list for them to choose from, so I gave each group a topic from the list)

IL Standard 1.1: Define and articulate the need for information Student Learning Outcome: Identify key terms related to a research topic

Time: 25-30 minutes Additional Class Activities: Use search terms to find articles in ERIC and MLA

Required Prep: • Print and cut out large,

medium, and small bubbles for five groups

• Make example • Set up five group

stations with bubbles, painter’s tape, and markers/crayons

How it went: Very well! Students engaged in productive small-group discussions and were excited to share their maps with the class. I did this activity with two classes. One was much more worried about “doing it right” than the other. I had to encourage them not to overthink it.

Potential Improvement: Better connection between this activity and database searching. In the second part of class I demonstrated searches in MLA and ERIC using the terms they had generated, but I wish I had made it more interactive. If I do this activity again, I will cut down on my demo time and ask groups to share their search processes with the entire class.

Class:

English 102 - Composition II

Assignment:

Annotated Bibliography

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy (Mini) Activity: Groups solve Citation Puzzles

IL Standard 5.3: Acknowledge the use of information sources Student Learning Outcome: Arrange different kinds of MLA citations in the correct order

Time: 5 minutes Additional Class Activities: • Discuss generating

search terms and searching in MLA International Bibliography

• Students locate an

article in MLA, generate a citation, use it to help them with their Citation Puzzle, and add the citation to a Class Works Cited (shared Google Doc).

Required Prep: • Select five different

types of articles • Create citation puzzles

for each citation

How it went: A little rough Students more or less tolerated the activity, but they weren’t especially exCITEd (har har har) or engaged.

Potential Improvements: Students seemed surprised and intimidated by how much they had to “do” in the class session. I think they might have needed more traditional, hands-on help with using MLA International Bibliography.

Class:

Public Speaking – Communications 330

Assignments:

Speeches throughout the semester

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy Activity 1: The Continuum of Trustworthiness Groups are given different resources (some library, some web-based). They decide where to place their resource between “Not Trustworthy” and “Extremely Trustworthy”

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy Activity 2: Groups find a board with a picture of their resource. They decide: • Who is the audience? • What is the purpose?

IL Standard 3.2: Articulate and apply initial criteria for evaluating both information and its sources. Student Learning Outcome: Examine and compare information from various sources in order to evaluate reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view.

Time: 30 minutes Additional Class Activities: • Brief “Research Pro Tips”

slideshow • Groups use their resource to

find an article • Groups evaluate the credibility

of the specific source they found. They write up their evaluation on a slide in the presentation (a shared Google Presentation)

• Groups come to the front to discuss their evaluation and share how they found their source.

Required Prep: • Make sheets for each resource • Set up Continuum of Trustworthiness • Set up one white board per group

with guiding questions

How it went: Very well! Students were engaged and talkative, especially when each group discussed their whiteboard questions.

Potential Improvement: More time (or less activities) We were rushed at the end to write up evaluations of the specific sources and share with the class. This would have worked better with two class sessions—the first for the whiteboard activity and the second for finding specific sources, evaluating them, and sharing with the class.