Saturday, December 8, 2012

Incorporating Information Literacy into the high school curriculum


Ringwood, Jessica

LaForty, J. (1998). A new literacy for a new age. Emergency Librarian: 25(8), 8-10.

Summary: This article outlines the reasoning behind offering an information literacy course to high school students as well as a brief outline of the components of such a course. 

Evaluation: Of particular interest in the article was the language and rationale LaForty uses to promote her course; it could be very helpful for teacher-librarians hoping to secure funding for a similar course on their campus. I LOVE this idea!  From the reading I have done, it seems that students are not arriving at college with decent information literacy skills.  I think librarians have to recognize that before the Common Core, teachers at the high school level don’t necessarily consider information literacy skills a part of their content (I think English teachers do, but other subjects focus more on content). Since the Common Core is not going into effect in California until 2014, this article is a timely reminder of skills that students and teachers need to be well-versed in.  Offering this kind of course on a high school campus seems like it would be very helpful.  I also think that the school site librarian could utilize these ideas and teach similar mini-courses to teachers, so that teachers could understand how to instruct their students in information literacy skills. 

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