During the course of the development of District 207's information literacy curriculum several documents were used to provide a basic framework. Of particular importance was the reliance on existing standards to create district information literacy goals. Included here are the Goals the district developed as well as a link to the American Association of School Librarians Competency Standards that guided the development of the district's information literacy curriculum.
Goal #1:
Students will identify the question or problem.
a. Using prior knowledge, students will brainstorm the ideas and information
on the subject.
b. Students will focus and narrow the topic by organizing and recording ideas
using mapping, clustering or outlining.
c. Students will create questions.
d. Students will develop a preliminary plan.
Goal #2:
Students will identify a variety of sources and select relevant sources for
the solution of the question or problem.
a. Students will be aware of many types of resources: libraries, museums, information
centers, individual experts, books, magazines, newspapers, electronic databases,
videos, laser discs, scanners, and experimentation.
b. Students will identify the locations of potential resources.
Goal #3:
Students will locate and collect information using relevant search strategies.
a. Keyword search
b. Boolean logic
c. Interview questions for primary source interviews
d. Index utilization
e. Cross referencing subject headings
Goal #4:
Students will interpret, evaluate and organize their data.
a. Students will evaluate their information for relevancy and credibility.
b. Students will "take notes" (or extract) from the information appropriately
by quoting, highlighting, paraphrasing, or summarizing.
c. Students will look at their preliminary plan and systematically organize
their information using such methods as outlines, concept maps, note cards,
etc.
d. Students will appropriately credit material used.
Goal #5:
Students will answer their question or problem with an organized, well supported,
appropriate presentation.
Goal #6:
Students will be able to evaluate their process and final product.
Information Literacy Competency Standards
Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education provides a framework for assessing the information literate individual. It also extends the work of the American Association of School Librarians Task Force on Information Literacy Standards, thereby providing higher education an opportunity to articulate its information literacy competencies with those of K-12 so that a continuum of expectations develops for students at all levels. The competencies presented here outline the process by which faculty, librarians and others pinpoint specific indicators that identify a student as information literate. Students also will find the competencies useful, because they provide students with a framework for gaining control over how they interact with information in their environment. It will help to sensitize them to the need to develop a metacognitive approach to learning, making them conscious of the explicit actions required for gathering, analyzing, and using information. All students are expected to demonstrate all of the competencies described in this document, but not everyone will demonstrate them to the same level of proficiency or at the same speed. Furthermore, some disciplines may place greater emphasis on the mastery of competencies at certain points in the process, and therefore certain competencies would receive greater weight than others in any rubric for measurement. Many of the competencies are likely to be performed recursively, in that the reflective and evaluative aspects included within each standard will require the student to return to an earlier point in the process, revise the information-seeking approach, and repeat the same steps. To implement the standards fully, an institution should first review its mission and educational goals to determine how information literacy would improve learning and enhance the institution's effectiveness. To facilitate acceptance of the concept, faculty and staff development is also crucial.
Information
Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education
District
207 Information Literacy web page originally created by K. Wolfe, Maine East,
and R. Retrum, Maine South.
New content and formatting, N. Mellendorf, Maine South High School, April 2006.