IL Course (EDT 110) Weeks 5 and 6

Our class didn't meet during Week 5 due to the ice storm. We have noticed that some of our students have been finding sources (for homework) that are NOT relevant to the research topic.  For example, some students are turning in citations for articles that focus on computer literacy skills (rather than reading skills), or they find articles that address reading skills among college students (rather than K-8, as Project READ needs).  We spent a lot of time in classes 4 and 6 going over the topic and discussing how articles they found for homework do or do not address their research topic (reading skills assessment for K-8 students).   In class 6, we chose two articles and had each group read through them to pick out appropriate recommendations we could make to Project READ.  This practice helped them to better understand how they will make recommendations to include in their final research portfolios.  In fact, one student approached Cheryl after class and said "This was a great class.  I had fun today!" The research topic is certainly challenging, particularly for younger students.  We knew we'd have to spend a lot of time practicing the relevance part of the CRAAP test. We were prepared to do so.  When we adopted the team-based learning component, we also committed to spending a lot of class time on group work, and in this case, that means they will have a lot of class time to work on their research portfolios.