We made it!  Our students learned some crucial information literacy skills, helped solve a community problem (illiteracy) and turned in a pretty solid research portfolio to Project READ.  Yesterday, we met one final time this quarter to reflect as a group, along with Becky Garvin, Director of Project READ and Cathy Sayer, Director of Service-Learning at Wright State University.  In preparation for this reflection, the students write responses to 4 or 5 reflection prompts.  Then we discuss as a group what they have learned about information literacy, about themselve

We're down to four students.  Three of our students dropped the course.  My co-teacher and I are disappointed by that, but we also have no control over that.  The good thing is that now all four students are one team, working towards making the best research portfolio they can create for Project READ.  Do they complain?

The quarter is drawing to a close so quickly, and we still have a lot of work left to do for Project READ.

During Week 4, we covered searching the catalog for books.  We sent the students to the stacks.  Many hadn't realized there would actually be books written about the topic we're researching.  We also focused on how to cite in APA style so they could  complete their homework for class 5 - to find and cite three books (or at least chapters).

Lately, I've been feeling a little frustrated with myself as an instructor.  I'm always changing the game plan, never happy with what I have planned.  My co-teacher and I are constantly reinventing our lesson plans and our class.  It takes a lot of time.  And, frankly, sometimes I wonder why we haven't figured this out yet - this is the sixth time we have taught this course.  Why aren't we on auto pilot?

This week, students took their first readiness assurance test (see team-based learning, Larry Michaelsen) to reinforce the following concepts:  The information cycle, Invisible Web, Service-Learning, and the course syllabus!  Yes, we ask questions about the syllabus to be sure that they've read it!  They take the RAT individually, and then as a team.  They get the better of the two scores, which is almost always the team score.  The team discussion helps them understand/retain the concepts.

Tuesday in class, Cheryl and I tried something new.  In addition to our guest speaker, Becky Garvin from Project READ (our community partner), and introducing the concept of the Invisible Web and some advanced Google search techniques, we also assigned the students a team-building activity.  The students were put into teams (the teams they will be working with throughout the quarter on their research portfolios) to build a tower using only spaghetti and marshmallows.  After they built their towers, we discussed their group process and how they worked as teams.  We

And, we're back!  My co-teacher and I taught Day 1 of our information literacy course this morning.  Our students this quarter will research fundraising for non-profit agencies.  We have a list of questions our students will attempt to answer including:  "What motivates people to donate to non-profit agencies?"  and "How have non-profit agencies been using social media to raise funds?"   Here is a more complete list of questions related to the

The  planning for EDT 110: Civic-centered research has begun!  My co-teacher and I are updating the syllabus, and going over our notes from the debrief after last winter's course to make the appropriate changes.

My co-teacher and I will teach our Information Literacy course, EDT 110, again beginning in January.  One of the questions I get most frequently about my class is about timing.  How long/far in advance should I start planning a service-learning partnership or course?