ENGL 2010: Library Instruction Lesson Plans  

Library instruction for English 2010 is designed to help students achieve the writing and research objectives of the course.

In 2005, we worked with five Information Literacy Fellows* to develop joint learning goals and accompanying lessons, based on the concept of Writing Information Literacy and our 2004 Needs Assessment for English Composition.

The following ideas were designed to be integrated with the sample 15-week syllabus outline developed by John Engler and Susan Nyikos, USU Department of English.

Please feel free to contact Kacy Lundstrom if you have questions about how to best design library instruction for your English 2010 class.

*2012 Assistant Directors: Dustin Crawford and Susan Nyikos, Writing Director: Brock Dethier

English 2010 advances many of the English 1010 goals, giving students the opportunity to further practice and develop their skills at a greater level of sophistication and independence. The library instruction goals for English 2010 are:

1. Students will define their information needs in order to anticipate what they and their audience need to know and to focus, shape, and organize their ideas and writing.
2. Students will use a variety of sources to explore a topic in order to produce documented material directed to a specific audience.
3. Students will evaluate information for its value, relevance, and accuracy in order to assess whether the information they find is credible and useful for their purpose.
4. Students will synthesize and integrate the information found in order to create new knowledge or understanding, answer a question, make an argument, or solve a problem.
5. Students will document their sources in order to acknowledge their intellectual debts and demonstrate their understanding of research ethics.

See tabs above for specific lesson plans for:

• Writing an Argument
• Additional Mini-Lessons

Librarians can help you adapt these ideas to fit your particular assignments and objectives. Our assessment data suggests that students benefit from 3-4 library sessions per semester. Students cite a wider range of sources when they have engaged in a highly-integrated library instruction curriculum. Problem-based learning exercises also seem to improve the quality of student work and their confidence in doing research.

We have also found that the following sequence of instruction seems to be most effective: