| Interpretive
Assignments |
Concepts |
Skills |
| Letters or diaries: have students examine texts
written by a figure discussed in class, generate questions from those primary
sources, and prepare an annotated version of the text that answers or provides
speculation on aspects of the text that are unclear. This could be a group
project, with a set of letters or diary entries distributed among the class. |
provides experience with primary sources; develops
the habit of raising and pursuing questions; requires speculation based
on evidence; situating texts in a historical context |
identifying key components of a question; locating
information using the catalog and reference sources; documentation |
| Have the class examine a painting or other graphic
image from a time period you are dealing with or which touches on a theme
you are discussing in class. Brainstorm questions and theories about the
image, then list information sources that might help address those questions.
Have groups take a cluster of questions to the library for information-gathering
and then pool interpretations. |
practice examining images as texts; practice
building theory and seeking evidence; provides example of way a community
of scholars can build on each others' conversations to create knowledge |
articulating questions and identifying potential
information sources; using the catalog and reference sources |
| Political cartoons as text: using the Bassett
collection of political cartoons (one of the Gustavus library's special
collections) have students locate a cartoon on a political event relevant
to the course and put it in historical context, explaining its referents
and meaning. This could be the basis of a class-designed library display;
could also include interaction with the cartoonist. |
develops the habit of querying texts of all
sorts; develops notion that interpretation and making connections is not
just an academic pursuit; situating texts in a social/historical context |
identifying visual cues; locating information
using the catalog and reference sources; summarizing information concisely
for a general audience; designing and conducting an interview |
| |
|
|
| Synthesis
Assignments |
Concepts |
Skills |
| Have the class develop a collaborative lecture:
rather than present material in lecture form, have students gather information
and during class compile it. (Works best with topics that have a natural
organizing principle such as chronology in order to process the information
brought to class.) |
develops the notion that understanding is built
from making connections and synthesizing data; emphasizes the notion that
various sources provide different kinds of information that might be contradictory;
understanding that information may be organized in different ways for different
results; provides example of way a community of scholars can build on each
others' conversations to create knowledge |
skimming and extracting information; sorting
information into a meaningful pattern; finding information using the catalog,
reference sources, and perhaps articles |
| Have the class develop a snapshot of a year
that is significant for your course. Starting with a chronology (such as
Timetables
of History) have groups report on politics, the arts, science and technology,
or whatever categories make sense for your course. |
develops an understanding of interdisciplinary
connections and chronology; involves making choices about what events are
significant |
skimming and extracting information; locating
information using the catalog and reference sources |
| |
|
|
| Exploring
Discourses |
Concepts |
Skills |
| Have the class prepare an interview-either one
to be actually carried out or one that they can't because the subject is
long dead or otherwise unavailable. To generate useful questions they would
have to become familiar with the person's life and work and understand
its significance. They could either write up results of a real interview
or write their own imaginary responses based on available evidence. |
develops the notion that fieldwork requires
preparation; requires paying attention to the wording of questions |
using catalog, reference sources, and articles
for biographical/critical information; |
| Have the class generate a list of "key words"
which are important concepts for the course. Have them locate uses of these
key words in a variety of contexts and/or disciplines and write an analysis
of the words' multiple meanings. |
develops sensitivity to different disciplines
and their discourses; introduces the ways in which the slipperiness of
language can make searching tricky |
using key word searching in a variety of databases,
including the catalog, specialized databases, reference sources |
| Have students examine an editorial and discuss
what evidence would need to be provided to turn it into an academic argument
for a scholarly audience. Have the class locate and analyze evidence and
write a response to the editorial based on their new knowledge |
practice recognizing claims that need support;
understanding the difference between popular and scholarly writing; understanding
the concept of evidence |
identifying potential sources of evidence; planning
a search; using the catalog, databases, and reference sources; writing
from sources and documentation |
| Have students trace a "fact" from textbook to
its original discovery and dissemination. Have them analyze the contemporary
reception of the "fact"-was it challenged, debated, hailed, or reviled?
Was it recognized as significant? Was it newsworthy enough to be covered
by the popular press? (Requires careful groundwork to make sure it is workable
and that the materials are available.) |
recognize that "facts" often start as claims;
recognize that accepted wisdom is often built out of controversy; recognize
that retrieval tools have chronological limitations; recognize that "facts"
are named differently in different time periods; |
using the catalog, databases, print indexes
for historical material; tracing information through citations |
| Provide the class with primary sources that
recount an event that is open to more than one interpretation. Then have
students locate and critique secondary source explanations of that event.
Have students examine differences in secondary sources and relate these
to their own interpretation of the available evidence. (Students are often
surprised to find secondary sources tell the same story differently.) |
understand the difference between primary and
secondary sources; understand that secondary sources rely on interpretation
of evidence; develop a healthy sense of skepticism |
using the catalog; interpreting citations (to
help critique the use of evidence in the secondary source) |
| Have students compile an anthology or reader
of works on a theme or topic; have them write critical introductions to
the selections they have chosen. |
learn to select particular sources out of many;
develop ability to relate pieces to a whole |
using the catalog and/or databases; |
| Have students study the ways different disciplines
treat the same subject or the ways different audiences-e.g. popular v.
scholarly-shape the presentation of information by locating and analyzing
materials that approach the same topic from different directions. |
recognize differences in discourse conventions;
recognize the importance of audience in texts; learn to differentiate between
popular and scholarly sources |
using the catalog and specialized databases;
adjusting search strategies for different databases |
| Have the class generate a list of cutting edge
issues in a field by having them survey the current literature and identify
topic areas that are especially under debate. |
recognize that current literature in the field
clusters around areas of uncertainty and controversy; recognize that new
knowledge often comes from asking interesting questions |
using databases; skimming and collating information;
identifying patterns on the fly |
| Have students explore different types of information
sources by having them investigate the same topic in different formats:
reference books, newspaper articles, scholarly journals, government documents,
web sites. Have groups present their results, analyzing the uses of different
information sources. |
recognize that part of planning a search involves
deciding where the information is likely to be found; recognize different
information types and their uses; discover that there are different types
of information and that they often require searching differently |
using a wide variety of databases and search
strategies; learning different parts of the library and its collections;
develop different strategies for different types of information sources |
| Have students examine an issue across time by
looking at how it is treated currently and comparing it with treatment
25, 50, or 75 years ago. Analyze both the different approaches to the issue
and the ways in which the issue was framed in ways that reflect the values
and assumptions of the time. |
recognize that the language and the assumptions
displayed in texts have historical context; recognize that older texts
cannot generally be found using electronic databases; recognize that access
tools themselves are a reflection of the context in which they were created |
using a wide variety of print and electronic
resources; reformulating a search to reflect the indexing terms used by
a tool or in a particular time period |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Quick
and Dirty |
Concepts |
Skills |
| Have students locate and critique reviews of
a book considered important or a classic in the field (perhaps one in use
as a course text) but which was controversial or slow to gain acceptance
when first published. |
demonstrates the notion that what is considered
a classic may not always be considered so; illustrates that reception of
new ideas can be varied and often, in hindsight, quite wrong |
using book review indexes or article databases;
locating articles in print sources (particularly for older works) |
| Use a class period in the library generating
a list of books and/or articles of interest to the class. Have students
find a variety of sources on the topic and spend a class period "weeding"
the selections, discussing markers of quality from a disciplinary perspective.
Have each student use those markers to select one worthwhile article and
write an annotation; compile the annotations for the class. |
demonstrate that there are a variety of information
sources that take different approaches to the same topic; recognize that
finding good sources requires making good choices; recognize that quality
is determined within disciplinary frameworks and traditions |
using databases to find texts; choosing search
terms; locating print and electronic texts; skimming; recognizing indicators
of quality in sources; documenting sources and writing critical annotations |
| Have students locate three sources-one an article
published in a popular magazine, one an article in a refereed scholarly
journal, one a web site-and have them analyze the sources in terms of language
used, evidence presented for claims, qualifications of the author, and
purpose. |
develops an understanding of the differences
between scholarly texts and popular ones; develops a sensitivity to the
rhetorical cues available in texts that can help in assessing their value |
using different databases and search engines;
documentation of different types of texts; practice identifying authority
of sources; practice identifying text types |
| Have students conduct a search on the same topic
on the web and in an article database. Discuss the results of their search
in terms of what kinds of sources they found and the likely quality of
those sources. (It would be interesting to do two topics-one that yields
poor results on the web and another that provides useful sources.) |
illustrates the difference between the "free"
web and subscription databases accessible through the web; demonstrates
the different kinds of results obtained using different kinds of sources;
recognize that there are certain kinds of questions that aren't best researched
on the web |
using a web search engine and a database; choosing
keywords that work and refining searches as needed; skimming and interpreting
the results of a search; making critical assessments of sources based on
citations; |