Information Literacy LATTE (Learning, Assessment, and Teaching: Tips, Experiences & Strategies)

Indicators addressed / Determines the extent of information needed
Accesses the needed information
Evaluates information and its sources critically
Uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
Accesses and uses information ethically and legally
Name of LATTE / The web told me so
Source of this idea/LATTE (i.e., website, individual name, etc.) / Tresha Dutton
Short description / The purpose of this activity is to illustrate the importance of collecting and analyzing multiple sources when researching a topic. Students analyze newspaper articles reporting on the same topic and discover the need for carefully consider the content across multiple sources.
Supplies / 5-6 different newspaper articles about the same topic.
Ten questions about the topic that may be answered in the articles.
Flip chart paper
Time needed / 30-40 minutes.
Steps of LATTE / Pre-class preparation
1.Instructor Googles a current event (e.g., Hurricane Katrina, Newest version of iPhone, etc.)
2.Instructor reads over 6 articles gathered on google and creates a list of 10ish questions (e.g., How many people were affected by hurricane Katrina? What is Dr. Stanford’s opinion about the relief response to Katrina?, etc…). Create some questions that will be answered in all the articles, some that are answered differently in different articles, and some questions that are only addressed in one or two articles.
3.Print of 4 copies of each article.
In-class
1.Put students into six groups of 4 students. Give each group one of the newspaper articles (e.g., New York Times, Seattle PI, etc.)
2.Give the students time to read their group’s article.
3.Provide each group the same list of 10 questions and ask them to answer the questions based on the information in their article.
4.Instruct the groups to put their newspaper name (e.g., New York Times) at the top of their flip chart paper, and to record their 10 answers on the paper. If they can’t find answer to a question they should write n/a.
5.Once all six groups are finished the flip chart papers are collected and posted in the front of the classroom.
6.Facilitate a discussion with the class about the follow types of observations recorded on the sheets: the need to utilize multiple sources because answers vary, carefully consider who the “experts” are (e.g., PhD doesn’t mean an expert in the topic under investigation); the publication (e.g., Louisiana newspaper, Arizona Newspaper); and the author of the article (AP writers can be reprinted in many newspapers around the country) when researching a topic.

Updated 11-04-2016