An icebreaker activity for students at any level, “Visualizing Research” employs tactile or kinesthetic learning techniques to illustrate research as inquiry. This group activity can be used in a variety of disciplines and contexts. By having students create and share visual models of their ideas or experiences with research, the lesson plan increases classroom engagement and supports an understanding of the iterative process of research.

Embedded library modules in online, stand-alone website used by second semester English Composition classes for freshman level students.  This set of modules is co-authored with Mario Leyva, Assistant Director, Instruction and User Services at Our Lady of the Lake University, and Forrest Davidson. All coursework and assignments are available for download; quizzes available upon request.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

This sample activity corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming (2022) ACRL title: Teaching Critical Reading Skills: Strategies for Academic Librarians.

Use this virtual mind-map to focus a topic and generate keywords for searching.

Learn how to read a scholarly article and identify the parts.

It's important to credit others when you use parts of their work. Complete this tutorial to learn when and how to best give credit to the work of others.

Searching for information in library resources is often like exploring a new land. You often won’t find what you're looking for the first time you search. Complete this tutorial to learn strategies for rethinking your search for better results.

Library databases work differently from Google. Learn how to create a search strategy for these databases.

Understand the difference between primary and secondary sources, and between popular and scholarly sources.

A toolkit with various instructional materials to teach media and news literacy. Includes an online activity "Fairness and Blanace" where students watch a short video on journalistic standards and answer discussion questions.

We use Google every day, but we do really understand why we get certain results? This event will explain what an algorithm is, how search engines use them, and how bias exists in our search results. Attendees will have a chance to reflect on the ways biased results can echo larger biases for representation in society.  Access this site at your convenience at: https://jmu.libwizard.com/f/algorithms-bias

Co-creators: Malia Willey and Alyssa Young.

In this hands on activity, students will find and compare/contrast news stories on a single current event/topical discussion to learn the importance of lateral reading and understand how bias can influence information production. 

This assignment was created to help undergraduate students use research articles to help inform their argument about a "text."  This exercise has been used in library instruction sessions for art history, composition, english literature, women's studies, and history classes. After reflecting on what they know about a text (or image or multimedia), brainstorming search terms, and tracking relevant patterns in search results, students can synthesize information from a variety of sources in an organized, methodological fashion. 

During this activity, students work with their lab partners to apply Mike Caulfield’s “Four Moves and a Habit” to a piece of science information they have found on the open web.