Information Fluency

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Glossary of Terms and Tips | Resource Kit Indices

Resources for Teaching and Learning

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Full Circle Resource Kits are used by teachers, librarians and technology coordinators to train today's students in critical 21st Century research skills.

Each Kit is packed with articles, curriculum, learning games and assessment development, library orientation, diagnosing students' needs and curriculum integration for elementary grades through college. Newer Kit resources require an annual membership.

	Spring 2023 - How do Information Literacy Assessments Fail?" Unpacking the Digital Information Model to identify essential search competencies to measure. Try our three-item assessment to check your Search Box Fluency.
	Spring 2022 - Drawing on research involving high school students attending Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development summer program, this article probes the question, "at what point should we consider students to be information literate?"
	Winter 2022 - Two guest authors share their persepctives on plagiarism and the value of information fluency. Preventing plagiarism: a guide for students and educators - by Patrick Dennis Why Information Fluency is Necessary to Be Efficient Today - by Anna Medina
	Fall 2021 - A fresh look at bias, from the reader's persepctive. Implicit bias is a subjective problem when it remains unrecognized or goes unchallenged. Curriculum Matters, ActionZone and Assessment pieces examine ways to help readers own their own biases and not shy away from defending them. No subscription required for the feature article.
	Spring-Summer 2021 - Introducing a new self-paced course delivered via Google Classroom for power searching with keywords and queries. Designed around six hard-to-find challenges that replicate research assignments. No subscription required for the feature article.
	Winter 2021 - Evaluating post-election claims using fact checking. Building a fact checking library. Assessing fact checking skills. No subscription required for the feature article or Action Zone challenge.
	Fall 2020 - An exposé on bias during an election year. How to detect and investigate bias. No subscription required for the Feature article or Action Zone challenge.
	Spring-Summer 2020 - No issues produced due to Covid-19.
	Winter 2020 - A seven-part Tutorial on conducting Market Research (entrepreneurial focus). No subscription required
	Fall 2019 - Getting Started: Feature. Finding reliable real-time information on the Internet.
	Summer 2019 - Getting Started: Feature. A LEGO search challenge designed around an invisible query.
	Spring 2019 - Getting Started: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. Introducing the 15 Challenges.
	Winter 2019 - Database Selection: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. Choosing the right database for searching. Database Mining.
	Fall 2018 - Keyword Games: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. Using keywords more effectively. Get more hits and fewer misses. Three interactive challenges prime students to create their own search games based on good search practices.
	Summer 2018 - Bias Detection: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. Can you recognize bias when you see it? When does it become a problem and invalidate the news? Classroom checklist and discussion guide for identifying bias. Six interactive challenges to assess abilities to detect bias.
	Spring 2018 - Investigative Searching: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. This is the third in a three-part series on Investigative Searching, focused on Fact Checking. How do you know when to fact check and if the facts are accurate? Mini Lessons to teach and Fake News and Fact Checking. Assess students' abilities to fact check.
	Winter 2018 - Investigative Searching: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. This is the second in a three-part series on Investigative Searching, focused on Fact Checking. How do you know if the facts are accurate? Sample searches to determine accuracy. Assess students' abilities to fact check.
	Fall 2017 - Investigative Searching: Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. This is the first in a three-part series on Investigative Searching, focused on Authorship and Authority. Can this author be trusted? Sample searches to determine authority, freshness, accuracy. Ways to assess students' abilities to evaluate authorship.
	Summer 2017 - Keyword Challenges Feature, ActionZone, Curriculum Connections and Assessment. This is the new revision and expansion of our Keyword Challenges (formerly 8 Flash-based Challenges). The 19 challenges in this Kit support strategic searching by starting with what you know, how to find better keywords and how to focus results with operators.

Getting Started: Basic search strategies, types of searching, instructional guidelines for teaching information fluency

Database Choices: Where to find relevant information using search engines and databases, searching the Deep Web

Question to Query: Creating effective queries

Operators: Using Boolean operators and advanced operators to best advantage

Homing In: Scanning snippets to find better keywords, advanced search strategies and troubleshooting

Browsing: Scanning subject directories, links and tags to find relevant information

Web 2.0: Searching and evaluating information on the Read-Write Web

Evaluation / Investigative Searching: Finding and evaluating information about the author, publisher, date, objectivity, accuracy, evidence, links to and from in order to determine credibility

Ethical Use: Using proper citation techniques to avoid plagiarism and how fair use affects educators' use of information from the Internet