Mar 11 2009
Assignments and Activities to Support Library-Based Research
- Library Scavenger Hunt
Finding Sources for Student Selected Topic à Evaluating Sources à Summarizing and/or Evaluating Sources for a Mini-Annotated Bibliography
- Source Comparison Activities
Give students, or have them find, different kinds of sources addressing the same topic à Compare the sources à Assess their reliability- Internet and Web-based Databases
- Scholarly Journals Vs. Popular Magazines
- Analyze Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoting in a Sample Text
Have students use unique reading annotations for each type of source use: underline summaries, put a box around quotes, and put asterisks on either side of quotes (or use different colored highlighters). Then have students examine why the author might have selected each source use strategy for the specific information conveyed. Students can repeat this activity with their own texts during self-assessment or peer review.
- Citation Quiz
Test student comprehension of the parts of a citation and how to create citations for different types of sources. Could be used as a pre-test/post-test for tailoring instruction to specific section.
- Activities in Your Assigned Rhetoric
The following examples from A Meeting of Minds: A Brief Rhetoric for Writers and Readers demonstrate how a rhetoric can help you integrate discussions of academic integrity and source use into direct instruction in writing. A small sampling of relevant topics:- Key Concept: Academic Disciplines as Research Communities
- Strategy: How to Explore Questions with Discourse Communities
- Conducting Research
- Evaluating Sources
- Strategy: How to Track Your Research with a Working Bibliography
- Integrate Ideas: Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation
- Avoid Plagiarism: Cite Your Sources
- Supporting Your Thesis Statement
- Appendix: A Guide to Documentation
- Plus many other integrated discussions and boxed strategies, key concepts, and applications…
Tags: citing sources, finding sources, rhetoric texts, teaching source use