These activities are helpful for students who have some familiarity with the PCC Library and the World Wide Web. Each one begins with a question that you can use in a class discussion to introduce the activity.
Purpose: To have students practice the research tasks they'll be doing in college courses later on.
Setting: Regular classroom
Materials: Video player (call EXT 5286 to request one for your classroom--allow two days' notice) and Navigating the Sea of Information (Video 2288 WH, 2289LK--EXT 5286).
Preparation: The video is 18 minutes long. Familiarize yourself with the video's content, and plan your introductory mini-lecture; then preview the video. Make sure students have some familiarity with information literacy before you show them this video.
Instruction: This is a good motivational video for prep students who may not understand how challenging and time consuming college courses can be. Some of the content may be too advanced for some students: Don't try to teach everything. Use the video to orient students to research and prepare them for realities of future assignments.
Preview some of the content in a mini-lecture before you show the video. Afterwards ask the students to meet with their groups to list the points they remember from the video. Have a recorder take notes, and ask a reporter to summarize the group's findings for the whole class.
Purpose: To help students develop the critical-thinking skills needed for college research tasks.
Setting: Regular classroom
Materials: Succeeding in College, 2nd edition. Optional materials: a cassette player (request by calling X 5286), tape of Joplin's music, and photo of Joplin (both available from Jean Reynolds).
Preparation: Read pp. 282 - 4 in Succeeding in College and try the "Before You Read" and "After You Read" activities yourself. Make sure students are familiar with the World Wide Web (Activity #3 above) before you assign this activity.
Instruction: Have students complete "Before You Read" (p. 282) individually in class, and ask them to meet in their groups to discuss their answers. Assign the reading and questions 1 - 6 on page 283 as homework. Process the answers in class the next day. Then ask students to do a Web search for information about Joplin on their own time--question 7 on page 284. (This is a good way to help students get used to doing research on their own.) Process the results in the next class.
Purpose: Students will practice important research skills without being burdened by a lengthy writing assignment.
Setting: Regular classroom, computer classroom, and library
Preparation: This activity will work best when you collaborate closely with a librarian. You will need to work together to select resources for your students to use. It's a good idea to try this activity yourself before you introduce it to your class. Meet with a librarian to select resources for your students to use. Reserve the computer classroom and library in advance.
Instruction: Begin in your regular classroom by having each group choose a current issue from this list. (Be sure to explain what each issue is about--some of the terminology may be unfamiliar to some students.) You and your students can also generate your own list of topics to choose from.)
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After all the groups have selected an issue, guide them through the following research tasks, which can be shared by group members. Tasks can be done in both the library and computer classroom. Encourage students to use both Web and library resources. As groups are working, help them evaluate the information they are finding.
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