Effective Instructional Models

Teaching with web-based tools and information is certainly nothing new. In fact, the article which served as the inspiration of this post, Effective Instructional Models: Internet Workshop, Internet Project, Internet Inquiry and Webquests, feels pretty dated.

I mean, sure, it's got some great dinosaur resources (pun intended) for elementary and middle school students to conduct online research. However, it does point a finger squarely at one instructional skill set which is near and dear to my media specialist heart, and one which I feel is being is grossly neglected in many mainstream classrooms: information literacy.

Some of the models suggested in this article include guided web experiences to take students through evaluating online sources (ICYouSee Guide to Critical Thinking), cross-referencing information found online with credible sources (shout-out to one of my ed tech favs, Kathy Shrock, for this one!) and a delightful resource called the Museum of Hoaxes to test our kids' critical thinking and information evaluation skills. These skills are an important part of mastering essential information literacy.

After all, if our students' first instinct is to Google or Wikipedia (both verbs, IMO) something, we'd better be sure we've got them thinking twice about the credibility, reliability and usefulness of that source's ability to address their information needs.

This is not a loaded question, but when working independently of literacy coaches, media specialists and other support staff specializing in information literacy, how are you addressing these skills in your classroom? To make it more concrete, how are you addressing the skills in an instructional model of information literacy, such as Big6?