Supporting information literacy development

Introduction

Appreciating the importance of information literacy skills, Caldervale High School's Professional Development Group (PDG) wanted to help their pupils develop their information literacy skills.

The PDG is cross-curricular, comprising four teachers and the school’s Library Resource Centre (LRC) manager. Their discussions on information literacy became the focus for an action research project, which was published in February 2008.

From observation and analysis, six skills were identified (See page 10 of the report).

This resulted in the production of a new S1 English project - the Pet Project.

 Word file: How to look after your pet

It consists of four social skills lessons, followed by 11 information literacy skills lessons, which are taught using co-operative learning and formative assessment methods. The project was designed to address the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence and it is suitable for adaptation in other subjects (See chapter 8 in the attached report) and for other age groups. The skills learned are also transferable.