Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities in the Information Literacy Classroom

Ted Chodock and Elizabeth Dolinger's article "Applying Universal Design to Information Literacy: Teaching Students Who Learn Differently at Landmark College" discusses some ideas for helping students with AD/HD, dyslexia, and other learning disabilities. The define their terms upfront and explain how Universal Design (UD) can apply both to architecture and the classroom. To them active-learning strategies facilitate UD in the classroom: "Instead of simply engaging students and breaking up lectures, active learning methods become a way to reach the variety of learners in the classroom" (30). This makes sense.

Of worthy mention, they explain and provide examples of nine Universal Design principles in their article. Let me highlight just a few. First, "equitable use" in the classroom could mean that a course guide be provided in an online format as well as in print. "The Web-based version allows students with dyslexia and others who learn better aurally to use a test-to-speech screen reader to access the content." It also allows visually impaired students to increase the font size (28).

"Principle 2: Flexibility in Use" encourages active-learning methods, which can help those with attention difficulties. Mix things up with group, demonstration, lecture, and independent activities. To get their attention, also try previewing and viewing an agenda periodically throughout the class, noting when certain objectives have been accomplished. Goals that correlate directly to an assignment give students more reason to engage (28-29).

Spelling search terms can also even things up for those with dyslexia, not to mention a large number of students who have always had a spell-checking function available to correct their mistakes. Along these lines, the authors suggest that handouts, printed or otherwise, be written in a sans serif font, such as Arial or Trebuchet, and that any writing on a blackboard or whiteboard be done with print letters. Cursive or fancy writing may be particularly difficult for those with dyslexia. Besides, the large majority of students will be able to interpret print letters more readily (28).

Finally, "Principle 4: Perceptible Information" deals with clear communication. They make some good points:

Two other applications of principle 4 are using few words in giving directions and presenting information in multiple formats. Just as including too many databases and search strategies can be counterproductive to memory, so can giving detailed instructions that assume a shared knowledge base. Instead, succinct instructions using fewer words provided in sequential order are more effective. Finally, examples of presenting material in multiple formats include using online video clips to illustrate concepts, emphasizing the increasing availability of audio and video content in databases and other electronic resources, and linking multimedia screencasts to Web-based course guides. (29)

It seems that academic librarians spend a lot of time adopting or looking into new technology. Understanding the why's and wherefore's can be useful, and this article begins to address some of these reasons. They also talk about why half to a third of an instruction session should be given for students to practice searching the resources just demonstrated. Students benefit from this opportunity to search, make mistakes, and ask for help from an expert (29).

Consider reading this article and coming back to discuss it here:

Chodock, Ted, and Elizabeth Dolinger. "Applying Universal Design to Information Literacy: Teaching Students Who Learn Differently at Landmark College." Reference & User Services Quarterly 49.1 (Fall 2009): 24-32. Print.

New Books in the Library

Most academic libraries buy books. Yes, they often buy lots and lots of books in order to support ongoing research. Depending on the discipline, some fields of study publish more books than others. For example, hundreds of titles get published in English, history, art, philosophy, political science, and so on. Generally speaking, the hard sciences, such as biology, medicine, engineering, mathematics, do not publish quite as many books. These disciplines tend to publish their research findings predominantly in scholarly and peer-reviewed journals.

In many cases, patrons of academic libraries can browse some of the new books in a reading room. (Admittedly, not all new books go onto the "New Books" shelf. Typically, the most attractive or eye-catching titles go on the "New Books" shelf.) Some professors like to view the recent acquisitions in the Library, especially if they have helped with the selection of the titles.


New books can also be browsed online in many library catalogs. Below is a link to a tutorial that shows how to browse new books with the Eli M. Oboler Library's catalog:
New Books in ISU's Oboler Library. Another link to this tutorial can be found on the Eli M. Oboler Library Tutorials site.

The tutorial suggests that students can browse new book titles to discover potential research projects. It seems that deciding on a topic remains one of the biggest problems students face in the research process. If they wait too long, then they will not have enough time to research the topic, they will not become as interested, and they final result may not be quite as polished.

On the other hand, browsing the new books might introduce them to a subject that piques their interest. If they go and check out a new book, then they may only need to go and find a few more sources, thus saving them time. This strategy could save them time, especially if they utilized the list of references (the bibliography) within the book. A simple title search could save time, where a keyword search might take a bit longer. Additionally, like I often express in teaching situations, if they find a "new" book they like, they can go to the shelf where that book will be located after it is no longer "new" and look around to see other books on that same topic, thus expediting the search process even further.

Phrase and Proximity Searching

Last week on the information literacy and instruction listserv, someone asked about changes to EBSCOhost's search function. When searching for a phrase, she surrounded the phrase with quotation marks: Ex. "reality tv." Results highlighted these words even when they appeared separate from each other. Only results that include the phrase itself will be returned; however, wherever either of the words appear it will be highlighted.

Changes to their software make it so that any terms entered into their search are defaulted as both a phrase and a proximity search. In the past the searcher needed to enter w/5 to specify a proximity search. Now the proximity search takes place simultaneously with the phrase search. Another contributor to the listserv suggested the following kind of search: geoffrey chaucer not "geoffrey chaucer". Within the Academic Search Complete database, 348 results came back today. "geoffrey chaucer" brought back 702 results, but geoffrey chaucer without any quotes returned 1050, the sum of the other two results.

It seems that most searchers rarely use proximity search commands, but in many instances it may yield more relevant results that just a plain keyword search. Personally, the help section on proximity searching contains some cool, though probably arcane search tips. A search for child* w/3 obesity would return results with the words child, children, childhood, etc. within three words of obesity, but child would always come before obesity.

EBSCOhost's help page gives a great example of the near command. tax n5 reform* would bring back results where the words "tax reform" appear as well as "reform of income tax," because they are within five words of each other.

Embedded Librarian: Working in the Course Management System

For the first time, I am working as an embedded librarian this semester. I met the class on the second day they met. I have given them instruction in the Library. Now I am offering assistance with research by monitoring a discussion forum with their course management system (CMS). (We use Moodle.) My first post alerted them to recent multimedia tutorials I had created, as well as some older ones. In checking the forum today, no student had asked me any questions about research or asked for help, so I decided to offer a quick search tip, which appears below; this post.

Students tend to wait until the last few days before an assignment is due, before they really begin their research and writing. When this happens they do not have time to ask for assistance, or they might be embarrassed. Sometimes librarians have gone home for the day or the reference desk has closed already by the time they think to ask for help. Perhaps some of these tutorials and tips can be useful for them, since they can be accessed at any time. As long as they think to look at some of these resources, it could be useful for them.

Like other CMS software programs, Moodle allows the instructor to send a mass email to everyone in the class. Perhaps I should take advantage of this function to alert students to the resources they have available to them. Who know? Maybe they will be appreciative of a reminder to conduct their research and actually get an earlier start on it.

Do you have time-tested techniques for reaching students at their point of need? What do you do?

Tip: Did you know you could expand your results with an asterisk or a question mark? This can be helpful if you need more results.

For example, if I were searching for information on prescription drug abuse, I could "truncate" each word to get more results. Ex: prescri* and drug* and abus*. This tells the database to search for variations of the different words: prescribing, prescribe(s), prescription, drug(s), druggie, abuse(s), abusing, abusive, etc. When your search returns many results, this strategy is not recommended, but when you are getting too few results, then it may be helpful.

Note: the asterisk (*) is the truncation code used in the majority of databases (Ebscohost, LexisNexis, ProQuest, etc.). The question mark (?) serves as the truncation code in the Library catalog. Therefore, pigment? would return records with the following words: pigment(s), pigmented, pigmentation, pigmenting, etc. Truncating back to "pig*" would not be so helpful, since it would return results about "pigs" the animal, about humans acting like pigs, about guinea pigs, about skin pigments, etc. in addition to painting with pigments, etc.

Searching the Library Catalog

Finding the right book through the catalog can be a tricky thing sometimes. Recently, someone came to the Reference Desk asking for help to find a book on book binding. She had done a basic keyword search. Our catalog defaults to a "Quick Search," which automatically connects terms with the AND operator. She showed me that she had inputted "book" and "binding" into the search box. She identified just one out of twenty-nine results that satisfied her criteria, and that book had been checked out already: Books, boxes, and portfolios : binding, construction, and design step-by-step. After opening up the full record I pointed her to the subject heading: Bookbinding --Handbooks, manuals, etc. Clicking on this heading yielded six results, and these titles seemed to satisfy this particular individual.

What the student and I did not know was that "book binding" may not find you what you want, but "bookbinding" may. Who would know that it was one word instead of two? I am just glad the subject-heading strategy worked in this case.

Knowing how to use the subject heading can be rather useful. Thinking of synonyms for terms can also be helpful, although a search for book and binding or bookbinding would bring back more than 100 results. Again, once a person identifies a book that they think will match their information needs, they can look at the full record to view the subject headings available. Clicking on the subject heading may retrieve additional useful results.

Possible Assignments That Use Social Bookmarks

Using Social Bookmarking in the Classroom

Applying the CRAAP Test
Give an assignment to students, asking them to search online to answer a question about United States history (or whatever topic you choose). They might use Google, Yahoo, or any search engine of their choice. Have students create a Delicious account. Tell students to bookmark websites they feel will help them with their research. Assign students to groups of two or three and have the students look at the websites their classmates found, using the Delicious application. They could use the CRAAP Test to determine whether or not the websites were good ones: www.isu.edu/library/help/ineteval.htm. This activity develops evaluation skills and invites students to be more critical of websites.

Search with Delicious
Invite students to search within Delicious (http://delicious.com). In a history class, they might search “civil war.” They would then find websites that others had marked as bookmarks. Remember that the more a website is bookmarked, the greater its chances of being a reliable or useful site.

Worksheets with Delicious
Let students find answers to questions on a handout through the websites you have bookmarked and tagged. Bookmarks can be grouped into “Bundles,” so hints and reference to particular “Bundles” may assist students as they navigate your bookmarks to answer the questions on the handout. It is possible to create Delicious accounts specific to a class and separate from personal accounts. As far as I know, nobody has been limited in the number of Delicious accounts they create.

Find Five Websites for Your Project
Tell students to look for five websites that would be good for a particular research assignment. Then ask them to send these websites to your Delicious account. Do this by including the following tag: for:(+ account name.) Ex: for:sjardine. The saved websites go to your Delicious Inbox, identifying from whom they came.

College Reading Strategies

Today I taught a workshop in Idaho State University's Center for Teaching and Learning, which focused on reading strategies students can adopt to improve their reading skills. At the end of the workshop I encouraged participants to answer two questions as a form of feedback; in the future, I would like to improve the workshop. These questions come from Classroom Assessment Techniques by Tom Angelo and Patricia Cross.

Question 1: What was the most important thing you learned today?

• Exchange of ideas helps facilitate learning.
• It is important to address how to read efficiently.
• Most important thing is to be aware of what's going on in the world.
• The most important thing I learned was that I'm not the only one who has difficulty understanding text. I am glad there are suggestions on ways to improve problem areas.
• I am not the only one who struggles with this.
• Margin notes.
  

Question 2: What important question remains unanswered?

• How to get people to read.
• Reading technical material (math included) takes a different method. What is it?
• None.
• How do I know what is fluff?
• How do I know what the author wants me to really know?
• How do I apply all these tools?
  

Suggestions:

• Make the workshop longer.
• Talk more about how to complete process.
• More detail, examples of different strategies. I'm more of a visual learner and you could make the presentation longer--maybe do a series in a time frame.

It sounds like the participants learned something, which is always the objective of a workshop. A previous supervisor used to tell me that each workshop participant needs to come away with two or three practical things he/she can do that he/she didn't know how to do previously, or at least be able to do something better than they have previously been able to do it. It seems that participants should also come away with an increased desire to do the thing discussed and practiced in the workshop.

Looking at the answers to question two, a few left with more questions than they came with. One individual wrote down three challenging questions, and I would like to attempt to answer them the best I can. Before I do that, though, I would like to say that I agree with a few of the comments. People do tend to learn more easily in a setting that involves an exchange of ideas. Many teachers understand this and endeavor to invite participation to mixed results, for many different reasons. Recently, I heard a good reason why the think-pair-share method works. Most persons feel more comfortable testing their ideas out with one or two others before sharing them with a larger group. So, as long as teachers stand in front of a classroom, they act as authority figures, which causes students to hesitate, thinking that there's only one right answer for which the teacher is looking, which, admittedly, is true in some circumstances.

One positive result of this workshop was that a few learned that they are not the only people who struggle with reading. There are many texts of varying difficulties. With that said, it seems appropriate to say that with practice, reading becomes easier. The more a person reads in a discipline, the more likely they will understand the material. Of course, submersing oneself in different types of reading may advance learning more quickly than just reading in one area.

Now for those three questions.

How do I apply all these tools?
In the workshop, several handouts were given to the participants, and many different strategies for improving reading skills were offered. Not all strategies will work for every person, especially when you consider that individuals in different fields of expertise read and write differently. Participants need to look at the strategies and decide which ones they will try, then after a period of time they can begin to assess whether or not it works for them. The handout titled "Identifying the Problem" can streamline this process, because it suggests specific strategies for specific reading problems. Therefore, not all the tools should be adopted, rather individuals should select a few to start with and if they do not seem to do the trick, try some of the other ones.

How do I know what the author wants me to really know?
Sometimes authors use buzz words that indicate an important idea is coming up. Words like "therefore," "however," "additionally," "consequently," etc. might be considered as such signposts. Sometimes the most lucid authors will come right out and say upfront what their most important ideas are. Typically, authors like to say what's most important in their introductions and conclusion, yet there are many exceptions to this. Understanding the author's audience can really be useful in identifying what they are saying and why as can the context in which they are writing. Karl Marx wrote his "Communist Manifesto" in England during some of the ugliest times of the Industrial Revolution--the same time period in which Charles Dickens wrote many of his novels that painted scenes of poverty, debauchery, and the like.

One of the strategies in the handouts describes a mock interview with the author. With a classmate you might ask the author what he/she thought most important about the text in question. Sometimes activities like this really make the text come alive.

In the end it may be most relevant to ask yourself what you think is the most important thing for you to take away from the reading. Answering this question may open up vistas and increase your horizons, making the text relevant to you personally.

How do I know what is fluff?
I saved my favorite question for last. This question probably does not have any single answer, and it is one that I struggle with myself. With that said, I believe it is important to know your author. What are their credentials? Where did they go to school? What qualifies them to speak on the subject? Do they have relevant experience in that field of study? If the author is your neighbor down the street, do you trust their views over someone from Oxford University?

Do they back up their claims? If they do not give any supporting evidence or reasons, then this should pull up some red flags of warning for you. Along these same lines, what does their "Works Cited" or "Bibliography" look like? Some people privilege scholarly and professional sources over newspaper and non-scholarly sources.

Are they appealing to your emotions? What is their intent? Are they affiliated with a political organization of any kind? What is their agenda? We all need to be critical thinkers and not just accept everything on face value. On the internet you can find dozens of bogus website, claiming to give valid information. One such site claims that cats react differently to men with beards than to those who do not. A look at the bibliography reveals some of the sources to be Yul Brynner, Synead O'Conner, A. Schwarznegger, et al. Knowing who these individuals makes one want to start laughing, which is the purpose of the website. Notice some of the links on the right side of this blog, and you will see a few other examples of bogus sites.

According to popular tradition, the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, used to say "The unexamined life is not worth living." Asking questions begins the process of critical thinking, which may be the essential tool for identifying fluff from substantive argument. In fact many people fear that our younger generation, even the whole of our society, does not spend enough time reflecting on important questions. I believe that books can act as a vehicle to prompt meditation; only after we have ruminated on an issue will we know what we think. Writing also facilitates the process of thinking to a degree that few other activities will.

Forgive me for being a bit trite if I conclude this post with one of the biggest cliches of western civilization, and yet one of the most philosophically profound, "I think, therefore I am." Rene Descartes would have rendered it in the Latin: "Cogito, ergo sum." If people do less thinking, does that mean fewer people exist? To a certain extent, yes, they are not opening themselves to the multiple horizons of existence available to them--a richer, more fulfilling intellectual and social life. They may not be living a complete life.

Follow-up for MC 399

Note: the following post was one I found in draft form. I couldn't see a valid reason not to publish it, though it does seem a bit outdated.

After yesterday's class with the Mass Communications students, I reflected and felt that I should have shown the US Statistical Abstract rather than LexisNexis Statistical, and I should have shown LexisNexis Academic and pointed them to the News tab. I think they would have been able to find more relevant information for their assignment that way.

Also, after looking at Google Trends I am initially inclined to say this would be a good took for the students in MC 399 who are searching for trends. It provides graphs of searches individuals have conducted over time. It also shows which countries and cities have conducted the most searches on the words entered.

Thinking of relevant words for your search can be critical to finding the necessary information. In yesterday's class I don't think it ever occurred to me to use the word "trends" when helping a student try to answer the question: "How do 18-24 year olds use email today?" This may or may not be helpful; however, a search in Academic Search Complete yielded 109 results. Granted, once I limited the search to articles published in the last four years only 29 results appeared--Yet, this is indicative that email usage and popularity has waned substantially in the last four years.

Follow-up for MC 399

After yesterday's class with the Mass Communications students, I reflected and felt that I should have shown the US Statistical Abstract rather than LexisNexis Statistical, and I should have shown LexisNexis Academic and pointed them to the News tab. I think they would have been able to find more relevant information for their assignment that way.

Also, after looking at Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) I am initially inclined to say this would be a good tool for the students who are searching for trends. It provides graphs of searches individuals have conducted over time. It also shows which countries and cities have conducted the most searches on the words entered.

Thinking of relevant words for your search can be critical to finding the necessary information. In yesterday's class I don't think it ever occurred to me to use the word "trends" when helping a student try to answer the question: "How to 18-24 year olds use email today?" This may or may not be helpful; however, a search in Academic Search Complete yielded 109 results. Granted, once I limited the search to articles published in the last four years only 29 results appeared--Yet, this is indicative that email usage and popularity has waned substantially in the last four years.