1. Developing the Writing-Information Literacy Nexus: results of a 3-year Illinois Wesleyan Mellon grant Dr. Joel Haefner Writing Center Director and Lecturer in Computer Science Chris Sweet Information Literacy Librarian Illinois Wesleyan University

2. Grants to departments to develop IL/Writing curricular documents In keeping with one of these initiatives, this workshop has the following goals: To help faculty articulate departmental learning goals for writing in their disciplines or for information literacy, wherever their starting point To help faculty analyze their students' writing as a basis for creating, testing, or revising these goals To help faculty develop ideas about how to integrate these goals into their department’s curriculum

3. Example: Economics Rubric

4. Criterion 1. Originality emergingdevelopingmastering 123456 The work is derivative, predictable, and lacking in variety. It does not rise above clichés of thought or language. It reads as if it is merely the result of an assignment or exercise rather than the expression of an artistic vision. The work reflects moments of inventiveness but may also include elements that are clichéd or expected. It evinces efforts toward originality but the results are uneven. The work is inventive, ambitious, artful, and provocative. It takes risks and challenges expectations. Criterion 3. Shape emergingdevelopingmastering 123456 The work is shapeless, lacking the tension that creates momentum or a dramatic arc. It may summarize rather than creating scenes or sensory imagery. It merely fills a form rather than using one to fulfill a purpose. The work has an evident but unsubtle design, or displays an awareness of structure but is not able to realize that structure fully or consistently. The work’s movement toward closure may be reductive or abrupt. The work's form embodies its meaning. It deploys structural maneuvers (such as scene, lineation, juxtaposition, turns, sequence, etc.) to create a sense of movement and purposeful unfolding.

5. WID grants for new or revised upper-level classes The goal of these grants is to encourage the creation of a curriculum that introduces students to the requisites of writing in their disciplines (200 level and above) and equips them with the skills to engage with scholarly resources in an informed and meaningful way. The course may have a WI flag, but this is not a requirement. Grants for new courses will be awarded in the amount of $4500 ($3000 to the teaching faculty member and $1500 to the library faculty member). Grants for substantially revised courses will be awarded in the amount of $3000 ($2000 to the teaching faculty member and $1000 to the library faculty member.)

7. Small Grants for Assignments Micro-grants to support revising or creating a writing assignment Partnerships between faculty ($500) and librarians ($250) Encourages scaffolding and sequential assignments Reinforces the development of information literacy in conjunction with writing

8. The current format of the N360: Child and Adolescent Nursing course does not include a writing assignment. Students participate in a variety of in-class activities (e.g., student presentations, didactic lectures, case studies) during two-hour class periods that meet once or twice a week throughout the semester. The students are also involved in clinical groups which meet for six hours once a week. Clinical settings include hospitals, outpatient clinics, and schools. Students also participate in multiple lab module assignments throughout the course of the semester. Modules correspond to topics covered in class and the due dates of the assignments are dispersed accordingly. The inclusion of a writing assignment in N360 will allow integration of university writing outcomes into the course including the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and the culture of writing within the nursing program. The ability to express knowledge through the written word is an integral part of a liberal education. While other nursing courses within the nursing curriculum utilize writing assignments, this is the first assignment of its kind to focus on a uniting assignment tied to direct patient care experiences and will foster the development of scientific writing earlier in the nursing curriculum. An assignment proposal for Child and Adolescent Nursing

9. Training Tutors & Writing Associates in Information Literacy Special in-service or training sessions for veteran/incoming tutors & writing associates Faculty in English, Education, Psychology present examples of best writing in their disciplines and writing assignments from their classes Liaison librarians instruct students in searching discipline-specific databases Tutors then analyze student writing samples using BEAM taxonomy

10. Research Project: the intersection of the composing and the information seeking processes Andrew Asher, anthropologist Joel Haefner, Writing Center Director Chris Sweet, Info Lit Librarian

11. Research Need Composing Process has been well- documented, starting with Imig Information seeking process has also been studied, including ethnographic study by Asher at IWU But how do these two processes interact when students draft their papers?

12. Data Source & Methodology Sample: students from Haefner’s Cyberethics class, a Writing Intensive sophomore-level class. A late assignment called for a position paper on various cyber privacy scenarios; included a “Discovery Statement”, a “Composing Process” statement, a prospectus, a rough draft, and a final draft. Students volunteered, and were paid a small stipend. 10 completed the data collection.

13. Data Source & Methodology (cont.) In addition to texts, Using Snag-It software, we recorded students’ keystrokes in two instances: As students searched for required information/sources; As students used those sources in their drafts A debriefing interview where students talked about their search and composing processes

14. Data Analysis Analysis is in process… Using Nvivo software, a qualitative data research tool which basically creates metadata which is queryable Applying Joe Bizup’s BEAM schema to analyze the rhetorical applications of information in student texts

15. Screen Capture from Student at work

16. NVivo Analysis of student search

17. Screenshot of student incorporating source

20. Meaningful Integration of Information Literacy through Collaborative Course and Assignment Design Chris Sweet Illinois Wesleyan University Information Literacy Librarian

21. What are some common assignment & instruction problems that drive librarians nuts? ● Find and copy a print journal article ● Scavenger hunts for library stuff ● I want them to know how to do academic research, but they don’t really need it for this class.

22. Turnabout is fair play... What are some common disconnects between disciplinary faculty and librarians regarding assignment design and library instruction?

23. Faculty-Librarian Disconnects ● Students must find and then evaluate everything ever written on a given topic and then only use the best three sources. ● The primary pedagogical goals of an assignment are usually not to teach research skills or information literacy. ● How students synthesize and interpret evidence within a paper is often more important than the information itself.

24. And another thing... “I don’t have any time for information literacy in this course because I have so much disciplinary content to cover.”

25. What Happens When Assignments and Courses are Collaboratively Designed? ● Information literacy becomes a natural fit that enhances the course, rather than an add-on ● IL becomes more of a shared responsibility between instructor and librarian ● Course and assignment design flows from course learning outcomes

26. Example of a New Course and Course Revision I was Involved with Senior Seminar and SOC 350: Advanced Race and Ethnic Relations ● Lit Review: Issues and Solutions o Concept Mapping Workshop ● National Information Literacy Standards for Anthropology and Sociology Students

27. Lit Review Concept Mapping

28. Assessment: Student Reflection Papers ● Active revision of their thesis and argument through engagement with the literature o “I decided to switch my thesis back to my original idea. I feel that I found sufficient evidence to support my claim and used the evidence that supported my antithesis to provide arguments to further what I believed.” o “I knew immediately what my topic was going to be. What I did not know was how my research and the material we learned throughout this course would shape the topic and add to and change my ideas about interracial relationships.”

29. Assessment: Student Reflection Papers Window into student research process, and how it was enhanced “I realized that I would have to push myself not to use search engine such as Google. This was a challenge for me because this is the first time in my college career that I had to depend entirely on databases, which is a sad story in itself.” ● “This time the research drove my paper.”

30. Faculty Feedback from other collaborative grants “The collaboration has allowed us to explore texts in the field of information literacy and how information literacy connects with K-12 classrooms. This content has not specifically been included in teacher preparation up until this point. The design of the course allows for a more constructivist approach, and the library is crucial for allowing this approach to unfold.” -Ed Studies Faculty Member

31. Faculty Feedback from other collaborative grants “Through this experience I developed a deeper understanding of the professor’s expectations for the course and related assignments, a much better sense of why students struggle when conducting research for literary analysis assignments, and a heightened clarity of the ways in which students have difficulty with essential aspects of the research process.” -Library Faculty Member

32. This sounds well and good in theory, but what about stepping on toes? ● Instruction Session Planning (discuss course and assignment goals first) ● Instruction/Assignment follow-ups. Are they getting the results they want? Faculty instruction feedback forms. ● After multiple iterations of an instruction section

33. How can you do something like this without external funding?

34. Where do we go from here? o More deliberate sequencing of IL instruction throughout the major. o Development of disciplinary Info Lit and writing outcomes for each major and program o Find a way to sustain a few of the collaborative grants

35. Thank you! ● Joel Haefner jhaefner@iwu.edujhaefner@iwu.edu ● Chris Sweet csweet@iwu.educsweet@iwu.edu ● Examples of our CFPs and Exemplary Proposals can be found here: https://www.iwu.edu/writing/Mellon- Grant/mellon-grant.htmlhttps://www.iwu.edu/writing/Mellon- Grant/mellon-grant.html