Supporting early undergraduate students: Using video to introduce critical reading skills in scaffolded information literacy instruction

Abstract

Students’ ability to develop transferable skills, such as those that correspond to information literacy (IL) and writing, is an expectation and trend that continues to gain momentum within higher education. To support this initiative, librarians at the University of Manitoba embraced a scaffolded instructional approach; a technique where outcomes are deconstructed and content is presented in “building complexity towards the final deliverable” (Lowe, Stone, Booth & Tagge, 2016, p. 127). IL scaffolding begins with a session on critical reading and addresses more traditional topics such as searching and citing later in the term. Although library instruction tends to emphasize “one-shot” teaching, the authors’ anecdotal evidence suggests that a multi-session approach is a better fit. Furthermore, they identified critical reading as a gap in instruction for first-year students. By using a YouTube video, librarians introduce critical reading in a familiar context, described in this chapter. The exercise can be used across various disciplines and class sizes, and has been delivered most often in Humanities and Social Science courses by the authors. Material under a CC BY-NC-ND license.