Skip to Main Content

First Year Seminar for Instructors

This guide is intended to support FYS instructors. For the student research guide, visit hood.libguides.com/fys.

About FYS Information Literacy Instruction

You'll schedule two instruction sessions with the library's Research & Instruction team. Below you'll find learning outcomes, scheduling information, and a sample lesson plan for each of those sessions. These lesson plans are starting points; we are more than happy to tailor these to the unique needs of your students, the research assignment, or the subject matter of your class. The better we're able to communicate and collaborate with you, the more effective library instruction can be for your students. 

Our teaching is informed by the six frames identified in the Association of College and Research Libraries' Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education and articulated in more depth in our scaffolded learning outcomes.

Library Instruction Session #1: Library Orientation/Evaluating Sources

This session typically takes place before students begin their research project.  

Students will be able to:

  • describe resources, services, and procedures in Hood's library, both online and in person (SLO 2) 
  • explain the difference between open resources and paywalled resources (SLO 1.2)
  • identify differences between various source types (including peer-reviewed scholarly sources, magazine articles, news, blogs, podcasts, and more)  (SLO 1.3)
  • apply lateral reading techniques to do basic fact-checking of online sources (SLO 1.3)
  • evaluate sources depending on information need and context  (SLO 1.3)

Link to full sample lesson plan for Session #1: FYS Session 1 Lesson Plan

Relevant Vocabulary: peer-reviewed article, lateral reading, stacks, database, paywall

Library Instruction Session #2: Refining Research Question/Search Strategies

This session typically takes place after students have been given the research skills assignment and have ideas for their topics.  These sessions also function as workshops for students to try out new research strategies to work on their projects.

Students will:

  • identify characteristics of a good research question with an appropriate scope (SLO 1.1)
  • brainstorm additional avenues of inquiry to refine their research question and create search terms (SLOs 1.1 and 1.2)
  • apply various strategies to library database searches (SLO 1.2)
  • describe uses of bibliographies, including citation chaining to enter a scholarly conversation about a topic (1.2 and 1.4)

Link to full sample lesson plan for Session #2: FYS Session 2 Lesson Plan

Relevant Vocabulary: controlled vocabulary, natural language, database, search strategy, research question