BEAM is a schema for categorizing the rhetorical positions of authors according to the author's intention or purpose of the information. This Innovative Practices piece critiques common methods of teaching source evaluation and proposes that instruction librarians teach BEAM to students who may struggle using a source once they have located it. A…

School librarians have always been teachers, even before the term "teacher-librarian" was coined. They teach every time they help students select books, locate and evaluate resources for research projects, or troubleshoot a computer problem. When they assist students, they explain and model the steps they are taking. Teaching for school librarians…

School librarians play numerous roles throughout a day. They are information specialists who keep up with the constant changes in information and technology. It is important for them to keep students up-to-date and teach them to use technology properly. Gaming and technology are both important concepts for 21st-century school librarians to…

This article presents K-12 motivational strategies that focus on different ideas school library media specialists can use to gain and sustain attention in the research topic. Some have come from recent submissions to the S.O.S. database of lesson plans and teaching ideas. A student-directed searching activity for college level library instruction…

Outlines a lesson plan used by an academic library to evaluate the quality of World Wide Web information. Discusses the traditional evaluation criteria of accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage as it applies to the unique characteristics of Web pages: their marketing orientation, variety of information, and instability. The…

Information skills instruction is a fundamental and vital part of K-12 education in the 21st century. "The Handy 5", a proven effective model for planning, teaching, and assessing information skills instruction, was written to help library media specialists and teachers to collaborate more effectively in the teaching of information skills. This…

Proposes a new type of collaboration between academic librarians and ESL (English as second language) instructors where the instructor teaches the course after collaborating to match information literacy and ESL objectives and build them into the ESL curriculum. Discusses library instruction and the new course design, and provides sample lesson…

Discusses "Information Literacy Standards" for school library media specialists that were included in the 1998 edition of "Information Power" and presents a lesson plan for middle school students on global warming that focuses on the standard addressing perspective, or point of view, and incorporates an information process…

To help students understand that references are tools used to locate specific information, one librarian has her third-grade students create their own reference toolboxes as she introduces dictionaries, atlases, encyclopedias, and thesauri. Presents a lesson plan to introduce print and nonprint thesauri to third and fourth graders and includes a…

A school librarian presents a plan for teaching Internet skills to all students. The lesson, taught to eighth-grade students, involved three class sessions, two homework assignments, and one written project. Goals and procedures are outlined for the two assignments described. (AEF)

Discussion of critical thinking skills focuses on the academic library's role in teaching critical thinking skills based on experiences with a library resources course at Louisiana State University. Teaching techniques are discussed, sample lessons are described, and evaluation of students' research papers and student retention of skills are…

Discusses advantages of learning Latin, including enriching vocabulary and higher verbal test scores on the SATs; describes extracurricular activities based on Latin; and includes a lesson plan for library media specialists, suitable for intermediate grades whose curriculum includes ancient Roman life, that integrates language arts and social…