Practically Speaking:
Teaching Tips for Information Literacy Instruction

What are your favorite teaching techniques? This is the place to share your hints, tips and ideas for effective information literacy instruction. Some of Joan’s ideas are included to start things off. If you have comments on these tips or wish to share some of your own, please Contact Joan.

Hook ‘em in or Soak ‘em Up –
How to get learners attention in the crucial first 5 minutes

You can win or lose your audience in the first five minutes. So it is important to engage and involve learners from the get go. Plan a hook, sponge or “go” activity for people to “soak” people up as they arrive and immediately make them part of the learning process For example you could:

Using a sponge activity sets the tone for your instruction, and lets people know that you care about what they think. It creates a learner-centered atmosphere from the start and shows that you are serious about sharing the responsibility for learning with your learners.

Less is More – The Three-tiered Outline Approach

Worried that you will run out of time when you are planning your instructional session? Remember the “less is more” rule. Try to concentrate on the most important things you want learners to take away with them. There is so much to share and often so little time to share it. We want to include everything we think they might need – especially if we think this is the only time we may work with these particular learners

To deal with this problem try the three-tier approach to outlining or notes preparation. Once you have prepared your outline and/or notes, try to break your material into three levels. The first level contains the crucial material you feel the learners absolutely need to know. The second level has the “it would be nice if I could get it in” stuff. The third level contains the bonus information or “bells and whistles” stuff that the learners really do not need to know but might be of some interest to them.

Designate the levels in some fashion. For example you could highlight the notes, using three different colors, to indicate the three levels. Include timing notations on your outline to indicate when you need to move on to the next segment. Add or skip over material as you go based on how you are doing time-wise. Make sure you have a clock or watch with you so you can keep track. The more you practice this technique, the better you will get at judging how much material will “fit” into a given timeframe.

Take it Easy – Dealing with Stage Fright

Does working in a face-to-face group instructional setting or teaching in front of a camera make you anxious? That is not surprising as most people rank public speaking as their number one fear – even higher than death. Novice and experienced instructors alike can get the jitters before teaching. Whether you are in the same room with your learners, being filmed, or having your voice recorded, you will probably experience some measure of nervousness. There is nothing wrong with that. Being nervous means you care and want to do your best.

However, you don’t want your “nerves” to get the best of you. Learning some basic relaxation techniques can help. Do some stretching before you have to “perform.” Try rotating your neck, raising and lowering your shoulders, and shaking your arms and hands. Do not forget to warm up your voice by humming or sub-vocalizing.

Pay special attention to your breathing. Yoga breathing exercises can be very helpful. Try to monitor your breathing. Take deep, slow breathes from your belly rather than shallow ones from your chest. Shallow, quick chest breathing can reduce oxygen intake and actually increase your anxiety. Slow down your breathing rate by increasing the length of your inhales and exhales. Try counting to ten as you breath in and again as you breath out. You should feel calmer after a few of these longer, deeper breathes.

Some simple yoga stretches can also help. My two-minute yoga routine can be used as a warm-up before teaching. You can also use it as a stretch break for your learners during multi-hour sessions.