Using American Idol to teach IL in "Evaluating Resources - You be the Judge!"

Last week I taught my 4th library session to a class of Composition students. These student are all at very beginning levels in their college career and so I knew I needed to make a lesson that would be interesting, timely, useful, and something not too complex. I also knew that if I went in to class giving students a list of criteria and telling them to use it when they write their papers, they would probably all stare at their computers, possibly fall asleep, and forget about anything I had told them. To make it interesting, I decided to turn the Info Lit session into a fun activity using American Idol as my theme. Since what the students had to do with evaluating resources is a little like judging a contestant in American Idol, I figured that I could spice up the lesson a bit with some fun pop culture references.

First, we discussed how students evaluate the information they read. We talked about different situations where evaluating information is very important, for instance if you are a medical doctor deciding how to perform a surgery. We also discussed some different types of information (books, journals, magazines) and how we might evaluate each type a little differently. I gave students a handout with some information and criteria outlined for evaluating books, periodicals, and websites. Then came the fun part. Judging some real resources - American Idol style.

For our practice evaluations I dealt only with websites for several reasons. First, it was what most students were using for their upcoming paper assignments. Second, because any of the books students were using available from the library were more or less "good" sources. Third, websites are often the most challenging sources of information to evaluate because of their nature. Websites can be particularly challenging when evaluating them for their authority, currency, point-of-view, bias, accuracy, and content.

I gave students a sample assignment to work on. I told them that to pretend that they were all health students putting together a brochure on nutrition for people who are overweight. I then chose 3 people to be the judges (Simon, Paula, and Randy) and had the rest of the class act as the audience. The judges were to use specific criteria in order to decide whether or not the websites I had given them were right for the "show" and "going to Hollywood." I told students that just like when they have different themed nights on American Idol, we need to evaluate using criteria specific to the situation.

Students used a chart I had given them in their handout to critique and evaluate each website for the class. I then gave the audience members a chance to chime in and say whether they agreed. Two of the websites I used included The Onion and the Beef Nutrition Council. Students really enjoyed looking at these two sites and evaluating the information they contained. They quickly picked up on the sarcastic tone of The Onion and the point of view held by the Beef Nutrition Council. I was also happy to see that students were actively participating and paying attention, probably due in part to the pop culture elements contained in the lesson. Overall the students did quite well in determining evaluative criteria and using that criteria to better understand the source.