An aside note about a book I have just reviewed

I just posted an excerpt of this note in the blog "And then the Archivist came to class..."  I am re-posting it here because the content is very relevant to building session examples.

When it comes time to build new sessions, one book will be most helpful--Hands-On Information Literacy Activities by Jane Birks and Fiona Hunt, published in 2003 by Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. This book is accompanied by a CD-ROM of worksheets and activity supplements.

The book itself provides 20 step-by-step examples of activities in the form of games, assessments/reviews of sources, and core activities.

• The "games" section reminds me of an example I have used with grade 7 students. I printed off several types of primary and secondary sources on individual sheets, distributed them to the class, and asked the students to paste their source in either the primary or secondary column drawn on a flip chart. I didn't only use "traditional" sources; I included things like an x-box game and the programming code to build that game.
• The "assessment" section caused me to think about building exercises to demonstrate how to use a finding aid and databases of digital collections. I also need to think about building into my sessions opportunities for students to learn how to ask for records and explain how I can mediate the research process in a way that makes sense to them.
• The "core activities" section demonstrates how the examples can be layered to build a progressive learning session using games and assessment exercises. Is there a way to create a mock-up session that demonstrates the reference and research processes? I am certain that there is.