10 Springboards to Inquiry LEARNING TO LEARN: FOCUS QUESTIONS SUPPORTING INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING As you examine the PowerVerbs in all the new standards, you may be asking, “how can I embrace all these instructional pieces?” The answer is via inquiry-based learning. Inquiry is a life skill and offers us a platform to teach problem solving, investigation, and speaking with evidence. Inquiry provides us the opportunity to embed information literacy principles into our library activities via applied learning. To ensure that we are graduating “information literate” students, it may help to scaffold basic compe- tencies at certain grade levels. That way, you have information literacy learning goals for each grade level. Do you specifically have skills that you are embedding into your research projects? Just as an ELA curric- ulum would scaffold its research and writing development from “animal report” to “senior thesis,” library departments should scaffold information literacy and research skills into our instruction. The focus questions that follow are simple learning objectives and sample competencies to consider that embrace information literacy principles. If your instructional goals include graduating students who are ready for 21st-century learning, here are some basic grade-level objectives meant to build information literacy. The lessons in this book provide opportunities for you to teach these skills. Handouts in Appendix D provide examples of how these principles can be embedded into your inquiry projects.
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