Identifying Scholarly Sources
This activity can be used for one-shot sessions or credit-bearing courses
Set-Up
In a credit-bearing course, you may want to assign homework outside of class that describes the characteristics of a scholarly source so that students will be prepared for the lesson in class.
For a one-shot session, confirm with the course instructor whether he or she has reviewed what a scholarly source is in class. If the instructor hasn't yet introduced this concept, you can create a handout or give a brief lecture on characteristics of scholarly sources at the beginning of the lesson.
Upper level students who already have some familiarity with scholarly sources may benefit from an activity where they create a list of characteristics themselves and you write the items they come up with on the board.
Significant Problem
If finding articles from scholarly sources is part of the assignment the students will be working on, spending time as part of a one-shot lesson or credit course on how to identify scholarly sources will be significant to the students, whether they are first year students learning this information for the first time or upper level students who may be in need of review.
Same Problem
Specific Choice
Ask the groups to decide based on their knowledge about scholarly articles whether "Article A" or "Article B" is from a scholarly source.
Tip #1: If your audience is made up of less experienced students, make the choice between "A" and "B" one that would be obvious to a trained eye but less obvious to a novice.
Tip #2: If your audience is upper level students, make the choice between "A" and "B" harder.
Simultaneous Reporting
Tip#3: If there are differences between what the groups came up with, have one group that chose "A" explain why they chose that article and then have one group that chose "B" explain their choice.
Tip #4: If all the groups came up with the same answer, ask one group for one clue from the record that led to their conclusion. Ask the next group for another clue and continue with each group until you receive no more responses.
Once the groups have discussed their choices, reveal the correct answer and explain why this is the correct answer.
Follow-Up
Use more examples or demonstrate to students how to use a database to find scholarly articles and ask them to find a scholarly article on the example topic or the topic they need to work on for class.
Set-Up
In a credit-bearing course, you may want to assign homework outside of class that describes the characteristics of a scholarly source so that students will be prepared for the lesson in class.
For a one-shot session, confirm with the course instructor whether he or she has reviewed what a scholarly source is in class. If the instructor hasn't yet introduced this concept, you can create a handout or give a brief lecture on characteristics of scholarly sources at the beginning of the lesson.
Upper level students who already have some familiarity with scholarly sources may benefit from an activity where they create a list of characteristics themselves and you write the items they come up with on the board.
Significant Problem
If finding articles from scholarly sources is part of the assignment the students will be working on, spending time as part of a one-shot lesson or credit course on how to identify scholarly sources will be significant to the students, whether they are first year students learning this information for the first time or upper level students who may be in need of review.
Same Problem
- For this activity, find and print out the database records for two articles on an example research topic, related to their assignment, if possible.
- One article should be from a scholarly, peer-reviewed source and one should be from a non-scholarly source.
- The database records should show information such as the title of the article, title of the journal, length of the article, year of publication, and abstract.
- Print out one copy of each per group. Label the printouts "A" and "B."
- Give the printouts to the groups.
Specific Choice
Ask the groups to decide based on their knowledge about scholarly articles whether "Article A" or "Article B" is from a scholarly source.
Tip #1: If your audience is made up of less experienced students, make the choice between "A" and "B" one that would be obvious to a trained eye but less obvious to a novice.
Tip #2: If your audience is upper level students, make the choice between "A" and "B" harder.
Simultaneous Reporting
- Each group should record their choice ("A" or "B") on a mini marker board, a piece of scrap paper, or some other means.
- When the groups are done discussing, ask the groups to hold up their marker boards (or similar) at the same time.
- Do not give away the correct answer just yet.
Tip#3: If there are differences between what the groups came up with, have one group that chose "A" explain why they chose that article and then have one group that chose "B" explain their choice.
Tip #4: If all the groups came up with the same answer, ask one group for one clue from the record that led to their conclusion. Ask the next group for another clue and continue with each group until you receive no more responses.
Once the groups have discussed their choices, reveal the correct answer and explain why this is the correct answer.
Follow-Up
Use more examples or demonstrate to students how to use a database to find scholarly articles and ask them to find a scholarly article on the example topic or the topic they need to work on for class.