Library Instruction and IL in the Writing Program

Here is a description of the Associates of Arts Oregon Transfer. 

Appendix E contains the outcomes and criteria for transferable general education courses in Oregon, including a description about why the AAOT was revised.

From Appendix E above:

Writing

Outcomes

As a result of completing the General Education Writing sequence, a student should be able to:

• Read actively, think critically, and write purposefully and capably for academic and, in some cases, professional audiences;
• Locate, evaluate, and ethically utilize information to communicate effectively; and
• Demonstrate appropriate reasoning in response to complex issues.

Criteria

A course in Writing should:

1. Create a learning environment that fosters respectful and free exchange of ideas.
2. Include college-level readings that challenge students and require the analysis of complex ideas.
3. Provide guided discussion and model practices that help students listen to, reflect upon, and respond to others’ ideas.
4. Foster students’ ability to summarize and respond in writing to ideas generated by reading and discussion.
5. Require a substantial amount of formal and informal writing.
6. Emphasize writing as a recursive process of productive revision that results in complete, polished texts appropriate to audience needs and rhetorical situations.
7. Foreground the importance of focus, organization, and logical development of written work.
8. Guide students to reflect on their own writing, to provide feedback on peers’ drafts, and to respond to peer and instructor comments.
9. Direct students to craft clear sentences and to recognize and apply the conventions of Edited Standard Written English.
10. Provide students with practice summarizing, paraphrasing, analyzing, synthesizing, and citing sources using a conventional documentation system.
11. Require appropriate technologies in the service of writing and learning.

Information Literacy

Information Literacy outcomes and criteria will be embedded in the Writing Foundational Requirements courses.

Outcomes

As a result of taking General Education Writing courses infused with Information Literacy, a student who successfully completes should be able to:

• Formulate a problem statement;
• Determine the nature and extent of the information needed to address the problem;
• Access relevant information effectively and efficiently;
• Evaluate information and its source critically; and
• Understand many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information.

Criteria

A Writing course infused with Information Literacy should include:

1. Instruction and practice in identifying gaps in knowledge and recognizing when information is needed.
2. Instruction and practice in finding information efficiently and effectively, using appropriate research tools and search strategies.
3. Instruction and practice in evaluating and selecting information using appropriate criteria.
4. Instruction and practice in research strategies that are recursive and involve multiple stages such as modification of the original strategy and revision of the topic.
5. Instruction and practice in the ethical and legal use of information and information technologies.
6. Instruction and practice in creating, producing, and communicating understanding of a subject through synthesis of relevant information.