Instructional Design in the Elementary Library

A Comparison of Three Models

By Carol Fazioli

The Models

Big Six

USER Model

Backward Design

Why these three?Library instruction, or information literacy,while sharing many similarities with other disciplines, is unique in other aspects.

The content of much, if not most library instruction is how to find information itself. Therefore, emphasis is placed on activities that enable students to practice finding, and often presenting, that information.

Therefore . . . .

It’s important to investigate models that have relevance to library instruction.

As we examine the three models, we will discover that each either grew out of a need for models of instructional design or can be readily applied to information literacy educational settings.

The Big 6

In a nutshell, the Big 6 is comprised of six steps—

Task Definition Information Seeking Strategies Location of Information Use of Information Synthesis Evaluation

How does it work?

Essentially, the Big 6 allows librarians and teachers to guide students through the process of determining what they need, discovering what they are looking and where to find it, creating something useful from the information and then self-reflecting on both the process and product.

Why use it?

As a model of ID, librarians can use the Big 6 to help their students systematically work through a research question.

Whether it’s a basic report on endangered animals or a critical analysis of two American poets, the Big 6 model allows users a step by step guide to understanding what they want to know, how they will find it, and how they will use it.

Librarians who follow this instructional model transfer these skills for future use—it becomes a model for the student to follow in the future. The earlier it’s introduced, the easier research becomes.

USER

USER is the creation of Char Booth, a librarian at Claremont College.

In 2010, she outlined this method in American Libraries: Build your Own Instructional Literacy. In this article, Booth praises ID methods, but laments that many do not address the needs of librarians, hence, she came up with one herself.

So, USER has been created by a librarian in response to library instruction, with the goal of information literacy central to the model.

Usefulness of USER

USER’s four parts, which Booth asserts can be entered at any point for any purpose, are comprised of

Understand (What do you need?) Structure (What is your goal and how will

you achieve it?) Engage (How will you instruct and what

will students do to assist learning?) Reflect (How will you assess if goal has

been met?)

What Does USER Look Like?

Usefulness of USER

USER’s four parts, which Booth asserts can be entered at any point for any purpose, are comprised of:

Understand (What do you need?) Structure (What is your goal and how will

you achieve it?) Engage (How will you instruct and what

will students do to assist learning?) Reflect (How will you assess if goal has

been met?)

Backward Design

The Backward Design term was coined by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins in their seminal book Understanding by Design.

Essentially, BW is a concise version of the ADDIE design. If in ADDIE, evaluation comes last in the design process, in BW, it takes the forefront of planning,

Last to First . . .And in Between

In the BD design model, the user first asks “What is my goal? What are my students learning?

Then asks, “How will I know they have reached the learning objective?”

Finally, they ask, “How will I help them get there?”

BD in the Library?

Since information literacy as content most often stresses the search and discovery of information (fact, opinion, support, etc), BD lends itself to an ID for librarians. The goal of the task takes the lead.

Working with this model, a librarian can focus on the learning objective and tailor the lesson around that objective.

How Do They Compare?

Big 6 and USER—created by librarians and are a natural fit for libraries.

Big 6 and BD—linear in nature, one step must follow the other in order for model to be most useful. USER has a circular nature and its creator encourages

users to jump in and out of the cycle as necessary.

More Points of Comparison

USER makes the most use of formative assessment, encouraging assessment at the Understand, Structure and Engage stage, with summative assessment during the Reflect stage.

BD and the Big 6 appear to be more concerned with summative assessment only, especially backward design, which starts with the learning objective and works backwards.

Although the Big 6 can be considered an ID model because it provides a structure for driving instructional delivery and assessment, it is unique among the three in that it is, at its core, a strategy that any user can employ to gather, process and present information.

Which is most useful to an elementary librarian?

After examining all three, I would choose to utilize USER. Although it was designed with college libraries in mind, the elements are all key to designing instruction at any level.

It is flexible and its parts can be used individually, as necessary.

The Big 6 model can actually be embedded into a lesson designed around the USER model.

BD principles are still relevant in that the focus on the end result is always something that should be at the core of teaching—what do we want our students to know/do/accomplish.