Painter’s taPe
Pedagogy
Three information literacy instruction sessions using active learning techniques
(and markers, crayons, bright paper, and painter’s tape)
Lauren Wallis
Reference & Instruction Librarian

Class:
Children’s literature – English 310
Assignment:
Annotated Bibliography

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy Activity:
In groups, build a concept map related to
a selected topic (The prof had a list for
them to choose from, so I gave each
group a topic from the list)

IL Standard 1.1: Define and articulate
the need for information
Student Learning Outcome: Identify key
terms related to a research topic

Time: 25-30 minutes
Additional Class Activities:
Use search terms to find
articles in ERIC and MLA

Required Prep:
• Print and cut out large,
medium, and small
bubbles for five groups
• Make example
• Set up five group
stations with bubbles,
painter’s tape, and
markers/crayons

How it went:
Very well!
Students engaged in
productive smallgroup discussions
and were excited to
share their maps
with the class.
I did this activity
with two classes.
One was much more
worried about
“doing it right” than
the other. I had to
encourage them not
to overthink it.

Potential Improvement:
Better connection
between this activity and
database searching.
In the second part of
class I demonstrated
searches in MLA and ERIC
using the terms they had
generated, but I wish I
had made it more
interactive.
If I do this activity again, I
will cut down on my
demo time and ask
groups to share their
search processes with the
entire class.

Class:
English 102 - Composition II
Assignment:
Annotated Bibliography

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy (Mini) Activity:
Groups solve Citation Puzzles

IL Standard 5.3:
Acknowledge the use of
information sources
Student Learning Outcome:
Arrange different kinds of
MLA citations in the
correct order

Time: 5 minutes
Additional Class Activities:
• Discuss generating
search terms and
searching in MLA
International
Bibliography
• Students locate an
article in MLA, generate
a citation, use it to help
them with their Citation
Puzzle, and add the
citation to a Class Works
Cited (shared Google
Doc).

Required Prep:
• Select five different
types of articles
• Create citation puzzles
for each citation

How it went:
A little rough
Students more or less tolerated
the activity, but they weren’t
especially exCITEd (har har har)
or engaged.
Potential Improvements:
Students seemed surprised and
intimidated by how much they
had to “do” in the class session.
I think they might have needed
more traditional, hands-on
help with using MLA
International Bibliography.

Class:
Public Speaking – Communications 330
Assignments:
Speeches throughout the semester

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy Activity 1:
The Continuum of Trustworthiness
Groups are given different resources
(some library, some web-based). They
decide where to place their resource
between “Not Trustworthy” and
“Extremely Trustworthy”

Painter’s Tape Pedagogy Activity 2:
Groups find a board with a picture of
their resource. They decide:
• Who is the audience?
• What is the purpose?

IL Standard 3.2: Articulate and apply
initial criteria for evaluating both
information and its sources.
Student Learning Outcome:
Examine and compare information
from various sources in order to
evaluate reliability, validity, accuracy,
authority, timeliness, and point of
view.

Time: 30 minutes
Additional Class Activities:
• Brief “Research Pro Tips”
slideshow
• Groups use their resource to
find an article
• Groups evaluate the credibility
of the specific source they
found. They write up their
evaluation on a slide in the
presentation (a shared Google
Presentation)
• Groups come to the front to
discuss their evaluation and
share how they found their
source.

Required Prep:
• Make sheets for each resource
• Set up Continuum of Trustworthiness
• Set up one white board per group
with guiding questions

How it went:
Very well!
Students were engaged
and talkative, especially
when each group
discussed their
whiteboard questions.

Potential Improvement:
More time
(or less activities)
We were rushed at the
end to write up
evaluations of the
specific sources and
share with the class.
This would have worked
better with two class
sessions—the first for the
whiteboard activity and
the second for finding
specific sources,
evaluating them, and
sharing with the class.