Fantasy Football Lesson Plan

This Friday our information literacy program will be doing an orientation session for 70 incoming freshmen football players. Here is the draft of the lesson, feedback or comments are welcome.

Topic: Information Literacy Skills in Fantasy Football
ACRL Information Literacy Learning Objectives:
1.1.a. Participates in class discussions
1.2.c. Identifies the value and differences of potential resources in a variety of formats (print vs. online)
1.2.f. Construct information with raw data from primary sources

2.2.b. Identify keywords, synonyms and related terms for the information needed
2.4.a. Assess the quantity, quality, and relevance of the search results to determine whether alternative methods should be utilized
2.5.d. Record all pertinent citation information

3.2.a. Examine and compare information from various sources in order to evaluate reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view or bias
3.2.c. Recognize prejudice within information
3.4.a. Determine whether information satisfies the research or if additional information need
3.4.c. Draw conclusions based upon information gathered
3.4.f. Integrate new information with previous information or knowledge
3.6.a. Participate in classroom and other discussions

5.1.b. Identify and discuss issues related to free vs. fee-based access to information

Required Knowledge:
Basic understanding of football positions, detailed understanding of terminology and strategies not required.

Materials Needed:
Computer lab with internet access (lesson could be modified to teach off line with handouts)

Sequence of Instruction:
1.) Introduce the session and determine class's experience or awareness of fantasy football
(How many played Fantasy Football?)
2) Establish creditability either through sharing experience or through research skills
(I may not have a lot of experience, but I can tell you who’s a better value in the latter rounds or what sleepers to look out for, because fantasy football is all about in depth research.)
3) Provide a sample research question: Will the Madden curse strike again? Titans QB Vince Young is ranked anywhere from #6 - #14 at the QB position.
4) Begin the discussion on how to determine who to pick, when to pick them, and who to start, all questions answered through research.
5) Research Question: "Who should be the #3 overall pick in the draft?”
(#1 overall is LT, and while there is discussion on #2, there are more possibilities for the #3 pick. Thus, there is a research need.)
6) Use Turning Point clickers to vote on who should be selected
(F.Gore, S.Jackson, L.Johnson, J.Addai)
7) Class discussion on what they would use to make the decision of the #3 pick. Write student responses on board/ppt/or other means of recording.
8) Built off the student list to define how students' determine the quality of a source (record answers) (Reliability, validity, accuracy, timeless, and authority)
9) With the criteria defined, the class needs to determine where they would look for this information (print magazines, online, friends).
10) 2:00 minute drill - students get 2 minutes of individual work time to find and record their answers to the research question. They need to keep the sites up on their screens or write down the information in order to report back to the class as a whole.
11) Class Discussion: Report out- what did they find?

• Where? Evaluate against criteria
• Does it match the criteria?
• Can we answer the research question based on this information?
• Why / why not?
• What information do we still need?

12) Evaluate results together as a class:

• Evaluate results
• ID gaps
• Revise search strategies

13) Include additional rankings (done during prep time) to address any missing criteria and add more data to draw a conclusion from
If time permits, if not jump to 16
14) OT Activity: split the students in the room, creating 2 sides; each side provides an additional reference for the research question; references continue back and forth until one side "out scores" the other by having a source when the other side doesn't or by having a source that is "worth more" (higher quality) than the other side; example: source is more authoritative, timely, or meets the criteria more than the other reference source
15) Review results from OT activity and draw appropriate conclusions as a class, based on the research question.
16) Re-vote using Turning Point or same method from the beginning of the lesson to answer the research question
17) Build the Bridge

• Highlight Criteria Used
• Discuss Criteria's Relationship to Academic Research
• Stress Student's Ability to Already Do These Skills in Fantasy Football
• Emphasis the Importance to Use These Skills in Their College Assignments

Evaluation Procedures:
- Classroom vote (via Turning Point clickers) deciding on what player for each pick
- Online survey assessment including quantitative questions based on objective and qualitative questions on applications and perceptions.