Critical Thinking & Information Literacy
Across the Curriculum
ELI: Read/React 4
Course Level: High Intermediate
Course Purpose: Intensive reading of fiction and non-fiction on related
subject/topics/themes and ability to interpret, evaluate and discuss
those readings.
Library Assignment
Goal: Find one news article from a newspaper and one from a popular magazine using
EBSCOhost related to the theme(s) foun in a short story being read in class.
Short Story: Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet? By Nadine Gordimer
Article Topic: Apartheid in South Africa
Click on EBSCOhost (and ProQuest for local newspapers)
Choose the appropriate databases for your source:
Academic Search Elite and/or Newspaper Source and/or MAS
Ultra-School Edition
Find an article about apartheid in South Africa.
Compare the following search queries below and make a short note of each
result. How many articles come up for each option? What do you learn about
this?
A) apartheid in South Africa
B) apartheid and South Africa
C) apartheid and race relations
D) apartheid and Nelson Mandela
What is the difference between “and” and “or”?
Is it a good idea to use a preposition such as “in”? Why or why not?
Discuss your answers to #5 in pairs and with the class.
Find an appropriate full-text article (1 page of text minimum) and identify the
source: Is it a newspaper or magazine article?
(e.g. Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Seattle Times, etc.)
Write down the name of the source, title of the article, author and publication
date.
Send the article to your email address.
Find a second article from the other source type (1 page minimum of text). Send
it to your email address.
At home, skim the articles again. Evaluate the articles for their relevancy to the
topic and for their clarity.
Choose one of the articles for analyzing and summarizing.
Bring the article, your summary and response to class on the assigned day and be
prepared to discuss it in a small group.
Prepared by Wendy Pickering
English Language Institute
Bellevue Community College
Library Media Center
3000 Landerholm Circle S.E.
Bellevue, Washington 98007-6484
