For more than a decade, the Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) at the University of Colorado Boulder has partnered with teaching and learning librarians to design and deliver Information Literacy learning opportunities in first-year and upper-division composition classes. In recent years, this partnership has grown more robust as we have come to recognize that our two fields have much in common and are making similar pedagogical, theoretical, and practical moves. The guiding documents produced in both our fields (the ACRL’s “Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education” and the WPA’s “Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing”) highlight the shared concerns and complementary values and educational goals of librarians and rhetoric and composition instructors.
Additionally, the dynamic information and media environment in which we and our students live and work requires new kinds of information and digital literacies and thus new literacy curricula. As we began to re-think the PWR’s Information Literacy initiatives, we asked ourselves this question: If we could design a curriculum that no longer treats Information Literacy and Rhetoric and Composition as separate, and that acknowledges the complex information landscapes in which we reside and the multiple modes in which our students compose, what would it look like? For the past year, we have been developing this curriculum. In our presentation, we will provide an overview of this collaborative process, as well as the outcomes and materials developed. We will invite attendees to explore the characteristics of successful pedagogical partnerships dedicated to improving student learning through information literacy initiatives
