Students have access to a wide variety of information from a seemingly endless list of resources, not all of which are curated for accuracy or credibility. Students must be able to assess the quality and value of the information they encounter in academic and everyday contexts. Information literacy, a set of skills that enables an individual to recognize when information is needed and to locate, evaluate, and effectively use information, will increase students’ abilities to make those assessments. This practice brief focuses on relevant information literacy standards embedded in the 2023 New Jersey Student Learning Standards for English Language Arts (NJSLS-ELA) from Kindergarten through Grade 12, and how those standards will equip students for critical consumption and responsible production of information in all areas of their lives.

Educators: The Reading, Writing, and Speaking and Listening strands of the NJSLS-ELA include skills that equip students to read critically, formulate questions from text, assess authors’ perspectives, analyze and formulate arguments, conduct research, gather credible evidence, present information, and cite their sources when consuming, using, and producing information. The skills students develop in K-12 ELA instruction are applicable to reading, analyzing, and writing informational text in ELA contexts and across content areas for a broad variety of purposes, audiences, and platforms.

School Leaders: Preparing students to navigate a constantly evolving information landscape is essential to their academic success as well as to their ability to engage in all workplace and civic functions. Building those skills at all grade levels intentionally and consistently is crucial to every students’ attainment of information literacy.

• Students are consumers and producers of content; routine, consistent information literacy instruction alerts students to the importance of the responsible consumption, production, and presentation of information.
• Students interact with new information constantly. Making connections between informational text analysis skills and the analysis of other types of information allows students to apply their skills in academic and non-academic contexts.
• School Library Media Specialists are knowledgeable collaborators when teaching effective research techniques, including how to use library catalogs, databases, and search engines to find relevant and diverse sources.
• Effective information literacy instruction will assist students as they evaluate content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Verifying factual information, understanding the sources of content, and recognizing the limitations of AI-generated text will inform students’ decision-making as AI becomes more prevalent in society. 

• Facilitating easy, equitable access to rich, varied, curated informational text resources strengthens students’ abilities to evaluate the information they consume and conscientiously create and publish credible information.
• Free access to resources is an essential component of equity. Educators and administrators can ensure their students have equitable access to high quality research tools through the NJ State Library.

• Collaborate with a school library media specialist to create or identify a source evaluation tool. Having a source evaluation tool that students consistently use throughout the school year and ideally across classes reinforces the habit of evaluating sources.
• Model information literacy practices for students at all grade levels, every day, by explaining when and how you are activating your information literacy skills. Showing students how you determine what information you need, identify, and evaluate information credibility, use information for specific purposes and create and distribute information will support students in developing their own processes.
• Supporting students in developing their own research practices and processes will equip them with the capacity to adapt to new information sources, platforms, and delivery systems.
• Reinforce research as a life skill that is as important outside of the classroom as it is inside by facilitating conversations about how students can use information literacy skills outside of school.

• How might students’ everyday engagement with information be leveraged in the ELA classroom to illustrate opportunities for information evaluation?
• What steps can I take to improve my own information literacy?

• JerseyClicks offers a selection of electronic research resources for K-12 students and teachers, free of charge.
• Purdue University’s short video on Information Literacy Skills describes the importance of the skills in consuming and creating information.

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