Creating Data Literate Students

Creating Data Literate Students provides high school librarians and educators
with foundational domain knowledge to teach a new subset of information
literacy skills — data and statistical literacy, including: statistics and data comprehension; data as argument; and data visualization.

Data — both raw and displayed in visualizations — can clarify or confuse,
confirm or deny, persuade or deter. Students often learn that numbers are
objective, though data in the real world is rarely so. In fact, visualized data —
even from authoritative sources — can sometimes be anything but objective.

Librarians and classroom educators need to be as fluent with quantitative
data as they are with text in order to support high schoolers as they engage
with data in formal and informal settings. We asked contributors to this
volume — experts in high school curriculum, information literacy and/or
data literacy — to explore the intersections between data and curriculum
and identify high-impact strategies for demystifying data for educators and
students alike.

Kristin Fontichiaro is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University
of Michigan and principal investigator on the Supporting
Librarians in Adding Data Literacy Skills to Information Literacy
Instruction project (IMLS RE-00-15-0113-15). A Library Journal
Mover and Shaker and member of the American Library Association’s
inaugural class of Emerging Leaders, she has written several
books for educators, librarians, and K-12 readers.

Jo Angela Oehrli is a former high school and middle school
teacher who helps students find information on a wide range
of topics as a Learning Librarian at the University of Michigan
Libraries -- Ann Arbor. In addition, she supports the students in
the Women in Science and Engineering Residential Program and
the students in the Michigan Research Community Residential
Program as well as undergraduates across campus. She has published
articles on library instruction, served as Chair of ALA LIRT’s
Top Twenty Committee, serves on the ACRL Instruction Section
Executive Board & the LOEX Advisory Board, and has worked as
an adjunct lecturer for UM’s School of Information & the College
of Literature, Science and the Arts. She also supports the research
and instructional needs for those throughout the university community
who are studying children’s literature at any level.

Amy Lennex has worked in the publishing industry for nearly 20 years editing series nonfiction, middle-grade fiction, and picture books. She’s also the author of Personal Data Management, part of the eight-book Data Geek series published by Cherry Lake Publishing. She provided project management and editing support for the Supporting Librarians in Adding Data Literacy Skills to Information Literacy Instruction project.