What is Assessment Why Should Library Media Specialists be Involved Violet Harada

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What is Assessment? Why Should Library Media
Specialists be Involved?Violet Harada

• AASL Fall Forum
• October 13-15, 2006
• Warwick, Rhode Island

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Assessment in Todays School

• How do we know how well students are actually
  learning (Violet Harada)
• What is assessment?
• repetition of lessons
• same lessons taught over and over again
  they just dont get it.
• No time to give quizzes and tests so assessment
  cant really happen in the MC

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Questions about Assessment

• Assessment is only the classroom teachers
  responsibility?
• Assessment is only done for a grade?
• Assessment doesnt have anything to do with
  learning?

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Purposes of Assessment

• Assessment OF learning (end product, graded
• with instructor evaluating, system
  accountability and tied to tests)
• Assessment FOR learning (students as partners,
  ongoing, and reflective with pre-assessment)
• Assessment FOR Advocacy (communication,
  advocacy, stakeholder interest)

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Who Should Assess?

• Students must be central partners in assessment
• Teachers must view assessment as integral and
  ongoing
• Media Specialists must assess
• Authentic learning, Information Literacy and
  relationship to Content Standards

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WHY?

• Media Centers are extensions of the classroom
• Skills taught in the Media Center (information
  literacy skills) are foundational to successful
  learning.
• Skills are central to 21st century skills and new
  basics.

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HOW?What are the tools?

• Checklists (specific behaviors displayed)
• Rubrics (assesses efficient and effective
  practices or performance)
• Rating Scales (focuses on key target goals Did
  the student access and evaluate a variety of
  sources to find information to answer his/her
  questions? (very well, getting there, not at all).

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Tools for Assessment

• Conferences
• Logs (learning log, synthesis log, literary
  response log
• Personal Correspondence
• Graphic Organizers (thinking maps, KWLs,

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What are organizers?

• Tools or techniques that provide identification
  and classification along with possible
  relationships or connections among ideas,
  concepts, and issues.(Callison)
• Graphic organizers are visual representations of
  thinking.(Harada)

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• Concept maps-visual diagrams to show
• links and connections of concepts
• Webs-cluster words around a central topic or
  theme
• Matrices-a grid to show similarities and
  differences
• K-W-L Charts-charts for planning and assessing
  projects

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Organizers provide evidence of thinking skills

• Thinking Skill Example
• Comprehension Classify
• Analysis Order, compare
• Synthesis Solve a problem
• Evaluate Conclude

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Design learning with focus on assessment

• What should student know or be able to do?
• What tools will provide evidence or new knowledge
  or skills?
• Develop the learning experiences
• Design the tools to collect evidence
• Reflect on and analyze that evidence
• Share and use new information to design future
  learning experiences

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S. K. I. P.

• Start with the end in mind
• Keep focused
• Integrate learning in collaborative efforts
• Plan for future learning connections
• You are the education specialist in your
  building. You have the right to teach.

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Assessment must be linked to learning targets

• What are the schools students learning
  priorities?
• Lessons and projects must be linked to those
  priorities or objectives.
• The assessment criteria MUST match the student
  learning target.
• Collect the data! (Without the data you are just
  someone else with an opinion.)
• Communicate the results!

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Challenges

• Are we invisible or visible and indispensible
  teaching partners?
• Do we view assessment as intuitive and incidental
  or integral and intentional to learning?
• Do we simply spout rhetoric on the importance of
  assessment or can we demonstrate results?
• Harada AASL Fall Forum 2006

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Thank you.

• Cathy DuPre, Media Coordinator
• Oaklawn Language Academy
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• http//pages.cms.k12.nc.us/cdupre