The document discusses assessment of information literacy learning. It defines assessment as identifying, gathering and interpreting information about student achievement and progress to guide teaching and learning. Assessment provides information to compare student knowledge against standards. It discusses different forms of assessment including observation, formal tasks, formative monitoring and summative assessment. Authentic assessment involves real-world tasks to demonstrate skills. The roles of library media centers in assessment development are explored, including developing resources and assessments with teachers.

1. LIB 601 Libraries and Learning Fall 2010Assessment of information literacy learning

2. What is assessment?DefinitionAssessment is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about students’ learning. The central purpose of assessment is to provide information on student achievement and progress and set the direction for ongoing teaching and learning.Assessment provides information for those involved in the teaching and learning process to compare what is known and can be demonstrated against standards.

3. Why assess learning?To find out if they get what we’ve tried to teach themTo find out if we taught them well enoughTo find ways of improving our teaching

4. Principle of AssessmentSupporting learning

5. Assessment supports learning by focusing on the process of children and young people moving from where they are in their learning towards their desired goals. Assessment can also be used to identify and plan any support they will need to achieve these goals.

6. Principles of assessmentForms of assessmentAssessment takes many forms in schools and classrooms: Formal and informal observation and discussion with students Formal assessment tasks Formative monitoring and adjustment of teaching Summative assessment at key points Comparing evidence of achievement with other students Comparing evidence of achievement against syllabus standards

7. The fundamentals of effective assessmentThe British National Union of Students presents its principles:

8. More principles of effective assessment

9. Is Assessment in an LMC effective?Practice does not fit theory:Theoretically, the level of involvement in planning, teaching, and assessment should be no less than a partnership with other educators. However, the current practice of the instructional (including assessment) and curriculum roles in many school library media centers does not reflect the present theoretical and epistemological expectations of assessment in school librarianship articulated in professional literature and national guidelines . . .Thinking beyond the Disjunctive Opposition of Information Literacy Assessment in Theory and Practice

10. What’s the problem?Impediments:Lack of timeRole perception conflictLack of teacher interest in cooperationToo many students to serve Thinking beyond the Disjunctive Opposition of Information Literacy Assessment in Theory and PracticeOthers?

11. What is Authentic Assessment? DefinitionsA form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills -- Jon Mueller“. . . Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field.” -- Grant Wiggins -- (Wiggins, 1993, p. 229).

12. What Roles Can Library MediaCenter Staff Play in AssessmentDevelopment?Work with classroom teachers to develop learning goals and standards

13. Develop resources and assessment tasks for classroom teachers

14. Design your own assessmentsThe Co-Role of the LMSExpanding the assignment and creating a learning environment that allows authentic learning activities to become possible Facilitat[ing] the activity with the teacher so that many learning environments can be made available to students Provid[ing] input and evidence in the evaluation of the students[’] ability to process information into meaningful communicationAuthentic Assessment by Daniel Callison, School Library Media Activities Monthly 14, no. 5 (January 1998).

15. Types of authentic assessmentObservations:checklists of desired behaviors, rubrics that identify criteria for successful performance and describe different levels of performance, and rating scales that place levels of performance along a continuum. From Working Smarter: Being Strategic About Assessment and Accountability by Violet H. Harada, based on Ann Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work

16. Products:checklists that list criteria for proficiency, rubrics that describe various levels of proficiency, and graphic organizers that organize and synthesize students’ work. From Working Smarter: Being Strategic About Assessment and Accountability by Violet H. Harada, based on Ann Davies, Making Classroom Assessment WorkTypes of authentic assessment

17. Conversations:formal and informal conferences, logs to record thoughts and feelings about the content and process, and notes and letters to self-assess and seek feedback. From Working Smarter: Being Strategic About Assessment and Accountability by Violet H. Harada, based on Ann Davies, Making Classroom Assessment WorkTypes of authentic assessment

18. Creating rubricsUltimately, a good rubric is a promise to the learner that the elements outlined in the rubric are the valued, and therefore gradable, elements.When developing a rubric, I encourage my graduate students to think about the areas in which they would like the student to develop proficiencies and then articulate how they will know that the student has developed these proficiencies.Building Rubrics into Powerful Learning Assessment Tools