Assessment13

Assessment is an area where I am trying to improve as there is additional emphasis on data and using that data to drive decisions.

I'm good at anecdotal evidence. In May's sixth grade book club meeting, the girls developed a book club theme song for books they think are so great they break our rating scale. Or I can tell the story of students impacted by the materials we are able to gather for them like the seventh grade reader who asked for a book in a Star Wars series and when I got it for him, his eyes lit up, and we've talked about that books and others several times since.

There are many statistics to be collected in the library as well. I can glean data from our circulation system and various sign-ups. From the beginning of the school year - April 30, 2013 we've checked out (and reshelved) 23,214 items. Two recent days illustrate how heavily the Learning Center at Highland is used by students and staff.
 * Friday, 4/19 - 21 classes in the LC plus 100+ students at recess
 * Monday, 4/22 - 24 classes in the LC plus 100+ students at recess

This fall I used [|TRAILS] (Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) with more than 300 students representing all the grade levels. The assessment gave a question on a variety of areas of information skills. The results that I got back helped inform my instruction.

Google Apps data Before our presentation at the ICE Conference, I did a survey of faculty about Google Apps for Education use in the classroom. I'm now collecting data about student experiences with their google accounts this year. media type="custom" key="22904816"

Classroom Assessment Frequently I get to work with students and their teachers in the early information gathering stages of a project. I don't usually get to see the project come to fruition. I spent a couple days working with seventh grade students as they began their research for their literature review. I also went to the classroom to help as the students were finishing the final drafts of their project, perfecting their citations and drafts. It was great! I got positive feedback from the teacher (and through her the students): "It was unbelievably helpful to have another person in the room who the kids knew they could turn to and trust. It made my day easier and I think we were able to be more effective than one alone would have been."

I use assessment data all the time to help me make decisions about the library collection. The bigger picture assessment data is something that I continue to try to improve both in the gathering of meaningful data and the use of it to improve my practice.