Assessment, Part II: Constructing and Interpreting Viable Tools for Effective Student Learning in the Library Media Center
October 17-19, 2008Oak Brook Hills Marriott Resort, Oak Brook, Illinois (Chicago area)
Assessment, Part II: Constructing and Interpreting Viable Tools for Effective Student Learning in the Library Media Center
October 17-19, 2008
The focus on assessment in the library media center continues with AASL's 2008 Fall Forum in Chicago. Developed with "voices of the participant" responses in mind, this program investigates assessment from three perspectives: program assessment, providing a base for continuing dialogue with administrators; student assessment, reviewing collaborative models of information literacy within curriculum applications; and item analysis, identifying, gathering, and interpreting data. Join our experts, Celeste Nalwasky, author of How Good Is Good?, Judith Dzikowski, OCM BOCES Director, Barbara Schloman, TRAILS Project Director, and Julie Gedeon, TRAILS project coordinator, as they elucidate various resources that build exemplary programs.
Fall Forum attendees will review the various roles of the school library media specialist that support our mandate to provide intellectual access to information through learning activities that are integrated into the curriculum and that help all students achieve information literacy by developing effective cognitive strategies for selecting, retrieving, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, creating, and communicating information in all formats and in all content areas of the curriculum. Special attention will be given to: constructing effective programs as a teaching partner in assessment; interpreting statistical evidence of student learning; and examining the viability of student-driven assessment.
Sessions
Session I Saturday, October 18, 9:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Constructing Effective Programs as a Teaching Partner in Assessment
Presenter - Dr. Celeste Nalwasky
Celeste DiCarlo Nalwasky will use field tested assessment models from thirty-three years of practical experience in K-12 education and school library media centers to illustrate ways to bring academic rigor into the teaching and learning processes. Through examples of classroom management, lesson design, curricular integration, and teacher collaboration, she will take participants through a process which will ensure that all students learn. She will use the document published by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association, Competencies for School Librarians: Companion Document to PDE 428 to identify the attributes of a successfully integrated, data-driven school library media program. (A copy may be obtained online at www.psla.org.) This eventually drove a state-wide initiative by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create and present a workshop entitled ÒHow Good is Good; Driving School Library Program Improvement with PDE 428.Ó The framework of these documents began with the work of Charlotte Danielson, Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching.
Session II Saturday, October 18, 10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Interpreting Statistical Evidence of Student Learning
Presenter - Judith Dzikowski
Learn how the PALS (Partners in Achievement: Libraries and Students) model increases our understanding of how data derived from standardized assessments improves library instruction, collection development, and collaboration with classroom teachers. Identifying question relevance, locating curricular links, and developing an action plan are important pieces of the knowledgeable SLMS toolbox. Partnering with faculty in studying the results of recent test scores provides the opportunity to use these tools for guiding curriculum development. Identifying areas which need to be addressed and developing an action plan ensures a united effort.
The resulting collaboration will transform your school library program as it becomes aligned to demonstrated student learning needs.
Session III Saturday, October 18, 10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Using Standardized Assessment to Guide Instruction and Leverage Collaboration
Presenters - Barbara F. Schloman, Ph.D. and Julie Gedeon
This session will use TRAILS (Tool for Real-Time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) as an example of the role a standardized assessment can play in helping one develop an assessment plan. TRAILS helps answer the question Òwhat do my students know about information literacy?Ó as it relates to the expectations of state and national standards Ð specifically at the 6th and 9th grade levels. Participants will be introduced to TRAILS features and outcome reports. Using this as a framework, small groups will work together to develop a plan that includes getting teacher buy-in and collaborating with them to integrate the assessment into lesson plans, using results as a diagnostic aid to guide instruction, reinforcing student learning through review of results, leveraging the results to highlight the importance of information literacy instruction with administration. Participants will leave with a template for creating an assessment plan for their own environments.
Breakout Sessions (choose one):
Presenter Bios
Judith Dzikowski, School Library System Director at Onondaga-Cortland-Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in Syracuse, N.Y.
Judi has thirty four years of experience in the field of education as teacher, school library media specialist, principal and school library systems. She has presented on various topics including student achievement and school libraries, collection development, marketing your SLMP, and improving student achievement through data use for LMS. Within AASL, she has participated as a member of the teaching and learning committee, the nominating committee and is the 2006 recipient of the AASL Highsmith Research grant. She served as the 2002 NY State School Library System president as well as executive board member. In her quiet time, Judi enjoys the activities of living on a small lake.
Julie Gedeon, Ph.D., TRAILS project member, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Assessment, Libraries and Media Services, Kent State University
Julie is a founding member of Project SAILS, Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills, an assessment aimed at undergraduate students. Julie analyzes TRAILS data to help with item and assessment refinement and works with the TRAILS team on ongoing development of the tools.
Everett Kline, Educational Consultant
Everett Kline has been a classroom teacher, building program leader and Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Learning for the South Orange-Maplewood School District in New Jersey. In his work over the last ten years, he has consulted with public and private schools, school districts, colleges and universities and state departments of education in over forty-five states and seven foreign countries. In addition, Everett is the co-author of Transforming Schools: Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement. It was chosen by ASCD as the member book for the spring, 2004. Primary Voices, a journal of the National Council of Teachers of English, also published an article he was asked to write on curriculum change. Everett holds an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Ford Fellow' and a B.A. from the University of Chicago. He has also studied at Princeton University, where he was designated Master Teacher.
Celeste DiCarlo Nalwasky, Ph.D., Educational Consultant
When she retired from the public school employee system with 33 years of experience in 1999, Celeste DiCarlo Nalwasky vowed never to retire from her profession, only the job. She designed hundreds of presentations and workshops for school librarians and other teachers to advance the quality of education, and more specifically, school library media centers. Her passion and love for school library media service and teaching is presently being shared with teachers and principals in formal courses for various institutions of higher education, workshops, and new teacher induction programs.
Barbara Schloman, Ph.D., Project Director for TRAILS, Professor and Associate Dean for Public Services, Libraries and Media Services, Kent State University
Barbara has been involved with TRAILS development from the beginning and serves on the executive board for the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education (ILILE). Barbara collaborated with a library media specialist on the use of TRAILS in a poster session at the AASL 2007 Annual Conference. She continues to actively direct the ongoing development of TRAILS and works with practitioners to make the tool more useful.