Our district has spent a lot of training and inservice on different ways to assess student learning.  The areas that we focused on the most were Assessment FOR learning and Assessment OF Learning.  I felt comfortable doing this in the classroom, but it became challenging for me to find ways to assess students’ learning when it came to the library, as our time is so short.  
     Out of the two different ways to assess, Assessment FOR learning was definitely easier to do, as it is a natural way of teaching for me.  I used a pocket chart to state the week’s objectives for each grade level on laminated sentence strips.  Each week, I wrote “I Can” statements and we discussed the target learning before the lesson.  
     This allowed me to gauge where they were on this learning target, and gave the students some direction as to what they would be responsible for understanding.  Throughout the lesson, I would question the students, provide feedback, and adjust my teaching as necessary.
    Assessment OF Learning proved to be more difficult for me to wrap my head around in regards to the library.  My lessons generally ran 15-20 minutes, and students had 5-10 minutes to check out and go to centers before they left the library.  There just didn’t seem to be enough time to fit it all in.  As a result, I made it a goal last year to be creative and find ways to do some Assessments OF Learning with the students.  I decided to try it out with 2nd-5th grade on two different units: Destiny Searches and the Dewey Decimal System.

Destiny Searches
     Learning how to search for books is an important skill that I really focus on with my 2nd-5th graders.  I noticed that most of them typed in a topic in the search box and then hit return which defaulted to a “keyword” search.  Unfortunately this didn’t always get them the type of books that they were looking for, or it gave them way too many search results.
    In the past I would spend the first week showing them the different search options (author, title, subject, series, keyword).  Then, in the next week, I would have them practice doing different types of searches.
     Last year, I decided to add in an assessment component.  I created task cards with different types of search questions that covered the options that we had covered (author, title, subject, and series). 

 

     I printed them off 4 to a page so that they were smaller, and then hole-punched them in the corner and put them on a ring.  As students came up to check out their books, I would flip through the questions.  If they answered it correctly, they could check out their book.  If they didn’t answer correctly, I would use that as an opportunity to reteach and have them go to the end of the line to try again.   I even linked some Jing videos on our webpage on how to search on Destiny so that they could review if necessary.  
     This year, I want to add one additional assessment piece, something that the students can actually put in their portfolio binder to show the skills that they were mastering in the library.  So, I created a short 10-question quiz over the different types of Destiny searches.  

Dewey Decimal System

     I really like these quick Assessments OF Learning task cards.  I can use them for assessment purposes, but can also put them in my Game Center.  I’m working on creating more task cards right now on Fiction Genres,  Poetry types and terms, and will even do one on the parts of a book and book care for my younger students.  If you would like any of these items, please visit my TpT store.

     I’m curious, though, if any one else has come up with other ways to assess students in the library?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

Sandy