Re: ?assessments

[Robert Hallett <rhallett@UMD5.UMD.EDU>]

Deborah (and LM_NET Colleagues),

     If at all possible, try to nip this grade-giving in the bud.

     During my 20+ years as an elementary school library media person, I
have never had to give out library grades, thank goodness. There are a
few reasons why I haven't.  The first is that I do not want to perpetuate
the perception of the library media center as a special area subject.  It
encourages teachers and administrators to view us as planning time
(sorry, special area teachers).

    Secondly, my lessons had better be extremely motivating and useful:
students will be learning because they WANT to, not because they HAVE to.

    Finally, grade-giving is an extremely time consuming process.  Who
wants to spend the time to give grades to 500 students, when it can be
spent more profitably elsewhere?

    How do I assess children's achievement?  All their work is evaluated
thru activities and tests, but the grades are not recorded.  The only
time a grade is recorded ( and passed on to their subject area teacher)
is a grade of 0% for cheating.  There is no need to cheat because grades
are not recorded. The motivation is provided within the learning
objective presentation to the students, explaining not only what the
lesson objective is, but why that knowledge is important to the student.

     As an interesting aside, our school recently imported a report card
format from another school, which had, heaven forbid, a library grade!
After a conference with my principal concerning my feelings on the matter,
it was agreed to use library funds to reprint the new report card without
the library grade.

     I would be interested in what other library media people do about
library grades.  Thanks for your ear.....

                                                   Bob



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Bob Hallett                                *     Voice:410-887-0719
Educational Media Generalist               *     Fax:410-922-9912
Church Lane Elementary Technology School   *  "I'm just a singer in a
3820 Fernside Rd., Randallstown, MD 21133  *    rock 'n roll band!"
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On Tue, 24 Jan 1995, Deborah Cranson wro
>
> My school, a preK-4 elementary with 700+ students, is beginning a major report
> card restructuring process. The "Special Subject" teachers (art, music,
> phys.ed. and library) are being asked to redesign our portion of the report
> card to suit our needs. We thought it would be a good idea to ask around about
> "good" assessment tools used in other elementary programs and I volunteered to
> put out the word here.

>