Not Grading but Assessment

[Janet Johns <LM_NET84@HOTMAIL.COM>]

If we do not assess students and their ability to use the resources then =
we can not complain about not being treated as professionals.  =
Professionals, pretest, teach and assess their teaching methods.   I =
have learned what my students know and don't know from assessment.  If =
the teacher corrected or assessed their library research skills (not the =
information), then you as the librarian will not know how well your =
students did with the skills you taught.  If you teach using Boolean =
logic  and narrowing and broadening topics,  test to find out how =
successful your teaching methods are and what needs additional =
instructions.  We aren't testing the students to give them a grade, but =
to bring about full success through changing our methods or providing =
more instruction to students who show the need.  The students will =
respect what you are trying to teach if they know it is important enough =
to grade. =20

Should library skills be a separate grade from the "classroom" grade?  =
Not in a integrated program!  My students get grades from the library =
included in their math class, science class, computer literacy class, =
etc.  I have given pretests in one class (social studies) and explained =
the results in science.  My classes are across the curriculum and I =
teach it as such.  If you aren't integrated, then maybe assessing =
students to see what they need to learn is acceptable, without the =
formality of grades, but it should be a standard tool for you to use to =
measure progress and student needs.  We need as a profession to work on =
assessing our methods through student testing.

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