BELIEFS ABOUT EDUCATION

7. We believe that portfolios offer more depth than standardized tests. A whole body of work
may be examined over a long period of time.

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WHAT THIS MEANS FOR LIBRARIANS

7. Depending on how involved you choose to be, there are several angles to take. At the very least, librarians should be aware that students have more ownership of their writing and more choice of topics. Therefore, the material being selected for research won't be falling into neat little categories of the formal curriculum. Given choices, students will be relying on a wide variety of resources: current events, movie topics, and even fads may provide the point of departure. Teachers may also be encouraging issue-related homework. For instance, instead of doing a "report on the Pilgrims at Plymouth", the assignment might be "What if the Pilgrims landed in Florida? or Maine? or Greenland? or Puerto Rico?" With the former, the librarian might expect to review access and location skills and the 900's. However with the latter, the librarian would be assisting with students as they make comparisons and draw conclusions. Students, instead of merely reporting, would be applying their location and selection skills more than once in short succession. Part of the final student evaluation would be to assess the actual skills used in this assignment and to comment on new learning in either of these areas.

Librarians can become involved with the designing and implementing of a portfolio, but the driving force would still be the teacher's. On the other hand, it might be an interesting project to expect students to keep a research portfolio. (More about that in the assessment section.)

WHAT ASSESSMENT MIGHT LOOK LIKE

Note: One type of assessment has been matched with a specific trend only as example . Please remember that there is much overlap and these methods may apply to other situations!

1. You will find that many of these beliefs make assessment more difficult but far more valuable.
A. For one research paper, the teacher and the librarian may wish to assign a "log" which would keep track of the process of researching and would be handed in with the first draft of the project. This might include a running commentary on using the CD-Rom periodical index. Comments such as these would be evidence of critical thinking: " My paper is on boy-girl relationship in society. When I search the index for ''dating' I came up with 'carbon dating! So I narrowed my search by including other descriptors."

B. In order to evaluate independent users' library skills, the teacher and the librarian could each keep a class list handy during research times. As strategies and skills come to the attention of the adults, they could jot down comments. (e.g. "Susan found the necessary item in the card catalog under U.S. History with only my mentioning 'chronological order'." ) It is certainly overwhelming to consider keeping records similar to these on the whole school all the time. Therefore, it is important to start small and work with one class during one project in the beginning.

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