Developing I nformation L iteracy P rogram

In Yarmouth


by Betsy Clark (Yarmouth Elementary School), Karen Guter (Frank H. Harrison Middle School)
and Sally Jeanne Kappler (Yarmouth High School)

In 1993 fifty-five members of the Yarmouth community were involved in developing a strategic plan, The Focus for Yarmouth's Schools. It was based on data collected at over 30 community forums involving almost 2000 students, educators, parents, and citizens. This 10 page document embodies the best thinking of the participants on how a student will need to perform to be successful in the 21st Century. After developing a mission statement "to empower all students to create fulfilling lives in a changing world," six life-roles areas and accompanying outcomes were defined (relationships, global, cultural & recreational, civic, learning and economics). Several areas included information-related skills. For example, within the learning life-role outcomes is the desire for A life-long learner who solves problems by accessing and analyzing information from a variety of sources.

The teachers' contract with the Yarmouth School Department contains 10 days set aside for staff development. In the 1993-94 school year these would focus on the development of outcomes for each learning area based on the Strategic Plan. Having had visiting consultants with national reputations in the past, Yarmouth's teachers were now charged with using their own professional expertise and knowledge of its schools to produce outcomes that could be attained in Yarmouth. A grant from the Noyce Foundation provided funds for substitutes so that an additional three release days could be provided to teachers for this project.

The library media specialists began this project during the 1993 Christmas break. The intent was to produce the Library Media Outcomes before other learning areas had started the outcomes process. Many professional resources were consulted including the existing Yarmouth Library Media Scope and Sequence, Information Skills for Maine's Educators, and Access Pennsylvania documents. When completed, the outcomes were distributed to teachers with encouragement to make them part of all learning area discussions. Betsy Clark worked with the Unified Arts Learning Area on the first release day. In answer to a suggestion from colleagues that the elements within the first outcome be combined into a general statement, Betsy explained that each element was important and had several levels of expertise. She practiced both locational and utilization skills with elementary students, but expected analysis and synthesis to be major emphases in the high school. Before graduation, however, students would be expected to be proficient in all six elements (locating, interpreting, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating and utilizing).

The remaining release days were spent refining the Library Media Outcomes document into its final form. Throughout the process, all learning areas were allowed to choose their own methods of organization with the overall goal being a practical, workable document by June 1994 in which individual teachers felt a sense of both ownership and accomplishment.

Library Media Outcomes
 All students upon graduation will be effective users of ideas and information.
To this end, graduates will:

The end of the school year was followed by three staff development days to begin work on developing assessment projects which could measure the Outcomes. The library media specialists' original plan was to develop a rubric. After determining the number of levels wanted and some possible topics for the fields, defining skills within the cells began in the lower left corner and spread upward and outward. (For a copy of this document, write to one of the author in care of Yarmouth School Department.). Thinking of Level One as that of a beginning learner and Level Five as a life-long learner, an attempt was made to use words which would be appropriate to the probable grade level. The document was titled Library and Information Progression when it was realized that it was more of a taxonomy than a true rubric.

This document was shared with various professional groups throughout the 1994-95 school year. It was presented to many Yarmouth teachers and submitted to the MEMA Information Skills Committee. In addition, the school library media specialists in the Casco Bay Educational Alliance (Falmouth, Cumberland, Freeport, Pownal and Yarmouth), the public librarians of the Merrill Memorial Library in Yarmouth and the school library media specialist at the North Yarmouth Academy all spent large blocks of time discussing the implications of the L&I Progression and how it could be used in their specific situations. Comments were noted and incorporated into subsequent revisions. This process culminated with the first state-wide presentation of the Progression at the Maine Libraries' Conference in Orono.

The 1995-96 school year brought the opportunity to develop the first of many planned rubrics based on a cluster of cells in the Progression. Because the Pre-Search fields were probably the least familiar to teachers and students, the library media specialists decided to create a rubric targeted at those skills. (See: Library Pre-Search Rubric) Choosing the levels to correspond with work completed by the Science Learning Area in Yarmouth's Schools [beginning, developing, competent, and expanding] measurable outcomes were listed for each level. The model was used with various combinations of learners in several classes in three schools and again shared with colleagues locally, regionally, and state-wide at the conference in Orono. Additional refinement of the model and more extensive field-testing are planned for the 1996-97 school year.

LIBRARY PRE-SEARCH RUBRIC

LEVEL 4

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 1

c: 1995 YARMOUTH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
August 1997
Maine Educational Media Association

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