Assessing Information Fluency: Gathering Evidence of Student Learning

Do you ever feel like the character portrayed by Patrick Swayze in the movie Ghost who has difficulty making himself heard by anyone who is not a fellow ghost? How many times have you tried to tell your teachers and administrators about the positive effect of information skills on student learning, only to be ignored because you do not have evidence to back up your claims? By assessing students' ability to apply information skills to class assignments, library media specialists can provide the evidence that will foster schoolwide attention to students' information fluency. At the same time, library media specialists will be solidifying their essential contribution to both teaching and learning.

What Is Information Fluency?

Information fluency is the ability to access, make sense of, and use information to build new understandings. The term "information fluency" is now accepted in the field as a replacement for "information literacy" because students must not only know the skills, but also apply the skills fluently in any personal or academic learning situation.

Information fluency skills make sense to students when they are engaged in a coherent process of inquiry and learning. Students want to be able to seek and find information to answer their questions. They want to be empowered as independent learners who can navigate the growing area of information and transform what they find into knowledge and understanding.

This process of inquiry and learning is a recursive cycle of thought. One model to summarize this learning framework is provided in Table 1 (Stripling 2003, 8), below.

How Can Information Fluency Be Assessed?

Library media specialists can assess students' ability to apply information skills at each phase of an inquiry process by using three main types of assessment: diagnostic, formative, and summative. Since information skills should be taught when students have a reason to use them, the assessment of information skills should be integrated into real content-learning situations and should not be isolated from curriculum and instruction in the classrooms.

Why Use Diagnostic Assessment?

Diagnostic assessment is most often used during the Connect phase (See Table 1, below) of inquiry because it is important to identify pre-existing knowledge and skills as well as misconceptions in order to set goals for new learning. Techniques that teachers use to diagnose prior knowledge of content can also be used successfully to measure the following student information skills: pre-tests, pre-performance tasks, the "Know" part of a K-W-L (Know-Wonder-Learned) chart, or a concept map.

Pre-tests are especially valuable for bringing misconceptions to the surface. Research has shown that unless learners recognize their own misconceptions, they are not likely to replace them with more accurate or detailed knowledge. At an early elementary level, for example, the library media specialist starting to teach how a library is organized might give a set of cards with pictures of various objects in different colors and sizes to groups of students with the instructions to group the cards as they would be organized in a library. Once students have shared their work, the library media specialist can determine whether students think books are organized by color, size, or category. A follow-up class discussion can alert students to their own misconceptions about the way a library is arranged.

Another diagnostic assessment is a pre-performance task, a task assigned to students before any direct instruction. The most commonly used activity for orientation to the library, a scavenger hunt, can easily turn into a mindless game with limited impact on learning; however, if a scavenger hunt is used as a pre-performance task, the library media specialist will be able to assess students' existing knowledge. This assessment of students' existing knowledge on how to locate items in the library can be used to design future lessons that build on what students already know.

How Does Formative Assessment Lead to More Effective Instruction?

Formative assessment is the measurement of knowledge and skills during the process of learning (the Wonder, Investigate, and Construct phases of inquiry) in order to inform the next steps. The magic of formative assessment is that it engages both library media specialists and students in thinking about the learning/inquiry process while it is happening so that adjustments can be made immediately as needed. Although some formative assessment tools are developed and administered by the library media specialist (ungraded exams, checklists, rubrics, exit cards, observation checklists, and consultations), others will be developed by the students as a normal part of their inquiry process. These are the very same tools that they use to question, challenge, evaluate, organize, and reflect on the information they are gathering (inquiry framework questions, evaluation templates, graphic organizers, and learning log notetaking sheets).

One example of formative assessment administered by the library media specialist is an exit card. The library media specialist hands each student a card in the last five to ten minutes of class time in the library media center. For example, upper elementary and secondary students are given a specific question to answer about their progress or new understandings (e.g., What was the most interesting idea you learned today?, What question(s) are you having trouble answering through your research?, What source did you find today and how did you decide it was valuable?, Where are you in your inquiry process, and what's your next step?). Lower elementary students can be asked to rate their own progress on simplified tasks (Did you find five facts about your animal today?) with their name and a smiley or frowny face. The students hand in the cards as they leave. The library media specialist responds on the back with specific suggestions, provocative questions, ideas for next steps, or general encouragement.

An observation checklist is another example of formative assessment delivered by the library media specialist. Because information fluency assessment is largely a measure of students' ability "to do," library media specialists can develop checklists of observable behaviors that signify students' use of information fluency skills. Checklists measure completion of work, but generally they are not a good instrument to measure quality of work. Observation checklists are most valuable when developed as a matrix with students' names on one side and the observable behaviors on the other. (See Checklist Example, below.)

Students should be empowered to do formative assessment for themselves. Library media specialists, however, can facilitate student reflection on the process of inquiry by providing Inquiry Framework Questions (New York City Department of Education, Office of Library Services). Students can selfregulate their progress through the recursive process of inquiry by considering each question before they decide to move to the next phase. For example, before moving to the Wonder Phase, a student may ask:

• Do I know enough about the idea or topic to ask good questions?
• Am I interested enough in the idea or topic to investigate it?

Before moving to the Investigate Phase, a student may ask:

• Can my question(s) be answered through investigation?
• Will my question(s) lead me to answers that will fulfill my assignment or purpose for research?

Before moving to the Construct Phase, a student may ask:

• Have I located sources with diverse perspectives?
• Have I found enough accurate information to answer all my questions?
• Have I discovered information gaps and filled them with more research?
• Have I begun to identify relationships and patterns and thoughtfully reacted to the information I found?

How Can Summative Assessment Leverage Collaboration?

Summative assessment is the measurement of knowledge and skills at the end of a process of learning (during the Express and Reflect phases of inquiry as mentioned in Table 1) in order to determine the amount and quality of learning. Summative assessments of information fluency are most effective when integrated into summative assessments of content learning. When library media specialists can demonstrate the integral nature of information fluency skills to the success of the final product, then teachers can see the added value of the library media program and the applicability of information skills for their classroom instruction.

Teachers and library media specialists can use a variety of summative assessment choices such as authentic projects (connected to the real world), presentations, exhibitions, performance tasks, portfolios, and process folios that enable students to demonstrate their new understandings. In each case, the checklist or rubric used for evaluation should be designed by both teachers and library media specialists to include the information fluency skills essential to the creation of the product. Other summative assessment tools are completed by the students themselves, reflecting their new understandings about the content and the inquiry process. These tools include concept maps, final reflections, documentation of their content and process learning, and self-assessment with checklists and rubrics.

Summative assessment products can be designed for different levels of thinking, depending on the requirements of the assignment and the depth of learning expected. Library media specialists can collaborate with classroom teachers to design assessment products that challenge students to think, connect, construct, and demonstrate their learning in creative and enjoyable ways. By designing creative assessment products that incorporate information fluency skills, library media specialist/teacher teams solidify the connection between library and classroom instruction and strengthen student interest and success.

Table 2 illustrates two levels of research products and notes the information fluency skills that might have been taught with the unit.

What Guidelines Should Be Followed in Developing Assessments of Information Fluency?

Library media specialists who want to assume a leadership role in assessment in their schools and make the assessment of information fluency skills a vital part of teaching and learning throughout the school can follow six simple guidelines:

Establish clear information fluency learning goals— State explicitly the information fluency skills that students are expected to learn within each research unit.

Define clear criteria for successful application of information fluency skills— Provide teachers and students with models of successful employment of the skills.

Align goals and criteria with a ssignment— Ensure that the skills being taught are essential and integral to the classroom teacher's assignment.

Move to student self-assessment— Empower students to assess their own inquiry process.

Make assessments a natural part of teaching and learning throughout the process of learning— Use diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments to strengthen the teaching of information fluency skills and move students toward confidence and independence in their own learning. Assessment is a critical element of effective teaching. Library media specialists who are able to provide evidence that students have learned information fluency skills will be more successful in their teaching and more integral to the instructional program of the school. Trough assessment, library media specialists have the potential to transform their role from invisible and unheard ghost to the most sought-After partner in the school.

References

Harada, Violet H., and Joan M. Yoshina. Assessing Learning: Librarians and Teachers as Partners. Libraries Unlimited, 2005.

Hart, Diane. Authentic Assessment: A Handbook for Educators. Addison-Wesley, 1994.

Lewin, Larry, and Betty Jean Shoemaker. Great Performances: Creating Classroom-Based Assessment Tasks. ASCD, 1998.

New York City Department of Education, Office of Library Services. Information Fluency Continuum. http://schools. nyc.gov /NR/rdonlyresBD4FDF5F-F45F-43AE-90BB-410BDBC641AF/6513/INFOFLUENCYCONTK12Final 102006.pdf

Newmann, Fred M., et al. A Guide to Authentic Instruction and Assessment: Vision, Standards, and Scoring. Wisconsin Center for Education Research, 1995.

Shepard, Lorrie A. "Linking Formative Assessment to Scaffolding." Educational Leadership 63, no. 3 (November 2005): 66-70.

Stiggins, Richard J. Student-Centered Classroom Assessment. 2nd ed. Merrill, 1997.

Stripling, Barbara. "Expectations for Achievement and Performance: Assessing Student Skills." NASSP Bulletin 83, no. 605 (March 1999): 44-52.

Stripling, Barbara K. "Inquiry-Based Learning." In Curriculum Connections Trough the Library, edited by Barbara K. Stripling and Sandra Hughes-Hassell. Libraries Unlimited, 2003.

Stripling, Barbara K., and Judy M. Pitts. Brainstorms and Blueprints: Teaching Library Research as a Thinking Process. Libraries Unlimited, 1988.