For the majority of this post, I will stick to my instructional situation of the one-shot English library instruction session. As I read through Fink's guide, however, I could not help but think of the semester-long class I am teaching. I grew more and more excited by the thought of applying Fink's principles to the class. I have been struggling with creating a cohesive class and Fink's work helped me to see where I was not being consistent. I was so excited to sit down and start redesigning my semester-long writing course! I'm still working on the one-shot scenario but here are some of my thoughts.
Procedures for Educative Assessment
1. Forward-Looking Assessment: Formulate one or two ideas for forward-looking
assessment. Identify a situation in which students are likely to use what they have
learned, and try to replicate that situation with a question, problem, or issue.
For the one-shot English library instruction classes, students will have to conduct research and write papers for other classes in the future. They would be able to rely on the resources and search strategies we explore in class. The most applicable, as well as the most likely, situation would be having to locate peer-reviewed research that supports a thesis. They will need to be able to locate peer-reviewed information and effectively determine which research is relevant to their topic. My forward-looking assessment question to direct my instruction could be this: What skills will my students need to strengthen in order to, first, find research in their subject areas and, second, filter research in order to find what is relevant to their research focus?
2. Criteria & Standards Select: one of your main learning goals, and identify at least
two criteria that would distinguish exceptional achievement from poor performance.
Then write two or three levels of standards for each of these criteria.
I will focus on how students should evaluate research in order to select articles that are relevant. Students that evaluate articles poorly will select articles without first reading the abstract and subject descriptors. A poor example would be selecting articles to fill out the required number rather than to illuminate the focus of the research. Students that evaluate articles effectively will select articles based on the content and scope by first determining what matches their research focus and then by expressing how the article in question informs their search for other articles. In short, poor evaluation will not include reflecting on the content of the article and how it changes or enhances the search for more research. Instead, poor evaluation selects research based on proximity, shallow key word matches, and the need to fill assignment requirements for "x number of peer-reviewed articles". Good evaluative skills will reflect the process of 'research as inquiry,' as the Framework for Information Literacy is proposing. Good evaluative skills will instead lead the researcher to select research based on abstracts, subject content, and scope. Good evaluative skills also require that one's research process is informed and shaped by the research being found, ie that one's search process must be shaped by the research one finds through the process of reflection.
3. Self-Assessment: What opportunities can you create for students to engage in
self-assessment of their performance?
One possible activity for self-assessment could be to have students write a reflection on how to change their search based on one article that they have selected from a resource we are exploring. By writing a reflection piece, I will be able to see some of their thought processes in order to determine how they are being impacted by the research they are reading. Additionally, I would hope that writing while researching would reflect the process I would like the students to aspire to on their own. By writing through the research process, they will be able to deepen their understanding and prime themselves for writing a more deeply-engaged paper.
4. “FIDeLity” Feedback: What procedures can you develop that will allow you to
give students feedback that is: Frequent, Immediate, Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria and standards, Loving.
This is a little bit difficult for a one-shot. Immediate feedback is possible through a number of means. I could have students perform the same sample search and then select an article from the first 5 and write about why they choose which article. I could use online polling to see which article was most popular. Then, we could break up into groups based on what article they chose and discuss in groups which of their written reflections they felt were the strongest and why. Then, they could discuss with the rest of the class why they choose their article. I could give feedback to each group and at the end, we could discuss which article was the best overall and why. I would tease out what we felt were the determining criteria based on what we were discussing and reiterate it for the whole class to make sure we were in agreement. By having students share, I can provide immediate feedback. By asking students why they felt certain answers were stronger, I can provide discriminating feedback. As for frequent, I would have to make sure to include a number of active learning situations that would provide opportunities for frequent feedback during the one-shot session. Finally, I believe the 'loving' part comes from how I handle the class itself. I can create a 'safe' and empathetic classroom by asking why students have come up with their answers. By allowing them to share their thought processes, I can pick out what is working and reiterate to the class as well as to ask for others to expand. I am still learning how to make sure I am empathetic in the moment. As someone who has a sarcastic sense of humor, I can sometimes be a bit critical in the moment and I am working on actively being earnest and empathetic to avoid my knee-jerk sarcasm.
I have come up with an activity that I believe would work with Fink's Procedures for Educative Assessment but I know I would have to trial it a couple of times to smooth out the mechanics. I've noticed that I can come up with exciting activities on paper that can flop in the classroom. I worry that students would not be willing to write a reflection on why they chose the article that they thought would be the best match for their search. There's also the issue of what to do if no one chooses the 'poorer' choices. We'll need a variety of answers in order to tease out how to discriminate between poor evaluation and good evaluation. I may have to think a little more on this but here is my first pass at educative assessment. Feel free to share ideas or suggestions in the comments!
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