Nunaka Librarian

Assessment for grades K-5 Library Instruction

Classes meet once a week for thirty minutes

Grades are not given for library

One of the easiest formative assessments that I have found to use in the library is the Exit Card. Exit Cards are index cards (or sticky notes) that students hand to you, deposit in a box, or post on the door as they leave your classroom. On the Exit Card, your students have written their names and have responded to a question, solved a problem, or summarized their understanding after a particular learning experience. In a few short minutes, you can read the responses, sort them into groups (students who have not yet mastered the skill, students who are ready to apply the skill, students who are ready to go ahead or to go deeper), and use the data to inform the next week’s,  day’s or, even, that afternoon’s instruction.

Feedback provided by the Exit Cards frequently leads to the formation of a needs-based group whose members require re-teaching of the concept in a different way. It also identifies which of your students do not need to participate in your planned whole-group mini-lesson, because they are ready to be challenged at a greater level of complexity.

Have you ever used 3-2-1 cards in your library or classroom?

Cubing/Think Dots

Cubing/Think Dots are instructional strategies that ask students to consider a concept from a variety of different perspectives. Cubing uses a concrete visual of a cube with its six sides to serve as a starting point for consideration of the multiple dimensions of topics within subject areas. For example, the cubes are six-sided figures that have a different activity on each side of the cube.  A student rolls the cube and does the activity that comes up.  Think Dots is similar – offering six choices for response. 

Cubing/Think Dots provide a way for students to explore one important topic or idea but to accomplish tasks at their readiness levels, in their preferred learning styles, and/or in areas of personal interest. All students are working on activities dictated by their materials; the activities are differentiated for individual students or groups of students. 

Six sides of a cube include the following:

Describe it

If applicable, include color, shape, and size.

How would you describe the issue/topic?

Compare it

What it is similar to or different from.

“It’s sort of like ______________________ .”

Associate it

What it makes you think of.

How does the topic connect to other issues/subjects?

Analyze it

Tell how it is made or what it is composed of.

How would you break the problem/issue into smaller parts?

Apply it

Tell how it can be used.

How does it help you understand other topics/issues?

Argue for/against it

Take a stand and support it.

I am for this because __________________.

This works because ___________________ .

I agree because ______________________ .

Keeping Kids Safe

As an elementary librarian I think a big part of my job is to be a “human filter.” When I provide students, who are all under the age of thirteen, with websites for research I make sure I have previewed the site first. I filter Web 2.0 sites by reading the terms of service that is located in very small print on the bottom of most sites. Most of the sites restrict use for students the age of thirteen, but allow parents to provide log in or e-mail access for students. I also filter sites by the way they look. For a student in elementary we are looking for less words, more pictures and pictures that are clickable.  If sites have pop-ups and adds I look for something else for them to use. 

I am also the “human filter” for staff. They tend to use resources more that require no log in or e-mail. When I suggest sites to staff I also look at the option to print materials for free. If teachers spend the time to go online, they want the ability to use what they find.

Keeping kids safe is my job and I don’t mind being a “human filter.”

Graphic Novels

For many teachers and adults, graphic novels, sometimes called comic books, are simple escapism - but graphic novels offer the opportunity for insight and discussion.

Many students are reluctant readers who feel that texts studied in school are altogether inaccessible. Their lack of enthusiasm for a text to which they have no attachment can be misinterpreted as apathy or laziness. Contrary to appearances, students are often avid readers but in a less than traditional manner. Their preference: graphic novels.

Graphic novels are a powerful support of visual literacy using words and images to provide a nontraditional bridge to convential text. These valuable learning tools “hook” readers draw them into the story by engaging twenty-first century skills such as vocabulary building, making inferences, and drawing conclusions. Literacy experts agree that the ability to extract meaning from printed pages is more important than simply reading words. Graphic novels combine recreciational reading and curriculum support in a way that makes sense for students in our visual culture.

What is the difference between a comic and a graphic novel? Most simply, length.  A comic and a graphic novel are told via the same format, officially called sequential art: the combination of text, panels, and images. Comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels are in this sense all the same thing, but comic books stretch a story out to about thirty pages, whereas graphic novels can be as long as six hundred pages.

 One of the biggest benefits of graphic novels is that they often attract kids who are considered “reluctant” readers. This is not just hype — the combination of less text, narrative support from images, and a feeling of reading outside the expected standard often relieves the tension of reading expectations for kids who are not natural readers, and lets them learn to be confident and engaged consumers of great stories. That being said, graphic novels are not only for reluctant readers — they’re for everyone! It’s a disservice to the format to dismiss it as only for those who don’t read otherwise, and relegating graphic novels to a lower rung of the reading scale is not only snobbish, but wrong.

Graphic novels are not and were never intended to be a replacement for other types of traditional books. Sequential art is just another way to tell a story, with different demands on the reader. So, yes, graphic novels don’t work exactly the same way that traditional novels do, but they can be as demanding, creative, intelligent, compelling, and full of story as any book. Give a graphic novel a try; see for yourself what all the hype is about.