MGE/SEC 444

Electronic Research

Literacy Assessments: Formal and Informal Measures

"In this next century, an 'educated' graduate will no longer be defined as one who has absorbed a certain body of factual information, but as one who knows how to find, evaluate, and apply needed information" (Breivik, 1998, p.2). Our ability to be information literate depends on our willingness to be lifelong learners as we are challenged to master new technologies that will forever alter the landscape of information.” -- Anonymous

University of Missouri-Columbia

http://www.missouri.edu

Informal Assessment http://web.missouri.edu/~kmldc3/informal.html

Example of Informal Assessment http://web.missouri.edu/~kmldc3/tyler.html

The two articles that I are above were found on University of Missouri-Columbia’s home page. The links are to the actual articles.

1) The site listed above are site that explain what informal assessment is, the advantages, the disadvantages, and gives you examples at all grade levels of different forms of informal assessment. It discusses different areas of observations and things that teachers need to look at and observe their students. The following is the table of contents to Example of Informal Assessment:

· Information about the Kindergarten Developmental Checklist Social-emotional Development Observation

· Language and Literacy Development Observation

· Physical Development Observation Strengths and Weaknesses of the Checklist

I thought the table of contents would be useful in giving you ideas of the things that you would be able to find and things that you may find helpful.

Code of Practice- quality and standards in HE

Assessment of students

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/public/COP/COPaosfinal/genprin.htm#saa

2) This site goes into major in depth details on the general principles of assessment. It also goes into details on the assessment panels and boards, conduct of assessment, the scheduling and amount of assessment to be given, marking and grading the students work, and finally how to provide effective feedback to the students. This site would be helpful and useful to all teachers. The information that is given is easy to comprehend information and very informative.

Assessment! Let Me Count The Ways!

http://k-6educatorsca.about.com/aboutcanada/canadateachers/library/weekly/aa050100.htm

3) This site was one of the better sites I found. It discusses many different types and forms of assessment. It explains the reasons why we have assessments of students and what the assessments consist of. The main thing on this site however is the variety of methods teachers can use to assess their students and their knowledge.

Information Literacy. ERIC Digest

http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed427777.html

4) This is a site that discusses national and state standards of literacy and assessment in the classroom. It gives you information on literacy research as well. It goes in to detail on the economic perspective of literacy assessment. The article also talks about literacy in higher levels of education. The article also gives a huge list of references where you could find any kind of information you would need on assessment. The references it gives are excellent for teachers to use because they also help you relate the assessment of literacy with your content area.

Principles of Effective Literacy Assessment

http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li7lk5.htm

5) This website discusses eight principles of literacy assessment which is in part based on the work of Farr and Tone. This site also has links Critical issues for this area and beginning of this critical issue which go into more details of literacy assessment and more on Farr and Tone research. The eight principles that it discusses in great depth are as follows:

Assessment should be an ongoing process
Effective assessment is an integral part of instruction
Assessment must be authentic, reflecting 'real' reading and writing
Assessment should be a collaborative, reflective process
Effective assessment is multidimensional
Assessment should be developmentally and culturally appropriate
Effective assessment identifies students' strengths
Assessment must be based on what we know about how students learn to read and write

Information Literacy: Books

http://www.ala.org/aasl/learning/nutshell/kuhlthau_assessment_1994.html

6) This site addresses the assessment of different library media services. It has an article on the history of testing and assessment in American education. It has some great links as well. My favorite one however was Research in Nutshell where you can find all kinds of information. They also have links posted to where you can go to other sites and get similar information.

Bibliography of Different Readings for Middle School and Secondary Educators

Breivik. P. S. & Senn, J. A. (1998). "Information literacy: Educating children for the 21st century." (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Hashim, E. (1986). Educating students to think: The role of the school library media program, an introduction. In "Information literacy: Learning how to learn." A collection of articles from School Library Media Quarterly, (15)1, 17-18.

Wiener, Roberta B.; Cohen, Judith H. (1997). Literacy Portfolios: Using Assessment To Guide Instruction. Merrill Prentice Hall.

Soares, Magda Becker. (1992). Literacy Assessment and Its Implications for Statistical Measurement. Current Surveys and Research in Statistics.

Kuhlthau, C. (Ed.). (1994). Assessment and the school library media center. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.