Presentation on Freshmen Skills pilot given to teachers and administrators December 2011.

1. Freshmen Research Skills
Pilot
Observing and Assessing Student Learning
John Burns, History teacher
Deeth Ellis, Librarian
Carolyn Fretz, Science teacher
Caroline Prinn, English teacher
December 8, 2011

2. Goals of Project
 Cross curriculum (History, Science,
English)
 Document student thought process
 Collect data through assessment and
observation
 Determine if skills lessons made a
difference

3. The Need: Teachers Observations
Want Students to INDEPENDENTLY:
 find relevant and reliable resources
 develop strategies when it gets difficult
 synthesize and construct new knowledge
 Learn to navigate library resources (print books,
ebooks, databases, citation information)
How do we scaffold and prepare students to do this?

4. The Need: Students Flounder
 I can’t find anything on Google!
 My teachers wants me to narrow my topic more.
 I tried the library databases and couldn’t find
anything.
 How do I choose what to use?
 I don’t know how to begin.
How do we increase skills and confidence in
order to improve student performance and
lower stress?

5. Our Pilot:
Freshmen Skills Projects
 East Asia Research
 Mr. Burns / History
 Constellation Brochure
 Mrs. Fretz / Earth Science
 Mythology Storytelling
 Ms. Prinn / English
 Skills across the curriculum
 Ms. Ellis / Library Science

6. Consistencies throughout each project in
pilot . . .
 Formative and summative assessment
 Formal library instruction
 Student feedback on resources, strategies and
pilot
 Research work graded
 Looking at student work
 Noodlebib for citation

7. Differences in projects
 Group vs. individual work
 Citing images
 Annotated vs. not annotated bibliography
 Note taking sheets

8. Our Tools
 Pre/PostStudent Assessment
 Source Evaluation Sheets
 Interviews with Students
 Noodlebib

9. Pre & Post Assessment

10. Project Assessments
 Formative Assessments
 Source Evaluation Forms
 Noodlebib
 Conferencing with students
 Summative Assessments
 20 points for variety, evaluation and selection
of quality resources. (All placed in
Noodlebib.)

11. Source Evaluation Sheet

12. Goal of Source Evaluation
Forms*
 WHAT type of information
 WHEN in process do I need it
 HOW to determine relevance
 NEXT steps
 SHARE
 CITE
*Used as Formative Assessment

13. Noodlebib
 Correctly format citations
 Collaborative Tool for Groups
 Share with teachers (formative
assessment)
 Generate bibliography with annotations
 Connect to Google Docs (future)

14. How did students do?
 Pre-Assessment
 Project Assessments
 Student Response/Post-Assessment

15. Pre and Post Assessment
Results
 Pre-Assessment Average: 77%
 Post-Assessment Average: 82%

16. Pre-Assessment Highlights
Students were able to define:
 Index and keyword
 Plagiarism
 Primary source
87 % of students scored correctly on pre-
assessments on these questions

17. Post-assessment Improvements
 Question 1 - Most efficient way to start a
research project on Islam:
 94% increase in correct answer
 Question 2 - Background information on European
Union:
 70% increase in correct answer

18. Pre and Post Assessment
Future Goals
 Pre-Assessment: Assess all students (8th
grade)
 Post-Assessment: Assess all students
(12th grade)
 Questions better reflect standards in
curriculum and core projects (C&I 2011)

19. Project Grades by Teacher

20. Points Lost on Research

21. Teacher Observations: Post-Project
Struggles
 How to start research (#14 & 15)
 How and When to Narrow Topic
 Confirmed with IRP Science class
 Path of least resistance: Google searching
 Search Returns = narrowly focused
webpages/magazine/newspaper articles
 Content farms (about.com)

22. Student Interviews: Questions
•What did you learn?
•What did you like/dislike about pilot?
•What did you learn about yourself as a
learner?
•How might you use what you learned in
the future?

23. Jake, Gail-Agnes and Serena
on the Library
“Introduced us to resources such as databases and ebooks
that we’ll use later on in our school projects.” -Serena
“It helped the progression, starting simple and getting more
complex.” - Jake

24. Were Students Getting It?
Website Evaluation
“I know what to look for in bad websites, how to find
the good ones.”-Gail-Agnes
“I have a greater appreciation for what sources might
not be a good choice for me.” -Serena
“More in depth analysis, evaluative skills.” -Jake

25. Were Students Getting It?
Source Sheets
“… waste of time when you realized the source wasn’t
reliable.” -Monica
“Helpful…everything was laid out in front of you.” - Gail-
Agnes
“burdensome, not necessary, took too long, preferred using
Noodlebib.”-Justin
“Start with sheets then move on to annotated
bibliographies.” - Jake

26. Students on Noodlebib
 “Last year we shared our Noodlebib accounts, teachers could
review Noodlebib and the annotations could include
evaluative information.” - Jake
 “After we select websites, books…teachers could quickly
evaluate student work.” - Serena

27. Goals Looking Forward
•Creative and useful formative assessments
during research process.
•Use data to inform teaching that will
improve and enrich the students’ research
process and product.
•Try new things (technology, resources,
lessons) in core and smaller projects.
•Find common assessments and tools that
can be used across grade level, academic
level and curriculum.

28. The End