I really believe that even the most traditional school librarian among us is a natural at formative assessment, or ungraded feedback that helps kids get to a better result than they could unaided. We can also practice the feedback loop when we look at student work and use it to revise or improve our own instruction.

Formative assessment can happen when:

we help kids pick a book that’s a better fit than their initial choice
a kid gets stuck on a search and we give them a few new search terms
students are struggling to develop a thesis and we mini-conference
we take a look at bibliographies before they’re submitted or even while research is underway
when we open up NoodleTools, see who’s struggling, and invite those students to stop by for guidance
we collect “how’s it going” forms, one-minute essays (where kids answer a question you pose, responding to it by filling up an index card), or collect “tickets out the door” from kids that we use to plan the next day’s mini-lesson accordingly

What else do you do to give gentle feedback to kids and to yourself? How might your expertise impact “Julie’s” scenario below?

Thanks!

Nudging: Last call for Wikipedia Suggestions!

Today’s the last day to share your ideas … we hope you will!

Thanks!

Sadly, I missed the presentation by Wikipedia’s Sue Gardner at ALA Annual this year. However, I heard from others that she encouraged librarians to populate Wikipedia. And that’s an interesting idea. Years ago, before logins were required on Wikipedia, I did edit an entry, adding the newest book to an author’s list of publications. Hardly controversial (and my contribution was easily verified). But I haven’t added anything to it since. And maybe I should.

But it turns out the average Wikipedia editor isn’t the average American. According to an interview with Gardner in the April 2011 issue of Fast Company, only 13% of Wikipedia’s editors are women. (See also this transcript from NPR.) Early 2009 saw Wikipedia lose 49,000 editors, which raises questions of who is watching the store, even if the store has a lot of awesome content. And 2009 statistics (Angwin & Fowler 2009)showed that the average editor was 26 - 27 years old and a bit trigger-happy in rejecting the edits of new editors (elsewhere — and I haven’t been able to track this down, so take it with a grain of salt — I have read that editors are overwhelmingly Caucasian as well). We’re not a male-dominated, white intellectual culture anymore, and we have not been for some time, so this information should give us pause.

Many librarians have taken pride, over the past decades, in developing collections that reflect a multicultural, multilingual, and multiethnic perspective. How does that value translate into Wikipedia and, more generally, into digital resources in general? Food for thought.

Meanwhile, poor “David” is struggling in the scenario below. Give him a hand, and ou could see your name in print! Besides the fun of being in print, it can be awfully useful at this decision-making time of year to show your administrator that you have ideas worth publishing!

Angwin, Julia, and Geoffrey A. Fowler. 2009. Volunteers Log Off As Wikipedia Ages. Wall Street Journal, November 23, Eastern Edition. http://www.proquest.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/ (accessed July 17, 2011).