Collection Evaluation and Development Plan

FRIT 7134 Georgia Southern University Spring 2011 Dr. Stephanie Jones

Jennifer Wilson March 9, 2011

Description of the Site/Environmental Scan: The collection evaluation and development plan took place at McGarrah Elementary School in Morrow, GA with an emphasis on 2nd grade Science. McGarrah is a part of the Clayton County Public School System. Morrow, GA is located 13 miles south of Atlanta. Morrow became a city in 1943 after a response to an Atlanta newspapers depiction of the city as the whistle stop south of Atlanta, according to City of Morrow (n.d.). Morrow is home to about 5000 residents, Clayton College and State University, which is known for its innovative uses of technology in higher education (City of Morrow, n.d.), Morrow Industrial Park, Ft. Gillem, Olde Towne Morrow, and Southlake Mall. The city of Morrow is located in Clayton County. Clayton County is one of Georgia's smallest counties in land size with an area of 146 square miles (Clayton County Government, 2006). Clayton County is home to approximately 251,800 residents with a population of 51% African American, 38% Caucasian, 7% Hispanic, and 4% Asian based on the 2000 Census (the 2010 census will not be released until late March). The county has also been certified as a StormReady Community. McGarrah Elementary School is one of 39 elementary schools. The school is home to 651 Pre-K 5TH grade students (including 3 Special Needs/Autistic units) and 41 high qualified faculty & staff members. McGarrah Elementary has made AYP for the past 8 years and has been a Title 1 distinguished school for 6 years. The schools media center is located in the center of the school and houses a collection of 22,123 print materials, which gives each student an average of 34 books. There are approximately 146 DVD and VHS titles in McGarrah Elementary Schools media center collection. The media center has 16 computers within the center and 1 computer lab with 28 computers that are connected to the media center. The media center also contains a media room where the 4th and 5th grade SCORE students create, produce, and broadcast the morning announcements/news. Each teacher has been given a laptop to use for work and at home. Each classroom is equipped with an LCD projector, an InterWrite Board or a pull down screen, 2 4 desktop computers, a DVD/VCR, and some classrooms contain TurningPoint Clickers for polling and in some cases tests. There are five 2nd grade teachers at McGarrah Elementary School. A total of 106 students are housed within the 2nd grade. The students are pretty well divided up with three of the 2nd

grade classes containing twenty-one students and the other two containing twenty students. There are two EIP augmented teachers who either push-in to classrooms or pull out, one student with special needs that is pulled out for a small portion of the day, one gifted resource class that meets every Monday, and two ESOL classes that meet at the end of the day, every day. There are eleven gifted, twenty-three EIP Reading and thirty-five EIP Math, three students with disabilities (SWD), and seventeen ESOL students mixed throughout the grade level. The ethnic breakdown is as follows: African American: 59 Caucasian: 3 Multi-racial: 9 Hispanic: 28 Asian: 7

Curriculum Review/Mapping: For this activity, I have chosen to focus on 2nd grade Earth Science, which includes the sun, moon, stars, seasons, and shadows. The following standards are to be addressed: S2E1. Students will understand that stars have different sizes, brightness, and patterns. a. Describe the physical attributes of starssize, brightness, and patterns. S2E2. Students will investigate the position of sun and moon to show patterns throughout the year. a. Investigate the position of the sun in relation to a fixed object on earth at various times of the day. b. Determine how the shadows change through the day by making a shadow stick or using a sundial. c. Relate the length of the day and night to the change in seasons (for example: Days are longer than the night in the summer.). d. Use observations and charts to record the shape of the moon for a period of time. Standard Concept
Assessment Products/End Strategies

Resources
Georgia HSP Science Unit A: Earth Science

S2E1

Physical attributes of stars

View photos or a video of stars/space. Identify constellations. Discuss and identify similarities and differences in sizes of stars. Discuss and identify similarities and differences in brightness of stars. Identify and locate important stars.

Chapter 2: Patterns in the Sky Photos or videos of space and stars Venn Diagram or TChart Chart paper and markers Maps of Stars/Space United Streaming

www.discoveryeducation.com Additional website resources click on:

www.hspscience.com Phases of the Moon

In Science journal: Draw a compass rose and illustrate where the sun is located at a given time. Students will construct a sundial. Construct a chart forecasting sunrise and sunset. Demonstrate the phases of a moon using a flashlight, small ball, and a globe. Illustrated and labeled in Science Journal. Discuss the changes that take place as trees are

Harcourt Science TE Unit A: Earth Science Chapter 2: Patterns in the Sky

S2E2

Position and patterns of the sun and moon

Science journal Graphic Organizers (T-Chart or Venn Diagram) Tree branch, with buds Chart paper & markers Photos or video of trees in different seasons Monthly Calendar

affected by the various seasons. Describe how trees are the same or different through the different seasons.

COLLECTION EVALUATION USING MULTIPLE ASSESSMENT TECHNIQUES

I began my collection evaluation by identifying the different sections within my media center. The media center is very large in space with many bookshelves located on the walls of the center and throughout the floor of the center. It is organized based on the Dewey Decimal System, where the biographies, fiction, reference sections are located along the walls of the media center (on very tall book shelves). The shelves are marked with a poster that extends out from the shelf identifying the corresponding Dewey Decimal range for that section. The Fiction section is located just as you enter the media center in an area the media specialist calls the square or the easy section. These books are organized by last name from A to Z. Many of these books/materials are labeled with a colored dot identifying the reading level of the book and whether or not the book is an Accelerated Book (AR). The Reference section has two parts, one for teachers (the professional section) and one for students. Neither section is used very often because the materials are out-of-date or somewhat difficult to get to. The tables in this area are being used for computers (identified as AR or research computers). Next, I met with my schools media specialist to discuss, identify, and locate any materials that were related to my curriculum, 2nd grade Earth Science (the sun, moon, stars, shadows, and seasons). My media specialist and I were able to locate 380 fiction and non-fiction print materials (with the majority of the materials being non-fiction) throughout the media center that could/would be beneficial to the 2nd grade Earth Science curriculum. 93% of the print materials that were located for my curriculum were in good condition and the oldest book within the selection of print materials was from 1988 and the oldest reference material that was located with information about Earth Science was from 1993. There is a huge need for more current reference materials within my media center.

I found that there was a vast array of non-fiction materials based on Earth Science: the moon, the sun, the stars, shadows, and seasons, but very few fiction and easy books on those topics, which makes it difficult for 2nd graders to locate materials they can read. Using the different search topics: Earth Science, Moon, Stars, Nighttime Sky, Seasons, Shadows, and Constellations a total of 380 print and non-print materials were found. The majority of the materials that were located are non-fiction. I was able to locate 6 videos that were related to the topic and could be used as a resource. 380 print and non-print materials is a decent number of materials to work with, but many of them are not as current as one would have thought and lack the key elements of the curriculum. The number of print and non-print materials for each topic within my curriculum is in the pie chart below. Also below, is a bar graph depicting the average age of the collection of materials for use within the curriculum. These concerns will be addressed within my budget plan.

Number of Print & Non-Print Materials: Earth Science Curriculum

7 9 86 138 380 35 105 Earth Science Moon Stars Nighttime Sky Constellations Shadows Seasons

Average Age of Print and Non-Print Materials

Equipment Easy CD's DVD VHS Reference Dewey: 500-599 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 Average age

The average age of the reference section materials (1988) is a huge concern as well as the age of many of the resources within the 500-599 (Natural Sciences/Mathematics; 1993), which is just shy of the average age (1992) of materials within the entire media center, area of the media center. This need for new (current) materials will be addressed within my budget plan as well. The equipment that the media center has is fairly current, but it will also be addressed because there are only 3 forms (globes) of equipment for teachers and students to use. There is also a need for Professional materials for the teachers to use along with the curriculum, which the media center has a lot of, but not on the topic of Earth Science. McGarrah Elementary Media Center houses 22,123 print and non-print materials. The materials have been checked out a total of 16,789 times this school year and a total of 637,447 times since the collection of materials were placed in the system. Due to the wide range of categories my curriculum topics cover, analysis of the materials was difficult. Earth Science is the main topic of discussion and many of the materials can be found within the 500 section of the media center. There are 2,788 print materials available to be checked out, where these materials have been checked out 2,265 times this school year. This means these materials have been checked out 1 time each, which is a very low check out rate for these materials, compared to the entire collection of materials. Another consideration is to identify whether or not the print and non-print materials within the media center are related to my curriculum topic. There are 138 materials about the

moon, 86 about the stars, 9 about the nighttime sky, 7 on the constellations, 105 about the seasons, and 35 about shadows. Surprisingly, there were little to no materials about the sun within the media center, I discussed this with my media specialist and she said many of the materials were lost, not returned, or had to be weeded. A good portion of my budget will go towards replenishing print materials about the sun, and adding to the collections on shadows, constellations, and the nighttime sky. Also, a need for equipment (globes, telescopes, experiment kits, etc.) are needed for productive lessons on the universe. My school is in an area that is very multicultural. Therefore, we have a vast array of materials that are also multicultural. The materials that I located about my curriculum topic had quite a few print materials that covered the multicultural need within this curriculum. The problem I found was locating multicultural reference materials within the media center. This concern will be addressed within the budget plan, if I am able to locate any (which my media specialist has informed me that locating reference materialsencyclopedias, atlases, etc. will be difficult to locate). I did notice that there were no print materials within the media, related to my curriculum topic, that were in Vietnamese. Summary of collection needs: 1. Choose resources that have been published within the last 5 years due to the constant changing of our universe. 2. Choose print and non-print materials that are multicultural in nature. Include materials in Spanish and Vietnamese. 3. Choose print and non-print reference materials, materials about the sun, constellations, shadows, and the nighttime sky. Many of these materials should be from the fiction (easy) section. If possible, purchase reference materials in other languages (Spanish and/or Vietnamese). 4. Find several pieces of equipment that would be beneficial to support the curriculum, which should include ebooks, ereaders, globes, telescopes, planetarium, etc.

MATERIALS ORDER AND BUDGET SUMMARY

Five book vendors were used to research and purchase materials (books, magazines, equipment, videos, e-books, etc.) for 2nd grade Earth Science topics, such as the sun, moon, stars, seasons, and shadows. The list of vendors that were used is as follows: Follett Carolina: World-Class Support for Science and Math Amazon Apple Journey K-12 Formally CCV Software

The total of my order is $3,949.91. A variety of print and non-print materials, including equipment, were purchased using the allotted $4,000. Each print and non-print item that will be purchased represents the main topics (sun, moon, stars, seasons, and shadows) of the three standards. The collections assignment allowed me to explore 2nd grade Earth Science, specifically the sun, stars, moon, shadows, and the seasons, in a more comprehensive manner that is directly related to the curriculum. I have found several print and non-print materials (including websites) that can be used as resources while working within this unit, which have been added to my wiki (http://jmwilson.pbworks.com/w/page/37123808/2nd-Grade-Earth-Science-Resources). I did my best to cover each of the standards with as many materials as I possibly could (most of them have print materials, videos, websites, and/or any additional references). See the Excel spreadsheet for specific titles.

References:

Clayton County Government. (2006, September 7). Clayton county facts, news and information. Retrieved from http://www.claytoncountyga.gov/

City of Morrow. (n.d.). History. Retrieved from http://www.cityofmorrow.com/