Melissa Lewis

Collection Evaluation Assignment

Part 1

March 3rd 2010

www.revolutionaryedsites.pbworks.com

Description of Site and Learners

I am completing my collection evaluation assignment at Westmont

Elementary School located in Evans, GA. This elementary school is a member

of the Columbia County School system which is a distinguished school system

located in the suburbs of Augusta, G.A. There are a total of thirty-two schools in

this system, with seventeen of them being Elementary schools. The majority of

the county is made up of students ranging from lower to upper-middle class

Caucasian students. There is also a small population of African American and

Hispanic students in this area as well.

At Westmont Elementary there are approximately 550 students that come

mostly from middle-class house holds. The primary demographic is Caucasian

students, with a small population of African American and Hispanic students.

The school employs 2 administrators, 38 certified teachers, and 25 classified

staff members. It is a Title I school who recently won a distinguished school

award in this area, and has made AYP seven years in a row.

The media center is located in the main hallway strategically placed near

the offices and directly across from the lunchroom, therefore all students pass

the facility several times throughout the day. The total number of books in the

media center’s collection is 11,247 with the average age being 1992, over fifteen

years old. There are also 10 desktop computers for students and teachers to

look up book titles and authors on Destiny or research a variety of topic areas.

There is a presence of technology throughout the building, that is not completely

reflected in the media center. Each classroom has an Active Board and student

computers. The media center does not have an Active Board of its own. The

media center operates on a flexible schedule. Students come in continually

throughout the day when they are given permission by the classroom teacher,

but classes can also sign up to come as a class. The media specialist and clerk

read to the younger grades when they come in to check out books.

There are four fourth grade classes which are set up into two teams. One

teacher is responsible for teaching math and science and the other is responsible

for language arts and social studies. This year there are a total of 105 fourth

grade students in all. Team 1 has 53 students and Team 2 52 students. Overall,

the abilities of this group of students vary tremendously. There reading levels

range from a second grade level to above fifth grade. There are a number of

students who qualify for special services including a total of eight EIP students,

five ESOL students, five Title I students, and four students enrolled in the gifted

program. Out of the eight EIP students, four of those students qualify in the

subject of reading/language arts. These students are supported by an additional

teacher for forty-five minutes during their reading block. The six students that

qualify in the math content area, two students qualify in both content areas, are

pulled our for an additional forty-minute small group lesson for re-teaching and

reinforcement. The gifted students go to the Horizons program located at the

school on Friday’s from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M. every Friday for acceleration in the

different content areas, with a focus on Science and Social Studies. .

Curriculum Review

For this activity I have chosen to focus on the Revolutionary War, which is

focused on in the fourth grade Social Studies Georgia Performance Standards

that follow:

SS4H3 The student will explain the factors that shaped British colonial

America.

a. Compare and contrast life in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern

colonies.

b. Describe colonial life in America as experienced by various people, including

large landowners, farmers, artisans, women, indentured servants, slaves, and

Native Americans.

SS4H4 The student will explain the causes, events, and results of the

American Revolution.

a. Trace the events that shaped the revolutionary movement in America,

including the French and Indian War, British Imperial Policy that led to the 1765

Stamp Act, the slogan “no taxation without representation,” the activities of the

Sons of Liberty, and the Boston Tea Party.

b. Explain the writing of the Declaration of Independence; include who wrote it,

how it was written, why it was necessary, and how it was a response to tyranny

and the abuse of power.

c. Describe the major events of the American Revolution and explain the factors

leading to American victory and British defeat; include the Battles of Lexington

and Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown.

d. Describe key individuals in the American Revolution with emphasis on King George

III, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Benedict Arnold, Patrick

Henry, and John Adams.

Standard Concept Task/Activity/Lesson Resources

SS4H3 Life in the American Colonies

Define the word colony by using prior knowledge, social studies text, and dictionary

Use a map of the colonies to show the students the locations of each

Use KWL chart to identify the characteristics and ways of life in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern Colonies

Complete a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the American Colonies

Identify the different jobs held by colonist

United Streaming; Social Studies Text; Leveled Readers; Current media center books and videos; maps that show colonies; county curriculum map; relevant websites, chart paper, Active Board, Writing graphic organizer

using text and books. Write a fictional story

taking on the identify as a colonist from either the New England, Mid-Atlantic, or Southern Colonies.

SS4H4 Causes of the American Revolution

Identify and define the list of causes of the American Revolution

Read about and act out the Boston Tea Party

Discuss the incident and aftermath of the Boston Massacre

Explain what happened in the French and Indian War

Identify and describe the variety of British policies and acts that were implemented in 1765 which led to conflict

Use a timeline to show the sequence of events that happened leading up to the Revolutionary War

Write a persuasive letter to the King of England using to in order to promote “No taxation without representation!”

Describe the characteristics and actions of the group Son’s of Liberty

Define the term ‘loyalists’

United Streaming; Social Studies Text; Leveled Readers; Current media center books and videos: timeline; Various websites; Graphic organizers; Dictionaries; Thesaurus, Active Board

Compare and Contrast the Son’s of Liberty and the Loyalists

SS4H4 The Declaration of Independence

Define and explain the purpose of the Declaration of Independence

Explain the message that this document sent to the King of England

Identify when the Declaration of independence was created and why

Introduce the term continental congress

Discuss the role of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, and the various other individuals instrumental in creating this document

Watch a video that illustrates the development and signing of the Declaration

United Streaming; Social Studies Text; Leveled Readers; Current media center books and videos; various websites; Photos that capture this event (from books or internet); Dictionary; Biographies of individuals; Atlases; Active Board

SS4H4 Events of the Revolutionary War

Introduce and describe the major battles of the war including: Battles of Lexington and Concord, Saratoga, and Yorktown.

Use a timeline to display the chronological order of the battles as they took place

Identify Paul Revere

United Streaming; Social Studies Text; Leveled Readers; Current media center books and videos; Specific texts and pictures on Paul Revere; graphic organizers; maps; Props for acting out events; Active Board

and his role in the moments prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord

Use a map to illustrate the place in which each battle took place

Act out the major events of each battle

Use a graphic organizer to define and illustrate key information about each battle

Identify the Battle of Saratoga as the turning point in the war

Explain the significance of the French military in the battle of Yorktown

Identify Yorktown as the last battle of the war

Key Individuals in the Revolutionary War

Introduce key people individually using a graphic organizer to take notes

Play matching game to identify characteristics and facts of the different individuals

Complete a research paper on a specific individual

United Streaming; Social Studies Text; Leveled Readers; Current media center books and videos; Biographies on all individuals; Encyclopedias; Relevant websites; Active Board

Collection Review

The first thing I did was go to the media center so that I could get a first-

hand look at the collection. This particular media center is well-organized and

set-up to encourage easy access to every section. The majority of the books

dealing with the Revolutionary War are located in the non-fiction, split between

the informational and biography sections. All of these materials are located

together on the right side of the media center. They are labeled by the Dewey

Decimal System and the history books are located in the 900 section because

they deal with the history of the United States. A sign is posted on the shelves

that identifies the hundreds number of the Dewey Decimal System. Along with

non-fiction texts about the Revolutionary War, there are also books on this topic

located in the fiction section. The fiction section is located on the left side of the

media center and is labeled by letters of the alphabet ranging from A-Z. Each

book’s spine is labeled with a specific group of letters based on the author’s last

name. Letters are visible on the shelves in the fiction section, which makes it

easy for students to located books once they know the author or call number.

The reference section is located on the side of the media center near the

entrance. Our library has a lot of great resources in this section that will be

extremely useful during this unit of study, including a variety of encyclopedias.

The newest set of encyclopedia’s copyright is 2010 and will offer the most current

information available on all of the individuals and battles discussed in these

Georgia Performance Standards.

The first way I evaluated this collection is by going to the specific

sections of the media center, locating specific texts that were relevant to my

topic, and then determining their age. I started this process in the non-fiction

section. As I glanced through I found most of the books in two places: the 900

section and the biography section. There were a lot of titles I found related to my

topic and from the cover they looked fairly new. However, when I found the

copyright date I was extremely surprised to see that most of them had a

copyright date in the early 1990’s, if not much older than that. The good

condition of these dated books tells me that they do not get much use, therefore

probably have not been checked out very often.

The fiction texts were a different story. It was harder to find these by just

glancing through the collection because they are so spread out, so I used

DESTINY to do a subject search of non-fiction books. In the collection there is

not a huge amount of non-fiction books on the topics of the American Colonies

and Revolutionary War; less than twenty. I found two main themes of the fiction

books on this topic, with a few exceptions. The book was either a part of the

American Girl Series or The Magic Tree House series. These are both really

great book series that give detailed and descriptive fictional accounts of historic

events, but there is not much variety. Also, unlike the non-fiction section the

books in the fiction section were much newer, but did seem to have a little more

wear and tear. This fact tells me that students really enjoy these fiction texts, so I

will definitely focus on adding a better variety when I complete my materials

order.

After I browsed through the collection focusing primarily on age, I moved

on to evaluating by Georgia Performance Standard. I logged into the DESTINY

catalogue system as the administrator and was able to pull up a list of all the

books that covered each of my standards. This is an extremely effective and

helpful tool. After I printed the lists of books for each standard, I broke my

standard into specific categories and sorted each title. By doing this I was truly

able to see how many resources were available for each topic that is covered

through these standards. Also, by doing this it became even more apparent how

old some parts of this collection are. After making this list I was able to see

which topics are covered more heavily than others. For instance, there are a lot

non-fiction and fiction texts on the Declaration of Independence, as well as a few

of the individuals like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Some topics

that need more items to adequately cover the standards are the American

Colonies and the battles. Both the causes and events of the war are covered,

with the exception of a few small holes that need to be filled in. I will focus on

ordering materials that will help to fill in these gaps in these standards.

Below is a chart that breaks up each standard into smaller topics and

graphs the age each topic, as well as the number of materials of each.

Subject of Materials Number Materials Average Age

American Colonies 8 1974

There was one text from

1951 and it brought the

average age if this section

down substantially.

Causes/Events Leading to

the Revolutionary War

20 1996

Events of the Revolutionary

War

23 1991

Key Individuals 18 1988

As you can see above the average age of each specific topic is starling.

The American Colonies, as stated before, is definitely an area which needs major

improvement. The average age was brought down by one or two specific texts

that were extremely dated, but even without those two the average age would not

be much better. The only topic area whose age is within fifteen years is the

causes of the war and overall this topic is covered well.

These numbers reflect the entire media center collection which has an

average age of 1992, as does the fiction section. The 900 section, where the

majority of the informational texts are housed is one year better averaging 1993.

The age collection will be a main focus as I create my order for new materials. I

will focus on ordering items that have a recent copyright date, in order to ensure

that the latest information about this topic is covered, as well as texts that cover

multicultural perspectives. Basically, I would like to weed a significant amount of

materials from this part of the collection and use my budget to replace the

materials with recent titles. Also, I would very much like to add to the number of

texts under each topic of the standards. As the GPS have changed I feel that it

may have caused there to be holes in the media center materials. I will attempt

to fill all of those holes during my book order.

The third way I evaluated the collection was by looking at the circulation of

materials. First, I started with evaluating the circulation of the whole collection

which holds a total of 11,247 books. Overall this year there have been 32,778

circulations which calculates to around 3 per item in the collection. I then wanted

to be specific and make sure that I determined the circulation for the materials

that refer to my standards. Although they are somewhat spread out, I focused

mostly on the 900 section because the majority of the information texts are found

there, and overall most of materials at the moment that deal with this topic are in

the informational section. In the 900 section there have only been 265

circulations this year for the 271 items, which is roughly 1 per item. This is lower

than the average for the entire. Over ¾ of the books related to my content area

are found in this section and proves that they are not being checked out

consistently; therefore literature is not being effectively used to extend the

learning of this curriculum. I want to change this by choosing newer texts that

contain more relevant information, as well as literature and other resources that

will grab students’ attention.

The last criteria I used to evaluate the collection was related to the

multicultural aspects of each text. Although there were a few texts that

represented different cultures and opinions on this topic, overall it was very one

sided. Most of these texts told the story of the Revolutionary War from the

American perspective, painting the founding father as heroes. Also, there were

very few texts that spoke of other cultures that fought in the war or were affected

by the many events. I will strive to find texts that tell multiple sides of the story,

as well as find resources that represented the different groups of people who

were involved outside of the ‘typical’ Anglo Saxon colonists. As I build the

colonies topic area, I will strive to find resources that describe the perspectives of

the Native Americans as these actions were taking place.

Summary of Needs

1. Focus on updating the collection and buying resources that were

published in the last five years. Although five years may seem

too far back to order books, there have not been any changes in

the facts regarding this curriculum; therefore the facts would not

have changed. Yet, at the same time, many new, diverse

materials would have been written and made about the

Revolutionary War and the colonies, so I will definitely focus on

finding titles with the most current copyright date. The average

of the collection will also be increased significantly even if texts

that are ten years old are purchased.

2. Add multicultural texts that cover the perspectives of the Native

Americans regarding the development of the colonies, the

loyalists and their views/reasons/opinions, the perspective of

King George the III, as well as resources that highlight slaves

were impacted and their role in the war.

3. Find a variety of fiction texts that tell the story of colonists,

loyalists, redcoats, and many of the other people and events that

are covered through these standards.

4. Find a few videos that could be used as additional resources in

the classroom. I will mostly obtain DVD’s, because teachers do

not have VCR’s in their classrooms, so if they show a VHS they

must run it through the library which can be a hassle. They can

play DVD’s through their computer and show them on the Active

Boards.

Budget Summary

I am very confident that I chose a wide range of materials that cover the negative

aspects found in my collection evaluation. In total I spent $3.359.89 on a variety

of materials including books, DVD’s, E-Books, and Audio Books. I was able to

find a large number of titles to fill in the wholes in curriculum, as well as recently

published books. For the most part I was able to find books that had been

published in the last five years, but there were a few exceptions. I made a

professional decision to add a few titles that were older than the five years, due

to the fact that the facts of topic have not changed in hundreds of years. With

that said I was able to add a tremendous amount of resources that had been

published within five years. Another thing I focused on was adding a

number of fiction texts to the collection that cover the standards of the American

colonies and the Revolutionary War. I was successful in this hunt and am

confident that I was able to find an assortment of fictional text that will aid in

teaching these standards. Lastly, I searched for texts that would teach a

multicultural view of this topic. I added several texts that shared the view of

slaves and Indians during this time of our history, as well as women. I was also

able to find several texts that were written from the perspective of the loyalists

and English. Overall I am confident in the items I chose to add to this collection.

My additional web resources can be found at:

www.revolutionaryedsites.pbworks.com.