In this class, Resource Alignment for School Librarians, we will be working through the resource alignment process developed by Karen R. Lowe as outlined in her book Resource Alignment: Providing Curriculum Support in the School Library Media Center. Resource Alignment is a library collection development process that includes collection analysis, weeding, curriculum matching, and the development of a 3-5 year library collection development plan.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
February 2 -- Curriculum Match
• Describe how you are matching the collection to your building curriculum and/or the Iowa Core Curriculum. (i.e. Discuss how you are documenting the gaps and identifying and prioritizing the needs.)
After matching up/color coding the dewey's for each topic identified by the teachers, I then looked in TrueFLIX to see which topics are not touched there, as a way to narrow the field for now: Solids & Liquids; Pebbles, Sand, Silt; Health, Nutrition, Germs; Deserts; Red, White, Blue; Balance & Moation; Dolphins Oceans; Food Chains & Webs. I compiled lists of collections on seperate lists in Destiny, now I will go through each one and mark with yellow/pink the books that should go now, stay & replace soon. I will begin with the areas that have the fewest books, which at this point are: Balance & Motion (531); Solids, Liquids, Gas (530); Health, Germs & Nutrition (612, 616). I'm very excited to get started, I also need to go through the rest and begin weeding out the serious problem (older/outdated books) to make room for new - I will look to remove books that do not fall within curriculum areas identified by the teachers.
Good process. I too realized that my collection may be heavy in some areas and not have many books at all in another area. That too needs to be balanced based on curriculum.
I went to work in the MC today - I changed my mind and started with the Deserts, Pebbles, Sand, Silt; Solid's Liquid & Gas. I removed 3 from SLG's, 27 from the other (found 2 from my list in the Wilson's Catalog). I've gone into several vendors to find more current books covering science experiments dealing with SLG's and desert animals. These are the areas that are lacking and of highest interest to students at this point in time. I'm at a little bit of a loss for newer books on Liquids, Solids and Gases, so I went into the other WDM elementary on line catalogs searched for "liquids" as well as "deserts" and printed their lists to compare with our collection. I'll add the most current ones to my book orders.
When I worked at the AEA In Creston, I realized that some areas just don't have quality books written about them. I usually take time to share that info with the vendors I meet. With those areas I check Wilson's to see what they have. Sometimes you just have to choose the best books possible and hope some quality books come along soon.
My process of matching my collection to the Social Studies curriculum (this is what I chose for phase 1 of my resource alignment) has become a little convoluted, but it makes sense to me. First I analyzed the collection for out of date materials and gaps using the shelf list. Then I studied the Iowa Core Social Studies standards for 9-12 grade. Then I reviewed the Waukee High School Social Studies curriculum. I met with 3 different SS teachers to discuss areas of concentration in their classes. Then I made a table listing these areas of concentration (like minorities' role in reconstruction, etc) and looked at my shelf list to see what I had. Then the 9th grade librarian and I met to compare resources and further discuss the needs of the ss department. Then I turned to Wilson's catalog to select titles to fill some gaps. I have a decent start on the list, but am not finished.
In evaluating the collection, after highlighting and going back through to write in where the gaps are in a different color pen. I am focusing on the 600’s at this time. I have talked to both of the MS health teachers as well as 2 of the science teachers to help identify what some of the needs are. Additionally, the HS librarian and I also spent part of our PD time one day going through the Iowa Core and identifying topics that align with Dewey. I have also used Wilson’s Junior High to identify books to keep. If a book is on the list, and I had highlighted to weed it, I have made a note next to it that it is in Wilsons, so that as I attempt to update the section in the future, I simply have to check if these books are still in Wilsons. Hopefully this will help speed up the process in the future. I have already identified the books that are most in need of weeding. I have also started to use Titlewave to create a list of titles to purchase. I did already purchase some new titles out of the budget money that I had left for this school year. I am excited about getting some things off the shelf for good.
I met with the superintendent and the high school principal respectively to share the “yellow” effect of the now-evaluated nonfiction collection. It served as a quick visual to provide a conversation starting point. The resource alignment class structure, the emphasis on the Core Standards, and the emphasis on connecting the collection with curriculum were assurances for the administration. It is understood that a 3-5 year replacement and purchasing plan for upgrading the library will be proposed.
(Iowa Core) Units of study in the content areas show that the 300s will be the first area of concern. Careers, opposing viewpoints, Civil Rights, court cases, drugs, alcohol, tobacco use and abuses are all areas requiring updating according to instructors. There were no gaps to note as much as the severe age of the items available. Contacts with curriculum area teachers (Language Arts, FCS, Biology, and Social Studies especially) responded to questions, as well as follow-ups via email for prioritizing assistance.
Knowing the budget is limited, I printed off the narrowest Wilson catalog of recommended books for high school libraries in the specified areas of the 300s. I am currently looking at vendors (and creating a list on Titlewave) and pricing to start to get a picture of what might be ahead for just this segment of analysis.
When I first started Resource Alignment, the whole process seemed rather overwhelming. I finally decided to make copies of Figure 3.2 “Criteria for Weeding / Selecting School Library Media Resources” and figure 3.3 “Specific Helps in Weeding Nonfiction” and post them beside my card catalog. Working my way through the titles became easier as I went along. The idea of marking the upper right hand corner of each card with a yellow or pink dot worked quite well. In fact, the really old cards were given two yellow dots, pulled immediately, and the books were removed from the shelf. One of our high school social studies teachers actually volunteered to help me go through the cards and books in the 300’s. Using a copy of the Iowa Core Social Studies standards for 9-12 grades and our high school curriculum for social studies, we proceeded to recheck the cards for relevancy and make a list of gaps and weak areas. Weeding is difficult, but quoting Karen Lowe, “No information is better than misinformation.”
Yes, working from a shelf list is more work. It seems as though you're making good progress--and creating connections with teachers at the same time. Hopefully that social studies teacher will be an advocate for you in the future.
After using 2 different colored highlighters on my Titlewave Collection Analysis by the hundreds, I then highlighted the Karen Lowe chart of Curriculum Gap and Weak Areas. I decided that my 600’s need the most urgent attention. The 446 items in the 600’s have a copyright average age of 1996. The Balanced Dewy Comparisons against the Wilson catalog has a difference of -1.24%. My secretary is in the process of going through and checking Wilson to see what 600’s need to be kept.
When looking at the K-5 Cedar Rapids Community Schools Student Learning Expectations for Science, I noticed that I need to purchase updated human body, healthy diet, drugs, disease, building, space travel, and municipal/sanitary books. Other lacking areas in the 600’s that have a connection to the reading themes/stories that could be improved upon are – how things work, inventions, medicine, and land and air transportation. My conversations that I had with classroom teachers will help me to select new materials.
To avoid purchasing books that weren’t outdated, I looked at the 600’s without highlights. I didn’t realize how many cat, dog, and pet books that are in the library!
My budget is spent for this year so I am starting to create a list in Follett of books to purchase next year. Some of the titles have been given to me by classroom teachers and others I have discovered.
We have a program in our district called Curriculum Manager. This helps all of us in the district figure out what topics the students in different grades are learning in science and social studies. I looked at the Dewey ranges for these topics looking to see if we have the supplementary materials that are appropriate for these age groups.
Our science and social studies curriculum has changed quite a bit this year. Many of the topics that we taught in one grade is now assigned to another. We were doing pretty well in our library before this happened, so I am trying especially hard to purchase materials appropriate for the age groups now assigned to topics.
After analyzing the curriculum, Iowa Core and materials available in the collection, I found a lack of resources to support recently added classes and/or programs. One area that is lacking is resources for the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Many of the resources we do have are rather dated and/or do not exist at all. The English department added a drama class to their offering and our collection lacks up to date materials. Also the business teacher added a class on marketing and we do not have print resources to support this class. I plan to concentrate some of my remaining budget funds for this school year to these subject areas.
In the future I will also consider adding up to date materials for the building trade classes and travel information for Spanish and French speaking countries. These are of lower priority due to the fact, building trade information and travel information is readily available on the Internet and print material gets outdated very quick
Last spring I was given the news that I was going to be working with K-12, in the past I had been K-5. I knew the HS library was in need of weeding. So without the help of this class I came up with some parameters and commenced weeding away most of the collection. As I began this class I was pretty happy with my decisions. My weeding was close to what is described in this class, but I also had to leave some books in the library. Right now there is 4 books per student. The sad news is most of the nonficiton section is still out of date and out of line with Iowa Core. Although I would like to work on the whole library I know I need to patiently go through the plan I devise. So as I looked at the Titlewave analysis the 500's jumped out as in the worst shape with an average age of 1979. I also know from working with the students that this a very good section to start with as look to the library for resources. While we have many good online resources we still need some quality print resources in the library. I will partner with the science teachers and use Wilson's and Iowa Core to guide in purchasing for this specific area.
In the elementary library I will be able to weed and align the 300's with our new Social Studies series and Iowa Core. I've been able to get some funding for this area through talking with the curriculum director.
I am in the process of merging two schools, so first I printed out the shelf lists for both of those schools and used my highlighters to go through the lists provided in the book to determine "outdated/delete" vs. "keep for now" vs. "definitely keep" by copyright age. Then I looked at some of my gaps in relation to what we are teaching for curriculum areas and decided to concentrate on the social studies curriculum areas for now, so mainly the 900s and the 300s. Once I go through those sections for gaps, I will look at the rest as I weed and try to create a new book order for the new library we will have in a couple years. Additionally I am taking my two shelf lists and comparing them to see if I have a lot of overlap items or if one school has a gap but the other school has enough books to cover that gap for it when the two merge. The biggest areas I see affected by online resources so far is the Reference section and in the 900s the state and country books that I do not necessarily have to replace if we continue to have CultureGrams provided to us by the Iowa AEA Online Database. In the meantime, I am also checking with my grade level teachers to see what major project topics they are studying in their classes to make sure that I have enough materials to cover those topics especially as the Core Curriculum gets incorporated into our school districts curriculum standards.
After highlighting the shelf lists with two different colored highlighters I did notice there was a lot of yellow. But, after filling out the Resource Development plan it makes my school look good because we have 51 books per student in my library. That number is deceiving because most of those books that we have are not current, they are very out of date and need a lot of weeding. Another thing that I noticed is that my shelves are way to full, I had some that were completely full that I could not even use a shelf-end on them. So, I started by going through the biographies and pulled according to the guidelines. Next I sat down with the 4th grade Language Arts teacher. They do a big biography unit in 4th grade so I showed her the books that I was weeding and explained the process. I allowed her to search through to see if she found any that she thought were used enough in her classes project that I should keep but she did not find any.
My next step was to begin going through the fiction books. My school uses Accelerated Reader a lot now in Kindergarten-4th grade. When I first got this job it was in 3rd and 4th grade but now we have every quiz available so a lot of books have been used just for AR. I decided to go through and pull any before 1980 and books that we have many copies of to help my overpopulated shelves. I have made it from A-T so far and you can tell what I have weeded and what I have not. Teachers have commented that it looks better and students commented that it is easier to find books. After I tackle the fiction my next goal is to look at the new science curriculum we just received to see what additional books need added in the 500s to help support those units.
Heather, I always get comments from my teachers and students, too. They like being able to see the books without having others fall off the shelf. The students seem to find books that they haven't found before due to the old books hiding them. And I really like the way the shelves look with book ends!!
I used Titlewave Collection Analysis and the two highlighted colored method as well. We have an overall average age of 1999 which I don't think is too bad since that is the year our building opened, but their are a lot of old books you find out as you begin highlighting. It is almost shocking that we had such old books in a fairly new building, but they had "collected" books from another older library in the district to fill the shelves. Well those shelves are now over full and old and out-dated books. The 300 & 500 section stuck out with whole sections looking like they needed to be discarded. Checking against the Wilson catalog and keeping in mind what Karen Lowe had said about keeping some still accurate books (but in poor condition) because there isn't enough money to replace everything at once. You really realized that it can't be done all at once so prioritizing is critical. I need to find up-to-date books and other resources that supporting our curriculum needs. Outlining our needs and setting a five year plan is going to keep me focused on what needs to be done and hopefully avoiding the willy-nilly purchasing that has occurred in the past.
I have talked to several teachers and looked at the Iowa Core Curriculum, then checked and highlighted my Dewey categories. My collection of nonfiction books is very old (average 1983) and needs major weeding. There are also many categories that I do not have any books on the related subjects. The budget is very tight in our district as a result of financial issues that surfaced last year. Because we are a one to one laptop school at the high school level and have been for several years, most of our research is done online. Our district reorganized the grade level configuration this year and moved grades 7 & 8 to the high school building. The junior high has its own computer lab, but not individual computers. This reconfiguration has resulted in many staffing cuts and great demands on the remaining staff. The vast majority of teachers have added additional classes, they are teaching for the first time this school year. Therefore they are still learning new curriculum and making adjustments to teaching units. I cannot begin to fund the number of books needed to get the library updated and do not like to see books setting on the shelves, not used, because the students are researching online. My plan is to purchase books that meet curriculum needs and will also be of interest to students. I will start my focus on the history section, as this section has the oldest average copyright. I am planning to select books that students may read out of personal interest in addition to supporting the curriculum. I will also focus on biographies, as our new English teacher does a unit with biographies and this section is extremely old and weak. The students may also choose biographies of interest for leisure reading.
Some of my comments made in the collaboration time pertain to this section that I forgot to complete! I've been working on highlighting key topics in our science curriculum using our course essential elements forms that teachers complete during PD and collaboration time. These pacing guides tell me exactly what is taught in a two-week time period. I've printed our social studies curriculum for grades 6,7, and 8 and will be highlighting key topics there as well. I've weeded from 000 to the 600s and know that students do not read books with too much text with few or only black and white photos! It's exciting to see some of the new books being published that grab students attention, such as Scholastic's "Vietnam: The Bloodbath at Hamburger Hill" and some fiction books from Stone Arch (Capstone) with history topics that combine text and graphics, similar to graphic novels (Bloodlines series). Also, science books like "Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments to Make Science Fun." Getting teachers to talk about these books in relation to what they are teaching really helps in getting students interested and checking the books out. I am going to talk to the principal about staffing and who will again be teaching social studies next year. It is hard to keep up with what 28 teachers are doing so I definitely need to talk to them more and ask them what worked in the library this year. Then, in my plan for the future, I want to purchase more ebooks and also promote them so that teachers see how easy they are to access and use with their interactive boards and in labs.
I chose to concentrate on the science curriculum this year, for this project, because my school district (DCSD) implemented a new science curriculum two years ago, and after looking at my Follett Titlewise Analysis, these were the areas that were the most outdated and lacking.
After highlighting my shelf list, I highlighted my Collection Analysis Form (in yellow) to identify any gaps/weak areas in my collection. I then printed out the Iowa Core and the DCSD science curriculum. I again highlighted my Collection Analysis Form (this time in blue) to show the science curricular areas that corresponded with the Iowa Core and DCSD science curriculum.
I met with my LRC/Technology Committee teammates and discussed and listened to the science curricular areas that they felt the library lacked resources for. They have been able to supplement some of these areas with resources from our Keystone AEA, online resources such as True Flix, and websites that were suggested through our Science Curriculum (FOSS and STC).
After this meeting, I looked at the areas that I had highlighted on my Collection Analysis Form with yellow (weak areas) and blue (curricular areas) – these common areas turned green – and re-evaluated which areas I needed to “beef up”. The areas that the teachers have been able to find other resources for were identified on this form, too. This helped me to pare down the areas that I needed to concentrate my funding on.
My next steps were to use Wilson’s Core Collection, the suggested reading resource guides from the science texts (FOSS and STC), and the suggested resources given to me by the teachers themselves to help locate resources for those areas. At our Tech/LRC Committee meeting, a book was shared that all grade levels would like to see placed in the library for use. I plan to purchase several copies of this book. I also plan to search for resources in multiple reading levels for these areas.
I did meet with a teacher in 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades over the course of the 8 weeks. In 2nd grade we looked at an upcoming unit for Iowa and how to most to create essential questions that address concepts for both social studies and writing. We did discover that we had many books already in our library that would fit her needs for this topic. We did get a few books from another elementary school in our district.
In 4th grade, we revamped an existing "states" project. It will include more writing for the core and more research. We have a rubric for the writing. The library could use a more current set of state books for this project.
In 5th grade, we looked at the social students standards. Our Indian books were in need of being updated or discarded and not replaced. I did ask them if Indians were really in the Iowa Core. We looked and noticed that you could use the topic of indians to relate to one of the social standards for 5th grade.
In 6th Grade, We looked again at social studies. Are ancient worlds still required teaching? And once again you can use ancient worlds to teach the social studies standard. With this years class and learning styles, she didn't focus much on ancient worlds, but hoped to in the future. At this time, I will not update our ancient world books.
Since we are just starting our work with the Iowa Core I have not matched it at all. I will do this as IC standards are identified. At one of our meetings, someone shared it would take years to cover all the items in the high school core. I am highlighting areas of our collection that currently reflect our research projects. I also asked my colleague to help with identifying these areas.
After looking at my highlighted shelf list, I determined I wanted to focus on the 500s as this is an area that is both used for a lot of research in our elementary setting as well as an area that most kids checkout books from. The overall age of the collection wasnt too terribly bad, but did notice how many are really getting in ragged shape due to mass checkouts. I used Core curriculum as well as the icat data that teachers are using to find gaps overlaps in the core curriculum as well. This has been a great process to speak with teachers about. In the scheme of the big idea that some classes are using with the SWH method, some classes take a different approach to getting to the big idea, so nice to see that I will need to tweak my collection a bit based on this. I have also compared this to the Wilson's cat to see what items are recommended from there.
After highlighting my highschool collection, the gaps are everywhere! I plan to prioritize based on the curricular areas that utilize the library most - English, Science, Social Studies. Science is the oldest are and the most critical need. I am meeting with the teachers at the high school and middle school level to further identify what materials will be needed to support the curriculum. I also plan to meet with the middle school principal who serves as our curriculum director.
From my meetings with the Science teachers, I will narrow down a focus for next year, what potion of the Science curriculum needs to be addressed first.
After matching up/color coding the dewey's for each topic identified by the teachers, I then looked in TrueFLIX to see which topics are not touched there, as a way to narrow the field for now: Solids & Liquids; Pebbles, Sand, Silt; Health, Nutrition, Germs; Deserts; Red, White, Blue; Balance & Moation; Dolphins Oceans; Food Chains & Webs.
ReplyDeleteI compiled lists of collections on seperate lists in Destiny, now I will go through each one and mark with yellow/pink the books that should go now, stay & replace soon. I will begin with the areas that have the fewest books, which at this point are: Balance & Motion (531); Solids, Liquids, Gas (530); Health, Germs & Nutrition (612, 616).
I'm very excited to get started, I also need to go through the rest and begin weeding out the serious problem (older/outdated books) to make room for new - I will look to remove books that do not fall within curriculum areas identified by the teachers.
Good process. I too realized that my collection may be heavy in some areas and not have many books at all in another area. That too needs to be balanced based on curriculum.
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ReplyDeleteI went to work in the MC today - I changed my mind and started with the Deserts, Pebbles, Sand, Silt; Solid's Liquid & Gas. I removed 3 from SLG's, 27 from the other (found 2 from my list in the Wilson's Catalog). I've gone into several vendors to find more current books covering science experiments dealing with SLG's and desert animals. These are the areas that are lacking and of highest interest to students at this point in time. I'm at a little bit of a loss for newer books on Liquids, Solids and Gases, so I went into the other WDM elementary on line catalogs searched for "liquids" as well as "deserts" and printed their lists to compare with our collection. I'll add the most current ones to my book orders.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at the AEA In Creston, I realized that some areas just don't have quality books written about them. I usually take time to share that info with the vendors I meet. With those areas I check Wilson's to see what they have. Sometimes you just have to choose the best books possible and hope some quality books come along soon.
DeleteMy process of matching my collection to the Social Studies curriculum (this is what I chose for phase 1 of my resource alignment) has become a little convoluted, but it makes sense to me. First I analyzed the collection for out of date materials and gaps using the shelf list. Then I studied the Iowa Core Social Studies standards for 9-12 grade. Then I reviewed the Waukee High School Social Studies curriculum. I met with 3 different SS teachers to discuss areas of concentration in their classes. Then I made a table listing these areas of concentration (like minorities' role in reconstruction, etc) and looked at my shelf list to see what I had. Then the 9th grade librarian and I met to compare resources and further discuss the needs of the ss department. Then I turned to Wilson's catalog to select titles to fill some gaps. I have a decent start on the list, but am not finished.
ReplyDeleteSounds great!
DeleteIn evaluating the collection, after highlighting and going back through to write in where the gaps are in a different color pen. I am focusing on the 600’s at this time. I have talked to both of the MS health teachers as well as 2 of the science teachers to help identify what some of the needs are. Additionally, the HS librarian and I also spent part of our PD time one day going through the Iowa Core and identifying topics that align with Dewey. I have also used Wilson’s Junior High to identify books to keep. If a book is on the list, and I had highlighted to weed it, I have made a note next to it that it is in Wilsons, so that as I attempt to update the section in the future, I simply have to check if these books are still in Wilsons. Hopefully this will help speed up the process in the future. I have already identified the books that are most in need of weeding. I have also started to use Titlewave to create a list of titles to purchase. I did already purchase some new titles out of the budget money that I had left for this school year. I am excited about getting some things off the shelf for good.
ReplyDeleteI met with the superintendent and the high school principal respectively to share the “yellow” effect of the now-evaluated nonfiction collection. It served as a quick visual to provide a conversation starting point. The resource alignment class structure, the emphasis on the Core Standards, and the emphasis on connecting the collection with curriculum were assurances for the administration. It is understood that a 3-5 year replacement and purchasing plan for upgrading the library will be proposed.
ReplyDelete(Iowa Core) Units of study in the content areas show that the 300s will be the first area of concern. Careers, opposing viewpoints, Civil Rights, court cases, drugs, alcohol, tobacco use and abuses are all areas requiring updating according to instructors. There were no gaps to note as much as the severe age of the items available. Contacts with curriculum area teachers (Language Arts, FCS, Biology, and Social Studies especially) responded to questions, as well as follow-ups via email for prioritizing assistance.
Knowing the budget is limited, I printed off the narrowest Wilson catalog of recommended books for high school libraries in the specified areas of the 300s. I am currently looking at vendors (and creating a list on Titlewave) and pricing to start to get a picture of what might be ahead for just this segment of analysis.
Good job.
DeleteJoyce VonGlan
ReplyDeleteAr-We-Va School
Westside, Iowa
When I first started Resource Alignment, the whole process seemed rather overwhelming. I finally decided to make copies of Figure 3.2 “Criteria for Weeding / Selecting School Library Media Resources” and figure 3.3 “Specific Helps in Weeding Nonfiction” and post them beside my card catalog. Working my way through the titles became easier as I went along. The idea of marking the upper right hand corner of each card with a yellow or pink dot worked quite well. In fact, the really old cards were given two yellow dots, pulled immediately, and the books were removed from the shelf.
One of our high school social studies teachers actually volunteered to help me go through the cards and books in the 300’s. Using a copy of the Iowa Core Social Studies standards for 9-12 grades and our high school curriculum for social studies, we proceeded to recheck the cards for relevancy and make a list of gaps and weak areas. Weeding is difficult, but quoting Karen Lowe, “No information is better than misinformation.”
Yes, working from a shelf list is more work. It seems as though you're making good progress--and creating connections with teachers at the same time. Hopefully that social studies teacher will be an advocate for you in the future.
DeleteAfter using 2 different colored highlighters on my Titlewave Collection Analysis by the hundreds, I then highlighted the Karen Lowe chart of Curriculum Gap and Weak Areas. I decided that my 600’s need the most urgent attention. The 446 items in the 600’s have a copyright average age of 1996. The Balanced Dewy Comparisons against the Wilson catalog has a difference of -1.24%. My secretary is in the process of going through and checking Wilson to see what 600’s need to be kept.
ReplyDeleteWhen looking at the K-5 Cedar Rapids Community Schools Student Learning Expectations for Science, I noticed that I need to purchase updated human body, healthy diet, drugs, disease, building, space travel, and municipal/sanitary books. Other lacking areas in the 600’s that have a connection to the reading themes/stories that could be improved upon are – how things work, inventions, medicine, and land and air transportation. My conversations that I had with classroom teachers will help me to select new materials.
To avoid purchasing books that weren’t outdated, I looked at the 600’s without highlights. I didn’t realize how many cat, dog, and pet books that are in the library!
My budget is spent for this year so I am starting to create a list in Follett of books to purchase next year. Some of the titles have been given to me by classroom teachers and others I have discovered.
Yes, I too realized that a collection can get over-balanced in one area. That's another reason for working through this process.
DeleteWe have a program in our district called Curriculum Manager. This helps all of us in the district figure out what topics the students in different grades are learning in science and social studies. I looked at the Dewey ranges for these topics looking to see if we have the supplementary materials that are appropriate for these age groups.
ReplyDeleteOur science and social studies curriculum has changed quite a bit this year. Many of the topics that we taught in one grade is now assigned to another. We were doing pretty well in our library before this happened, so I am trying especially hard to purchase materials appropriate for the age groups now assigned to topics.
After analyzing the curriculum, Iowa Core and materials available in the collection, I found a lack of resources to support recently added classes and/or programs. One area that is lacking is resources for the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Many of the resources we do have are rather dated and/or do not exist at all. The English department added a drama class to their offering and our collection lacks up to date materials. Also the business teacher added a class on marketing and we do not have print resources to support this class. I plan to concentrate some of my remaining budget funds for this school year to these subject areas.
ReplyDeleteIn the future I will also consider adding up to date materials for the building trade classes and travel information for Spanish and French speaking countries. These are of lower priority due to the fact, building trade information and travel information is readily available on the Internet and print material gets outdated very quick
Last spring I was given the news that I was going to be working with K-12, in the past I had been K-5. I knew the HS library was in need of weeding. So without the help of this class I came up with some parameters and commenced weeding away most of the collection. As I began this class I was pretty happy with my decisions. My weeding was close to what is described in this class, but I also had to leave some books in the library. Right now there is 4 books per student. The sad news is most of the nonficiton section is still out of date and out of line with Iowa Core. Although I would like to work on the whole library I know I need to patiently go through the plan I devise. So as I looked at the Titlewave analysis the 500's jumped out as in the worst shape with an average age of 1979. I also know from working with the students that this a very good section to start with as look to the library for resources. While we have many good online resources we still need some quality print resources in the library. I will partner with the science teachers and use Wilson's and Iowa Core to guide in purchasing for this specific area.
ReplyDeleteIn the elementary library I will be able to weed and align the 300's with our new Social Studies series and Iowa Core. I've been able to get some funding for this area through talking with the curriculum director.
I am in the process of merging two schools, so first I printed out the shelf lists for both of those schools and used my highlighters to go through the lists provided in the book to determine "outdated/delete" vs. "keep for now" vs. "definitely keep" by copyright age. Then I looked at some of my gaps in relation to what we are teaching for curriculum areas and decided to concentrate on the social studies curriculum areas for now, so mainly the 900s and the 300s. Once I go through those sections for gaps, I will look at the rest as I weed and try to create a new book order for the new library we will have in a couple years. Additionally I am taking my two shelf lists and comparing them to see if I have a lot of overlap items or if one school has a gap but the other school has enough books to cover that gap for it when the two merge. The biggest areas I see affected by online resources so far is the Reference section and in the 900s the state and country books that I do not necessarily have to replace if we continue to have CultureGrams provided to us by the Iowa AEA Online Database. In the meantime, I am also checking with my grade level teachers to see what major project topics they are studying in their classes to make sure that I have enough materials to cover those topics especially as the Core Curriculum gets incorporated into our school districts curriculum standards.
ReplyDeleteAlso Britannica Online for state books.
DeleteAfter highlighting the shelf lists with two different colored highlighters I did notice there was a lot of yellow. But, after filling out the Resource Development plan it makes my school look good because we have 51 books per student in my library. That number is deceiving because most of those books that we have are not current, they are very out of date and need a lot of weeding. Another thing that I noticed is that my shelves are way to full, I had some that were completely full that I could not even use a shelf-end on them. So, I started by going through the biographies and pulled according to the guidelines. Next I sat down with the 4th grade Language Arts teacher. They do a big biography unit in 4th grade so I showed her the books that I was weeding and explained the process. I allowed her to search through to see if she found any that she thought were used enough in her classes project that I should keep but she did not find any.
ReplyDeleteMy next step was to begin going through the fiction books. My school uses Accelerated Reader a lot now in Kindergarten-4th grade. When I first got this job it was in 3rd and 4th grade but now we have every quiz available so a lot of books have been used just for AR. I decided to go through and pull any before 1980 and books that we have many copies of to help my overpopulated shelves. I have made it from A-T so far and you can tell what I have weeded and what I have not. Teachers have commented that it looks better and students commented that it is easier to find books. After I tackle the fiction my next goal is to look at the new science curriculum we just received to see what additional books need added in the 500s to help support those units.
Heather,
DeleteI always get comments from my teachers and students, too. They like being able to see the books without having others fall off the shelf. The students seem to find books that they haven't found before due to the old books hiding them. And I really like the way the shelves look with book ends!!
I'm told that "ideally" shelves should be 2/3s full. That allows you to put at least one book standing face out to entice students to the shelf.
DeleteI used Titlewave Collection Analysis and the two highlighted colored method as well. We have an overall average age of 1999 which I don't think is too bad since that is the year our building opened, but their are a lot of old books you find out as you begin highlighting. It is almost shocking that we had such old books in a fairly new building, but they had "collected" books from another older library in the district to fill the shelves. Well those shelves are now over full and old and out-dated books.
ReplyDeleteThe 300 & 500 section stuck out with whole sections looking like they needed to be discarded. Checking against the Wilson catalog and keeping in mind what Karen Lowe had said about keeping some still accurate books (but in poor condition) because there isn't enough money to replace everything at once. You really realized that it can't be done all at once so prioritizing is critical. I need to find up-to-date books and other resources that supporting our curriculum needs. Outlining our needs and setting a five year plan is going to keep me focused on what needs to be done and hopefully avoiding the willy-nilly purchasing that has occurred in the past.
I have talked to several teachers and looked at the Iowa Core Curriculum, then checked and highlighted my Dewey categories. My collection of nonfiction books is very old (average 1983) and needs major weeding. There are also many categories that I do not have any books on the related subjects. The budget is very tight in our district as a result of financial issues that surfaced last year. Because we are a one to one laptop school at the high school level and have been for several years, most of our research is done online. Our district reorganized the grade level configuration this year and moved grades 7 & 8 to the high school building. The junior high has its own computer lab, but not individual computers. This reconfiguration has resulted in many staffing cuts and great demands on the remaining staff. The vast majority of teachers have added additional classes, they are teaching for the first time this school year. Therefore they are still learning new curriculum and making adjustments to teaching units.
ReplyDeleteI cannot begin to fund the number of books needed to get the library updated and do not like to see books setting on the shelves, not used, because the students are researching online. My plan is to purchase books that meet curriculum needs and will also be of interest to students. I will start my focus on the history section, as this section has the oldest average copyright. I am planning to select books that students may read out of personal interest in addition to supporting the curriculum. I will also focus on biographies, as our new English teacher does a unit with biographies and this section is extremely old and weak. The students may also choose biographies of interest for leisure reading.
Some of my comments made in the collaboration time pertain to this section that I forgot to complete! I've been working on highlighting key topics in our science curriculum using our course essential elements forms that teachers complete during PD and collaboration time. These pacing guides tell me exactly what is taught in a two-week time period. I've printed our social studies curriculum for grades 6,7, and 8 and will be highlighting key topics there as well.
ReplyDeleteI've weeded from 000 to the 600s and know that students do not read books with too much text with few or only black and white photos! It's exciting to see some of the new books being published that grab students attention, such as Scholastic's "Vietnam: The Bloodbath at Hamburger Hill" and some fiction books from Stone Arch (Capstone) with history topics that combine text and graphics, similar to graphic novels (Bloodlines series). Also, science books like "Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments to Make Science Fun." Getting teachers to talk about these books in relation to what they are teaching really helps in getting students interested and checking the books out.
I am going to talk to the principal about staffing and who will again be teaching social studies next year. It is hard to keep up with what 28 teachers are doing so I definitely need to talk to them more and ask them what worked in the library this year. Then, in my plan for the future, I want to purchase more ebooks and also promote them so that teachers see how easy they are to access and use with their interactive boards and in labs.
I chose to concentrate on the science curriculum this year, for this project, because my school district (DCSD) implemented a new science curriculum two years ago, and after looking at my Follett Titlewise Analysis, these were the areas that were the most outdated and lacking.
ReplyDeleteAfter highlighting my shelf list, I highlighted my Collection Analysis Form (in yellow) to identify any gaps/weak areas in my collection. I then printed out the Iowa Core and the DCSD science curriculum. I again highlighted my Collection Analysis Form (this time in blue) to show the science curricular areas that corresponded with the Iowa Core and DCSD science curriculum.
I met with my LRC/Technology Committee teammates and discussed and listened to the science curricular areas that they felt the library lacked resources for. They have been able to supplement some of these areas with resources from our Keystone AEA, online resources such as True Flix, and websites that were suggested through our Science Curriculum (FOSS and STC).
After this meeting, I looked at the areas that I had highlighted on my Collection Analysis Form with yellow (weak areas) and blue (curricular areas) – these common areas turned green – and re-evaluated which areas I needed to “beef up”. The areas that the teachers have been able to find other resources for were identified on this form, too. This helped me to pare down the areas that I needed to concentrate my funding on.
My next steps were to use Wilson’s Core Collection, the suggested reading resource guides from the science texts (FOSS and STC), and the suggested resources given to me by the teachers themselves to help locate resources for those areas. At our Tech/LRC Committee meeting, a book was shared that all grade levels would like to see placed in the library for use. I plan to purchase several copies of this book. I also plan to search for resources in multiple reading levels for these areas.
I did meet with a teacher in 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades over the course of the 8 weeks. In 2nd grade we looked at an upcoming unit for Iowa and how to most to create essential questions that address concepts for both social studies and writing. We did discover that we had many books already in our library that would fit her needs for this topic. We did get a few books from another elementary school in our district.
ReplyDeleteIn 4th grade, we revamped an existing "states" project. It will include more writing for the core and more research. We have a rubric for the writing. The library could use a more current set of state books for this project.
In 5th grade, we looked at the social students standards. Our Indian books were in need of being updated or discarded and not replaced. I did ask them if Indians were really in the Iowa Core. We looked and noticed that you could use the topic of indians to relate to one of the social standards for 5th grade.
In 6th Grade, We looked again at social studies. Are ancient worlds still required teaching? And once again you can use ancient worlds to teach the social studies standard. With this years class and learning styles, she didn't focus much on ancient worlds, but hoped to in the future. At this time, I will not update our ancient world books.
Since we are just starting our work with the Iowa Core I have not matched it at all. I will do this as IC standards are identified. At one of our meetings, someone shared it would take years to cover all the items in the high school core. I am highlighting areas of our collection that currently reflect our research projects. I also asked my colleague to help with identifying these areas.
ReplyDeleteAfter looking at my highlighted shelf list, I determined I wanted to focus on the 500s as this is an area that is both used for a lot of research in our elementary setting as well as an area that most kids checkout books from. The overall age of the collection wasnt too terribly bad, but did notice how many are really getting in ragged shape due to mass checkouts. I used Core curriculum as well as the icat data that teachers are using to find gaps overlaps in the core curriculum as well. This has been a great process to speak with teachers about. In the scheme of the big idea that some classes are using with the SWH method, some classes take a different approach to getting to the big idea, so nice to see that I will need to tweak my collection a bit based on this. I have also compared this to the Wilson's cat to see what items are recommended from there.
ReplyDeleteAfter highlighting my highschool collection, the gaps are everywhere! I plan to prioritize based on the curricular areas that utilize the library most - English, Science, Social Studies. Science is the oldest are and the most critical need. I am meeting with the teachers at the high school and middle school level to further identify what materials will be needed to support the curriculum. I also plan to meet with the middle school principal who serves as our curriculum director.
ReplyDeleteJenni Olson
West Branch
Posted too soon -
DeleteFrom my meetings with the Science teachers, I will narrow down a focus for next year, what potion of the Science curriculum needs to be addressed first.