Ivey Manwaring Collection Development Assignment FRIT 2134 Spring 2012 March 11, 2012 DESCRIPTION OF SITE AND

D LEARNERS I work at Scott Elementary School that is located in Thomasville, Georgia. Scott is one of three elementary schools in the Thomasville City Schools District. In the TCS district, there is also one middle school and one high school. At Scott Elementary School, there are currently 447 students enrolled. Of the 447 students, 96 percent qualify for the free or reduced lunch program. The staff consists of 3 administrators, 35 certified teachers, and 14 classified staff members. The schools media center is located in the center of the school and has a collection of 12862 books, which gives the school an average of about 29 books per student. The Media center has 133 in its audio collection and 582 in its audiovisual collection. The media center houses 6 computers, a SmartBoard, LCD projector, closed-circuit distribution equipment, and have a conference room that doubles as the backdrop for the daily announcement broadcast. Thomasville, Georgia is located in Thomas County. It is about 20 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida. Thomas County has a population of about 45,000. Thomasville has a population of about 22,000. Thomas County was created in 1825. It has two school systems (city and county) and a private school. About twenty-five percent of the population is under the age of eighteen. Nearly sixty percent of the population is white, thirty-seven percent is African-American, three percent is Hispanic, and less than one percent is Asian, American Indian, and Pacific Islander. The median household income between the years 2006 2010 was $35,797, but also during that time there was 23% of the population that was below the poverty line. I believe due to the drop in the economy that the median now will be lower and the percentage below the poverty line is higher. The top four employers in the community are: Archbold Medical Center, Southwestern State Hospital, Thomas County Schools, and Flowers Foods of Thomasville. There are four Kindergarten teachers at Scott Elementary School. There are 82 students in the grade level. Each class has roughly 20 students, give or take one

or two. There are no gifted students (since they dont test for it yet) and fifteen EIP students mixed throughout the four classes. The ethnic breakdown is as follows: African-American: 79 (95.2%) Caucasian: 4 (4.8%) The reading level varies from student to student. One class began AR after the first 9-weeks. Another started after the Christmas break. The remaining two teachers have decided their classes arent ready yet. Each morning the classes participate in the SRA program. There are several students that are pulled out during this time for small group for extra help with reading and pronunciation. Of the 15 students that are involved in EIP pull-out, 2 have an EIP paraprofessional that is with them every day during reading and math in the classroom. CURRICULUM REVIEW For this activity, I have chosen to focus on historical understandings involving National Holidays and American symbols. The subject is taught all year in Kindergarten. The following standards are addressed within this unit:

SSKH1 The student will identify the purpose of national holidays and describe the people or events celebrated. a. Labor Day b. Columbus Day (Christopher Columbus) c. Veterans Day d. Thanksgiving Day e. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day f. Presidents Day (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the current President) g. Memorial Day h. Flag Day i. Independence Day SSKH2 The student will identify important American symbols and explain their meaning. a. The national and state flags (United States and Georgia flags) b. The bald eagle c. The Statue of Liberty d. Lincoln Memorial e. Washington Monument f. White House g. Pledge of Allegiance

h. Star Spangled Banner

Stand ard SSKH1

Concep t Holidays

Tasks/Activities/Products

Resources

Through out the year identify the National Holidays in that month Use pictures and web sites to show the students the meaning of the different holidays Identify each symbol. Identify the meaning with each symbol. Use pictures and web sites to show the students the symbols.

United Streaming Current media center resources Various websites about the holidays

SSKH2

America n Symbols

United Streaming Current media center resources Various websites about each symbol

COLLECTION REVIEW The first thing I did for the collection review was to inspect the media center. The media center is well divided and organized. The non-fiction section is located along the wall to the left of the circulation desk. The shelves are labeled with the Dewey decimal range that is located on each particular shelf. Fiction chapter books are located along the wall on the other side of the media center. They are organized by authors last name from A to Z. Fiction easy books are located on the book shelves located in the center of the media center. There are organized by Accelerated Reading level, each represented by a different color dot. Reference books are located on the last shelves on the non-fiction side of the media center. These books arent used that often. The next step was for me to search the catalog in Destiny, the online catalog system used, for all the books related to my curriculum and browse through them. To search, I used the subject area as the key term. The national holidays books are

located in the 394s of the non-fiction section. The American symbols books are located through out the non-fiction section. The majority of the books were not in that good of conditions. Most looked as though they have had their fair share of circulating. There were many books that were in decent condition, just aged, this was due to the fact that they had never been checked out (even though their copyright date was as old as 1970). For whatever reason, these books were neither appealing nor used as resources in the classroom. I also searched in the fiction section for books related to the subjects. I feel that the students learn just as much, if not more, from the books in the fiction section. They are able to understand the holiday or monument better when it was applied to creative story. There were 63 books total for 17 subjects; 33 in non-fiction and 30 in fiction. I feel this is hardly a sufficient number of books for even one class to use, let alone the four Kindergarten classes that are at Scott Elementary School. This will be something that I concentrate on in my budget plan. The average copyright year is also a little concerning. Subject of the Selection Labor Day Columbus Day Veterans Day Thanksgiving Day 1; 1999 1; 1999 2; 2000 20; 1999 There were 3 books that were printed in the 1960s, so this brought the average down. Martin Luther King, Jr Day Presidents Day Memorial Day Flag Day Independence Day The national and state 5; 2000 5; 1999 0 5; 1998 5; 1988 10; 1999 Number of Books; Average Copyright Year

flags The bald eagle The Statue of Liberty Lincoln Memorial Washington Monument White House Pledge of Allegiance Star Spangled Banner

These books were just about the American Flag. 2; 1998 2; 2004 1; 1966 0 1; 2007 3; 1998 0 There was one but it is marked as lost in the catalog.

The average copyright year of part of this collection is relatively old. This is something that needs to be addressed. There are also some subjects that are not even included in the collection. The next step is to establish the circulation of the books, specifically the ones in this curriculum area, in the media center. These items have been checked out a total of 30 times this year for an average of less than once per book. Good portion of the non-fiction books have never been checked out before. And good portion of those that have never been checked out are also over 20 years old. I also found that with many of the books being so old, that they were not appealing to not only Kindergarteners but not to any age at the school. And with just thinking about this Kindergarten standard, these books are also not age appropriate. The books would be too difficult for the students to read and understand. The fiction books circulate a little more as the students find them more interesting. The fourth step of the review pertains to the multicultural position of the books. After pulling all 63 books, I was pleasantly happy with the results that I found. For example, the books about Thanksgiving Day discuss what other cultures in the United States do to celebrate this day. There is nothing demeaning about the Indians. And there are a lot more books that talk about different cultures. For example, the books about the Statue of Liberty talk about all the different cultures that migrated to the United States for freedom.

Summary of collection needs: 1. Choose resources that were published in the last 10 years. Since most of the details about these subjects do not change there is no need for anything immediately recent. But since most the books are from 20-30 years ago, it is important for them to update for the appeal factor. 2. Choose resources that are more appropriate for the Kindergarten age. Most of the books are too wordy for Kindergarteners to understand. 3. Build a wider selection of books. I find that having just 63 books for 17 subjects is just way too small for a school, especially with 4 Kindergarten classes. 4. Find several videos, but not spending too much since teachers have access to United Streaming and other web videos. 5. Find interactive material for this content area.

BUDGET SUMMARY I researched this topic comprehensively using several book venders. In order to complete this order, I have determined that I need $3933.93. I actually had to delete many books so that I could stay within budget. I found that this curriculum is quite difficult to find books for it. This was an issue I never imagined having. But I was able to find books on every topic. I also decided to purchase 5 iPad 2s, 1 for the media specialist and 4 for teachers to use in their classrooms. These will be checked out, the as a book would be. I also added 2 applications for the iPads that the teachers or media specialist can use for this curriculum. I also found several games that also went along with the curriculum to help the students learn and use the information they have learned. I also would like to purchase computer software that can be used interactively on the SMARTboards located in each classroom and the media center. I was also able to find many websites that can be used with this unit and standards. I have added these to my wikispace (http://ManwaringIcedp.wikispaces.com).