Emily Harn Collection Development Assignment FRIT 7134 Spring 2012 February 19, 2012

DESCRIPTION OF SITE AND LEARNERS Euchee Creek Elementary School is one of seventeen elementary schools in the Columbia County School District. It is a public school and serves 531 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade. It is located in Grovetown, a very rural area of Columbia County. It is a Title I school with 55 percent of students qualifying for the free or reduced lunch program. Euchee Creek maintains a staff of 42 full and part time certified teachers and classified support personnel. There are two administrators. It has a media center that provides online catalogs that offer students opportunities to access library materials and related sources on the web. There is a collection of 13,322 books which gives the school an average of about 25 books per students. There are approximately 400 titles in the audiovisual section. There is a computer lab with 24 desktop computers. There is also a portable computer lab that has 28 laptops for teachers to use with their classes. There are 6 desktop computers in the main library. Every morning the students conduct the Daily News Program, which is broadcast throughout the school on classroom televisions. There is also an LCD projector for the media specialist to use while teaching lessons. There are three fifth grade teachers at Euchee Creek. There are a total of 69 students, with each teacher having approximately 23 students. There are 6 Special Education, 6 gifted, and 10 EIP students mixed throughout the grade level. There are no ESOL students. The ethnic breakdown is 11 African American, 50 white, 3 multi-racial, 4 Hispanic and 1 American Indian.

The reading levels of the students are varied. The special education students attend resource classes for Language Arts. The EIP students receive one hour of reading intervention a day. Euchee Creek made Adequate Yearly Progress in 2011. The school has a very strong parent-teacher organization that conducts regular meetings and works to enhance the school environment. CURRICULUM REVIEW I will focus on mythology for my activities. The subject is taught in fifth grade. The following standards will be addressed: ELA5W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing. The student a. Acknowledges information from sources. b. Uses organizational features of printed text (i.e., citations, end notes, bibliographic references, appendices) to locate relevant information. c. Uses various reference materials (i.e., dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, electronic information, almanac, atlas, magazines, newspapers) as aids to writing. d. Uses the features of texts (e.g., index, table of contents, guide words, alphabetical/ numerical order) to obtain and organize information and thoughts. e. Demonstrates basic keyboarding skills and familiarity with computer terminology (e.g., software, memory, disk drive, hard drive). f. Creates simple documents by using electronic media and employing organizational features (e.g., passwords, entry and pull-down menus, word searches, thesaurus, spell check). g. Uses a thesaurus to identify alternative word choices and meanings. ELA5R1 The student demonstrates comprehension and shows evidence of a warranted and responsible explanation of a variety of literary and informational texts. a. Identifies and analyzes the elements of setting, characterization, and conflict in plot. i. Makes judgments and inferences about setting, characters, and events and supports them with elaborating and convincing evidence from the text. ELA5W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure. The student a. Selects a focus, an organizational structure, and a point of view based on purpose, genre expectations, audience, length, and format requirements.

b. Writes texts of a length appropriate to address the topic or tell the story. c. Uses traditional structures for conveying information (e.g., chronological order, cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing and answering a question). d. Uses appropriate structures to ensure coherence (e.g., transition elements). Standard ELA5W3 (e, f) ELA5R1 (a, i) Concept Attributes of characters found in various myths Task/Activities/Products Resources y y Read a large variety of myths. Identify characters and their attributes found in mythology. Make a list of data on the major characters in order to organize ideas and attributes. Set up an appropriate spread sheet program. Classify attributes and sort them. Enter data into their individual spread sheet. Choose a Greek God from a list provided by the teacher. Find a picture of assigned Greek God on the Internet. Locate and read a mythology book on your assigned Greek God. Using a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, electronic information, and/or magazines, 1. Books on Greek Mythology from the media center. 2. Microsoft Excel (Spreadsheet)

y y ELA5W3 (a-g) ELA5W1 (a-d) Writing a research paper on a Greek God

1. Mythology books on Greek Gods 2. Various websites on Greek Gods 3. Various reference materials such as dictionaries, thesauruses, etc.

research assigned Greek God. Write a two page research paper including a bibliography. The paper should also include the picture of the Greek God from the website.

COLLECTION REVIEW The main emphasis of collection development is to provide materials that are most needed to meet curricular requirements. Communication with the teachers to assess needs and recommendations is a vital part of the selection process. Therefore my first step in my collection review was to interview the media specialist and fifth grade teachers and find out what subject area they would like me to focus on for my materials order. All of them expressed a need for library media materials on mythology. Mrs. Galvin informed me that her media center had a shortage of books in this area and actually plans to use my project as a guide when she makes her next purchase order. The fifth grade teachers love to teach units on mythology but also expressed a need for books, reference materials, and DVDs that would help with teaching their units. The teachers feel that teaching mythology provides many benefits to the students. They incorporate it into the Language Arts curriculum with an emphasis on creative writing. They want to increase students appreciation for literature by deepening their understanding of stories about Greek gods and the mythological allusions associated with them. All the teachers find mythology to be an important and interesting topic of study and expressed a strong desire to have more materials for their students in this area.

The next step was to do a collection assessment of the library media collection related to the curriculum of mythology. I examined the age of the collection, the number of titles in the collection, and the ability of the collection to meet curricular needs. I found these books in the non-fiction, fiction, and reference areas of the media center. The media center at Euchee Creek is very organized and each section is labeled. The books were accessible and I found them all very easily. I immediately saw the need for books on this subject. There were 32 books in the nonfiction area. All of them were in very good condition and some were published in 1984, 1988, and several were published in the nineties. There are only 7 fiction books and all were in excellent condition and all but one of these books have a copyright of 2007 and higher. One book is copyrighted in 1994, but it is still in good shape. There are 5 reference books and they are all in good condition. Over half of the 32 non-fiction books were copyrighted in the eighties and nineties. This is of concern and needs to be addressed in my budget plan. Also, there needs to be some updated materials added to the reference area concerning mythology. Even though the fiction books are relatively new, there are only seven so this will also be a focus of my order. Subject Greek Gods and heroes Greek myths Reference books on mythology Average Age Most were copyrighted in the nineties. A few in the eighties. 2000 1995

After looking at the condition and number of books I began my concentration on how closely the books matched the required curriculum. The fifth grade teachers main focus is Greek mythology with an emphasis on the Greek Gods. Most of the 39 books are actual Greek myths, with only three that emphasize the Gods. The reading levels of all the books are not diverse.

They range from 4.0 to 6.9 reading level. This is a great range for the students reading on grade level or above, but there is a strong need for students reading below grade level. There is also no DVDs or other non-print formats to meet the needs and learning styles of students that have special needs. The next step in my review was to look at the circulation of the books in the media center. The total number of items that can be checked out is 13,322. These items have been checked out a total of 83,225 times this year for a checkout average of 6 times a book. There are 32 Mythology books in the non-fiction section and at this time 5 of the books are checked out. Of the seven fiction books, five of them are checked out as well. Obviously the students enjoy reading the fiction books over the non-fiction, which I will consider when I complete my materials order.

Summary of Collection Needs: 1. Choose books that focus mainly on Greek mythology with a concentration on Greek Gods. After collaborating with the fifth grade teachers, this is the area of concentration for their units. 2. Order materials in a variety of formats, print, non-print, electronic, and multimedia to meet the needs and learning styles of a diverse student population. 3. Update the collections with new books. Most of the books are older and need updating. 4. Update the fiction section because there are a very small number of books on mythology in this area.

BUDGET SUMMARY I researched this topic using three vendors. I have included a very diverse collection which includes fiction, non-fiction, DVD, e-books, reference books, and sound recordings. I addressed the needs of all learners by including materials on a wide range of reading levels. The students with individual needs and different learning styles will benefit from the e-books, DVDs, and sound recordings. I have included a large number of fiction books into my order and I updated the collection with a variety of new resources. There are several books about Greek Gods that will help with the research project. My total order is $3967.60. I have found several websites on mythology. I have added these to my PBWorks Wiki which is found at http://mythologyresourceseharn.pbworks.com.