Please see the file above for proper formatting for this assignment. Evaluation Plan for Reference Services By Krista Belanger Analysis of Current Collection SML Christian Academy houses a number of different reference collections, housed in a variety of classrooms as the school does not have a formal school library at this time. Due to these circumstances, the focus of this analysis and plan will be for the topic of Weather, which is part of the grade five Science curriculum. This collection is currently found in the grade five classroom, which in addition to the various grade five science topics, contains social studies resources, but the vast majority of the library is composed of fiction titles. The weather reference collection contains ten physical titles, but many of these titles have poor currency with the oldest title being published in 1982 and the most current published in 2016. The accuracy of these resources is quite reliable, which is why they have not been discarded, however, the currency is certainly in question. Riedling indicates in Reference Skills for the School Library Media Specialist that “printed resources are often considered to be out of date before they reach the student” (pg. 22), however, in a context in which technology is not always readily available or reliable, print resources may be the only option. The collection is well-utilized by students and the teacher, however there are simply not enough resources for one for each student in the class, which means that during research tasks without technology, students are limited. The reference collection does not provide opportunities for student learning unless the student is at or above reading level, which is unrealistic given the student population of SML Christian Academy. Currently, the average grade five student reads at a 4.1 reading level, which translates to a beginning grade four reading level. The school, while trying to strengthen their students’ reading skills and ability to decode text, make inferences, and connections, is simply unsuccessful with helping every single student grow in every single one of these ways, as there may be a lack of support at home, a lack of scaffolding, or a multitude of other factors. Rationale for ChangeAs there are not enough physical resources for all students, a change must be made to provide access to every student in the class in any given year. Since SML caps its classes at 24, there must be 24 resources made available. Access needs to be improved, which includes access to learning materials at a variety of reading levels, access to technology, and access to technology extensions to increase reading comprehension, vocabulary, and general understanding. Currently, students at SML have limited access to technology simply due to the lack of technology within the school. At the moment, there are two Chromebook carts, each consisting of a class set being used by grades three through nine, and two class sets of iPads being used in the kindergarten through grade two classes. At times throughout the year, older grades typically use the iPads for research and learning through apps, but do not use the iPads nearly as much as the younger grades do. In the next school year, SML will be a one-to-one technology environment in grades four through nine, which will increase student access to online reference materials. In addition, a new change has occurred with the availability of online reference materials. The Alberta Education representative for the school has provided the school with its jurisdiction username and password, allowing staff full access to Alberta Education’s Online Reference Centre (2019) which includes reference materials from Scholastic’s ScienceFLIX, the World Book series, and National Geographic’s Kids Virtual Library. Each of these online reference sources would otherwise be paid for, which would result in a yearly subscription of over $1 000 – a sum the school simply cannot afford at this time. Students will need to be taught how to utilize these resources, which is another reason why change must be made within the school. Riedling indicates that teacher-librarians need to be well-versed in using the reference process (pg. 6), which utilizes information, student knowledge, and coming toward an answer. This process can be transferred to students by allowing students to work toward inquiry projects, which is outlined by the BCTLA document Points of Inquiry. In the document, the need is mentioned for students to understand the questioning process, to learn how to be actively involved in research, as well as come up with their own thoughts and ideas about the information presented to them in reference materials (2011, pg. 4-6). Plan for Change First of all, the resources used and accumulated may be updated by purchasing newer, more current copies, as well as multiples of each text. This will require funds from the school budget outside of the classroom budget to replace each text. The average cost of each non-fiction text resource averages $15, so replacing and purchasing 24 total copies (one for each student) would require funds in the area of $360. This change can take place with support from the principal, business administrator, and the school board, who are all involved in making financial decisions. This change may take place at any point in the school year, however, many of the titles are available for purchase throughout the year at Chapters, so an appropriate replacement time may be during one of Chapters’ Teachers Appreciation events where teachers can receive up to 30% off of purchases. Staff and students will be made aware of this change and these purchases shortly after they have been made, at the following staff meeting. The classroom teacher purchasing these materials will explain that currency and accuracy are the most important reasons for replacing the reference materials. In addition, by implementing a one-to-one policy, students will be able to access Alberta’s Online Reference Centre consistently which includes a variety of reference materials for no cost. The classroom teacher will be required to teach students how to use the databases effectively (there is and will be no opportunities for a Teacher-Librarian to gain employment in a teacher-librarianship role within the school). The school board, staff, and administration have all committed to providing access to students at a variety of reading levels, which indicates their support for the one-to-one policy for the 2019-2020 school year. Staff have received the information to access the material from the Online Reference Centre and have been working independently to learn how best to utilize the reference materials for their purposes. Staff have been made aware of this change and availability, but will be reminded of the necessary information and access at the staff meeting in August. Finally, the change will take place by providing technology extensions to allow students to utilize the databases and online features of the Online Reference Centre. The extensions which will be provided to students will be Read&Write (texthelp), Wiki-Wand, and Color Overlay (Rawstream). Each of these extensions are available to be provided to students at very little cost or are free of charge for the school. These three extensions provide assistance to students who require help with processing material. The Read&Write extension provides overlays, text-to-speech functionality, picture dictionaries, and the ability to highlight text for summarizing material. The Wikiwand extension allows students to access more student-friendly text and formatting of Wikipedia articles, which increases access and comprehension. The Color Overlay extension provides Irlen Syndrome students with the ability to use colour-coded overlays with the click of a few buttons. Our staff have noticed a significant increase over the last few years with students testing positive for Irlen Syndrome who may have been or previously were diagnosed with dyslexia. These students simply need an overlay (change to the screen’s colour) to access material. SML currently has three teachers on staff who are Irlen screeners, and have determined at least ten students in the school between the grades of four to seven who have Irlen Syndrome. The school board, administration, and staff are all committed to ensuring access for students at SML, and see the need for Irlen screening and extensions to support students with a variety of needs. Luckily, the biases some teachers may have about the use of technology for research is not present at SML. The purpose and widespread understanding among staff is that the purpose of utilizing technology is to “work [together] to design challenges to empower student-led collaborative learning. Students learn how to build personal learning networks” (Leading Learning, 2014, pg. 11). These three extensions are available immediately and have recently been force-installed on each of the students’ school G-Suite accounts. Staff will be made aware of the change when it is presented to them in a staff meeting, and the students will be made aware of the change as classroom teachers utilize the technology and teach students how to use it effectively for their own use. Potential challenges with carrying out this plan for change include: parent buy-in, reliability of Wi-Fi, and student understanding of the purpose of integrating technology. Parents can be brought on board to this plan by seeing the use of databases and newer books being used in the classroom. They can help their students work on assignments from home as the technology is portable, versus the books not leaving school property. The reliability of Wi-Fi is significant, but additional signal boosters may be purchased, or the Wi-Fi may require a service by the provider. Finally, students will need time to buy into the idea that traditional textbooks may be replaced with databases and online sources. Students may appreciate the ease of use, and when shown the Chrome extensions, may find them appealing to increase their own comprehension. Determining the Success of the Plan The success of the plan will be determined by three items: the use of the newly purchased classroom reference materials, the use of the Online Reference Centre, and the use of the Chrome extensions. Data may be collected from the classroom teacher by recording what the classroom teacher thinks about the new reference materials in comparison to the previous materials used in previous years. Data regarding the use of the Online Reference Centre could be conducted through surveying students and staff about how they feel regarding the effectiveness of using the online reference materials and databases. This survey could also be done in correlation with surveying students regarding their use of the Chrome extensions. Suggested questions to gather data may be to have students compare their use of physical books versus online reference materials, as well as their own ease or difficulty in reading text online versus hard copy print. Other ways the success of the plan may be determined may be in observing student morale, as confidence will likely increase, as well as increasing staff confidence in utilizing online materials. Finally, the success of the plan will be dependent upon the support and efforts put forth by the school board, administration, staff, and students. References Canadian Library Association (CLA). 2014. Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for
School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Available: http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/llsop.pdf Government of Alberta. (n.d.). Online Reference Centre. Retrieved March 30, 2019, from http://www.learnalberta.ca/OnlineReferenceCentre.aspx?lang=en Rawstream. (2018). Color Overlay (2.0.0) [Chrome extension software]. Retrieved from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/color-overlay/glejbiebgbadpnhcjmidgclkjeelddgk?hl=en Riedling, A. M. (2005). Reference skills for the school library media specialist: Tools and tips. Worthington, OH: Linworth Books. Texthelp.com. (2019). Read&Write for Google Chrome (1.8.0.255) [Chrome extension software]. Retrieved from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readwrite-for-google-chro/inoeonmfapjbbkmdafoankkfajkcphgd Wikiwand. (2018). Wikiwand (8.2.5) [Chrome extension software]. Retrieved from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wikiwand-wikipedia-modern/emffkefkbkpkgpdeeooapgaicgmcbolj
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I am attaching my assignment above in PDF format because the formatting of the rubrics becomes confusing upon publishing on the blog. You will notice an additional blank rubric in the PDF and a rubric filled in regarding the evaluation of the new work. Evaluation of a Reference Work Krista Belanger LIBE 467 – February 3, 2019 1 Abstract SML Christian Academy should replace the existing reference source, Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework: A Desk Reference for Students and Parents by Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly (2005) and replace it with Scholastic’s ScienceFlix. The aforementioned reference work, published by Scholastic, is out of date and is inaccessible to many in our student population. 2 Background The reference work, Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework: A Desk Reference for Students and Parents by Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly is a resource published by Scholastic in 2005. The first year of publication of this particular resource was 1994 in the USA. SML Christian Academy has had and used this resource extensively since it’s purchase in 2006. The original intent of the purchase of this book, according to staff, was to give students an additional, easy-to-read resource which would cover outcomes in the grades 4, 5, and 6 Science curriculum in Alberta. Up until January 2019, SML’s library has been housed on the stage in the gymnasium. The majority of resource and reference materials have been circulating in classrooms for at least three years, which is the case with this reference work. 3 Rubric Rubric for evaluation of a reference work, based on Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework: A Desk Reference for Students and Parents by Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly: 4 Evaluation Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework: A Desk Reference for Students and Parents by Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly overall has served its purpose at SML Christian Academy and is overdue for replacement. With the growing needs of our student population, differentiation is required in our reference materials. This particular text is relevant in terms of the curriculum, as almost all sections of grade 4-6 science are covered, with the exceptions of the entirety of mechanisms and levers (grade 4), wetland ecosystems (grade 5), and forestry (grade 6). This particular text is irrelevant, however, to students in our school community as the Lexile level is far too complex for many of our students (Lexile level is 970). The absolute top end for grade 4 reading is 950, and this text comes in above that level, making it inaccessible for most grade 4 students. To assume that students in grades 4-6 are at the same reading level does those students a disservice. This text is also irrelevant to our school community as it does not contain Canadian spelling, measurements, or referents (in math). Canadian students are not typically taught imperial measurements or about American landmarks, so citing feet when discussing the height of a volcano is not something our students have as a referent. Speeds, as listed on page 18, in miles per hour do not mean the same thing to our Canadian students as American students. The purpose of the text is to inform, but in our school’s context the purpose of the text also appears to be both biased and persuasive. There are scientific understandings in the text which do not correlate with the school’s belief system, so up-front scaffolding is to be done by the teacher to offer an alternative viewpoint. For example, on page 16, dinosaurs are written as “[first appearing] on earth 230 million years ago,” to be fair, finding a reference which includes other viewpoints, including our beliefs will be next to impossible. The currency of this text is out of date, as most reference materials are kept a maximum of 5 years. This particular text is from 2005 and still lists Pluto as a planet. There are no sources listed in this reference book, which brings into question the entire accuracy of the text and how it is written. There is no “about the author” section, which brings into question the reliability of the author. It should be noted that this text was purchased for ten dollars, and given that it is used extensively within the school, it seems to have fulfilled its worth. Since this text floats between three different classrooms throughout the school year, it is efficient in its use of space, as it is small and covers a lot of content. It would be a more efficient use of space if it were reliable and accurate. 5 Potential Replacement The potential replacement I have found is ScienceFlix by Scholastic. ScienceFlix is a portal where students and teachers can log in to watch, read, explore, and be redirected to other sites about various topics in Science. Science experiments are offered, as well as career suggestions for students who may be thinking about their future. ScienceFlix is an annual subscription-based service, however, Alberta Education provides schools with portal access, so provided SML is able to obtain their jurisdiction code and password and activate the product through Alberta Education, it is free for anyone within the school’s walls and connected to the school’s wi-fi. There are other options available as well through the Alberta Government website on their online reference center page (Government of Alberta, 2019). 6 Evaluation of Replacement To see the evaluation on the rubric at a glance, please see Appendix B. According to the rubric above, ScienceFlix meets the acceptable standard for Canadian content. When searching on the site for “colour” no results were returned. However, in an article about volcanoes, the measurement was taken in feet, but listed metres in brackets afterward. There are some Canadian places listed, but mostly American content is noted. There seem to be less images on each webpage than there were in the book, which brings the image criteria into the below expectations standard, rather than the exceeding expectation standard. However, it should be noted that there are videos on the webpages as well. There is an appendix and a glossary available on each article page as well as the top of each page, which brings the appendix, glossary, or index criteria to the acceptable standard. In terms of the ease of use, ScienceFlix falls into the acceptable category, mainly due to access being limited to being used on school property and using the school’s internet connection to be used without a fee. Many of the readings on the site are sectioned in such a way that navigating the site is easy, with the table of contents and lists of sections along the left navigation pane, with tabs at the top for science experiments and other exploratory opportunities. Accessibility to students was one of the largest shortfalls of the previous reference book, and ScienceFlix seems to exceed expectations in many ways. There are a variety of texts students can choose from for learning about many of the provided topics, at a variety of Lexile levels. In looking at articles related to volcanoes, I noticed the range in Lexile levels between 750 and 1200. This is much more accessible to students in terms of choice versus a hardcopy book. Built into the site is options to have the text read aloud sentence by sentence, and as each word is read it is highlighted. There is no need for students to use or have a read-aloud extension in Chrome while using this site. Another reason this text is more accessible is that key words are written in a bold font and definitions are linked below the text. As mentioned earlier, adding videos increases the accessibility of the text as well. In terms of reliability, the sources are listed at the bottom of each webpage, which demonstrates that the text comes from an external source. The Scholastic book company has some reliability as a source in the community, but not enough to indicate that it can fall in the exceeds expectations category. Based on what I have read, the accuracy of the information exceeds expectations, as it offers sources for their findings and I could not find any information on the site which was inaccurate. The currency of the text is less than three years old, which exceeds expectations for this piece of criteria. Since the reference is an online resource, adding or substituting text in favour of more current research is easier than publishing another book to make a small correction or addition. The purpose of the text is clear and student-friendly as it provides students opportunities to “go deeper” in the left navigation pane, it provides information which is presented to students in an accessible way, and it does not show its bias outright. I would have liked to have observed this resource explain multiple perspectives in regard to dinosaurs and the timeline of the Earth, but as I mentioned earlier, it would be incredibly difficult to find a completely unbiased scientific work or one that included every alternative viewpoint. Finally, curricular connections between the Government of Alberta and the various databases the Government provides to schools in Alberta are available through the Alberta Government website. A specialized list for Division Two (grades 4-6) is available through the ORC Support site (Online Reference Center, 2016). 7 Conclusion In conclusion, the reference work, Everything You Need to Know About Science Homework: A Desk Reference for Students and Parents by Anne Zeman and Kate Kelly, is out of date and inaccessible to many students in grades 4-6 at SML Christian Academy. A free option for substitution, provided the school is able to obtain their jurisdiction username and password for each school year is ScienceFlix, which provides students opportunities to learn much of the same content, more current content at their level. References Division II Science. (2016, April 10). Retrieved February 3, 2019, from
http://www.onlinereferencecentre.ca/division-ii-science.html Online Reference Centre - LearnAlberta.ca. (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2019, from http://www.learnalberta.ca/OnlineReferenceCentre.aspx?lang=en ScienceFlix. (n.d.). Retrieved February 3, 2019, from http://scienceflix.scholastic.com Zeman, A., & Kelly, K. (2005). Everything you need to know about science homework. New York: Scholastic Reference. |
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