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students in these classes. There is only one College-Preparatory British Literature class;
therefore, the reading levels of the majority of these students is on- or above-level. The two
special needs students are in the College-Preparatory class, but their disabilities are behavioral,
not intellectual.
Curriculum Review/Mapping
We have just finished studying the Anglo-Saxon period, and because British Literature is
studied chronologically, we will be looking at the Middle Ages next. I wanted to broaden our
scope to all of Europe this year, because of the Common Core focus on informational texts and
making connections across the curriculum. I want my students to trace the beginnings of the
Medieval period in Europe and how Britain, specifically, fits in this broader view. The main
literary focus will be Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. Some areas of focus will be the
Black Plague, the Crusades, religious doctrines, wars, literature, and historical timelines. The
major assessment will, of course, be in the form of a research project/paper. Each individual will
complete a paper, but will also be a part of a group with connectable topics. Each group will
produce a multi-media project that compiles the main connections and aspects discovered in their
papers. A wide variety of Web 2.0 tools are at their disposal, as well as Media Player, Microsoft
Office resources, and digital photography. In addition to the resources I have selected for
purchase (see spreadsheet for Materials Order), I created a Resource List through Destiny. Our
Media Specialist recommended this for my online sources web site as it would be easy for
students to access from any computer at school, and, as long as they keep up with the username
and password for Cobb Virtual Library (we provide each student with a sticker with this
information on it), it is easy to access from home, too. For the purposes of this assignment, I will
provide a link to Cobb Virtual Library and Destiny
Collection Evaluation
Before I even went to our media center, I conducted a Destiny search from my PC in my
classroom. I used medieval history as my key words. It yielded 45 results. I also used
medieval literature and that yielded 29 results. Across these two searches the Dewey numbers
seemed to have a diverse range, as seen in the chart below:
Dewey
200s
300s
500s
600s
700s
800s
900s
F
REF
VT
eBook
Total
Resources
5
5
1
3
3
4
28
2
14
8
1
When I went to the media center, the media specialist used Destiny to do a county-wide search.
She used middle ages literature as her key words and yielded 385 results. Unfortunately, an
examination of most of the off-site materials showed that there usually werent any more than
two copies of each in the entire county, so inter-library loans didnt appear to be viable.
Next, I took my lists around to the appropriate shelves to do a physical evaluation of the
materials. When I reached the 900s section, an almost palpable smell of dust and mildew
reached me before I even picked the first book off the shelf. There was one book in particular the
media specialist had marked for me to find as it had the oldest copyright of 1935! I found the
book and pulled it to examine its cover and title page. I discovered that the copyright was
actually 1953, not 1935. 1953 is not much better, but it uncovered another issue with collection
management data entry error. Despite the 18 year mistake, the book had obvious signs of
decay: mildew stains and crumbling pages. The jacket was also ripped in the corners and not
secured to the book itself. After pulling several books in the section for a closer look, I
discovered almost all of them to be in similar conditions. I went back to the office and sat down
to figure out the average copyright of these books: 1979! There were only five sources published
in or after 2000! Age is definitely a major weakness in this collection.
The media specialist did a circulation report on the majority of the resources. It was not
surprising that many of them had not been checked out at all in the last 10 years. None of the
videos had ever been checked out by students, and only three teachers had checked them out in
the last 5 years. The eBook had been ordered two years ago by another English teacher to be
used for a similar project. Apparently, she never used it, but a History teacher checked it out for a
week last summer. That was an interesting find. There is a total of 18, 586 resources in
circulation in our media center. In the 900s section alone, there were only 44 sources checked
last year. In the 800s there were only 20. If the average age of the collection for my topic is any
indication, we are in dire need of updated materials to increase circulation.
Obviously, the available collection has many weaknesses. Besides age, I think diversity is
an issue. Most of the books, discovered during the physical inspection, have small print and very
few illustrations. Being that the topic of the Middle Ages is fairly established, much of the
information in these books is probably still accurate, but there is need for updated formats and
more interactive texts. Most of students are not opposed to using print resources, but they are
turned off by page after page of small text and no pictures. These formats are intimidating and
boring. If they were limited to just the physical resources in the library, they would be able to get
the projects done, but it would be very time-consuming, tedious, and frustrating for them and
me!
My last evaluation was for matching the resources with the curriculum/standards. As far
as information is concerned, most of the resources appeared to still be accurate representations of
the time period. Many of the books, however, were either too specific or too broad, nothing
comprehensive. The issue with too specific or too broad is that a student would have to spend too
much time sifting through small bits of information in multiple books. This would lead to
confusing sources for documentation purposes and, possibly, misrepresenting information. In
skimming through the Table of Contents of several resources, there didnt appear to be any
detailed multicultural information. Given that the Middle Ages covered much of Europe and
Asia, there should be more than just the usual information about The Crusades and Italy. The
lack of technology also falls short of the standards, as well as having a variety of versions of
texts for comparison. And, to be blunt, there are no resources of any sort for English Language
Learners.
Budget Summary
Based on my findings above, I determined that we needed more digital, multicultural, and
ELL resources. I also felt that there is still enough of a need for print resources to warrant a great
deal of weeding old books and purchasing new and updated books. In searching for new
resources, I also discovered some new subtopics that could be incorporated into the research
projects: warfare, art, and music. As mentioned above, to add to the purchased resources, I
created, through Destiny, a public Resource List of online resources relevant to the unit project.
Please see the attached Excel file for titles, costs, reviews, etc. Of my spending budget of $4000,
I was able to use $3,935.85.