Assignment Three – Selection and Weeding Project and Report

 

Part One: Rationale

I am weeding books from the 500 to 539 Dewey Decimal Section as well as teacher reference resources about Matter. The books need to be weeded for several reasons:

-        1. The books are outdated. Their average age of the books is 21.7 years

-        2. None of the books provide First People’s knowledge or perspectives

-        3. The books do not reflect the school’s diversity.

Moreover, the books don’t support student learning effectively. One teacher literally said that he signs the books out for students to look at, but that he doesn’t use them to teach with. He goes to the public library to get better resources.

 

Step by Step Weeding Plan:

 

1.      1. Invite teachers, educational assistants, and administrators to sit on a library selection/deselection committee.

2.      2. Organize a deselection meeting to review the CREW formula and MUSTIE guidelines.

       3. The deselection process will take place over lunch hours as many staff have small children and can’t stay after school.

4. Once books have been chosen for deselection, they will be placed close to the entrance. Everyone who comes into the library will have the chance to advocate for books that they feel should remain in the collection.

5.     5. The deselection/selection committee shall meet again to suggest new texts that would better serve staff and students. Given that staff teach this curriculum every year, they are true subject experts.

6.      6. At the next staff meeting, I will explain the CREW formula and MUSTIE guidelines and showcase the new items to be added to our collection. Hopefully, this will encourage other staff to join the selection/deselection committee.

7.      7. Finally, the weeded books (so long as they do not contain inappropriate content) will have their school identification marks removed and be donated to classroom libraries. Failing this, the books will be discretely recycled.

 

Deselection Criteria for the Library Collection

 

The CREW formula for deselection is important because it combines both quantitative (copyright date and the date the book last circulated) and qualitative data (MUSTIE: misleading, ugly, superseded, trivial, irrelevant, elsewhere). The goal of the library is not simply to circulate resources, but to have the circulating resources support student learning (Mardis, 171).

The CREW formula is also important because it leads to valid, reliable, timely, and credible information – the hallmarks of meaningful evaluation (Mardis, 171).  This is especially important given that it will be a committee of people weeding the library – everyone needs to have a common understanding of the decision making process.

Finally, the CREW formula is important because the North Vancouver School District does not have any formal district wide deselection policies.

 

Candidates for Deselection from the Library Collection

 

"Matter: Discovering Science"

22/1/MUSTIE This resource is out of date. Its latest copyright is from 22 years ago. The CREW formula cut off date for Dewey Class 500 resources is ten years (Mardis, 145). This resource has also been superseded by better sources of information. TigTag Junior, a service hosted by B.C. Digital Classrooms, has current and highly engaging videos about Matter. Moreover, these videos are accompanied with lesson plans and interactive games and quizzes.

 

"Matter: Science All Around Me"

27/1/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (17 years past the CREW formula cut off date).  While it has been circulated this year, the teacher stated that she used it for display purposes rather than to teach with. This is a case where understanding how the resource was being used (qualitative data) argues for its deselection.

 

"Solids, Liquids, and Gases: Simply Science"

22/1/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (12 years past the CREW formula cut off date). It also does not address one of the curriculum expectations in the new Science curriculum i.e. “properties of local materials determine use by First Peoples” (https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/science/1/core).

 

"How Can Solids Be Changed?: Investigating Science"

20/1/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (10 years past the CREW formula cut off date).  It is also part of a series, "Investigating Science", which is now incomplete in the library collection.

 

 

"Solids, Liquids, and Gases: Starting with Science"

25/1/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (15 years past the CREW formula cut off date). There are also other books in the collection that are newer and more engaging that cover the same subject matter.

 

"Matter, Matter Everywhere"

19/Never/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (18 years past the CREW formula cut off date) and has never been circulated.  Moreover, the bag of supplies in this Science kit is missing several supplies.

 

"Air and Water"

19/Never/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (18 years past the CREW formula cut off date) and has also never been circulated. The teacher’s guide in this kit has gone missing.

 

 

"Program and Assessment Guide Grades 1-3 Pan Canadian Science Place Team"

23/Never/MUSTIE This resource is out of date (23 years past the CREW formula cut off date) and has also never been circulated. Moreover, the B.C. Science Curriculum has changed since the publication of this resource so it no longer aligns with instruction.

 

 

Part Two: Selection of New Resources

 

The North Vancouver School District does not have any formal policy concerning the selection of resources in school libraries. The closest policy, "Learning Resources for the Classroom", states that the District “Will provide a variety of learning resources, which shall be fair, objective and free from bias, propaganda, discrimination and gender stereotyping, except where the use of such materials promotes critical thinking about these issues” (https://www.sd44.ca/Board/PoliciesProcedures/Series200/Policy201/Pages/default.aspx#/=).

Mardis provides more specific criteria for resource selection. “Potential resources should be evaluated based on their authority, appropriateness and audience, scope, authenticity, treatment, arrangement and organization, instructional design, and special features” (Mardis, 76). 

 

New Resources

 

       1. Properties of Matter from Hands-On Science: An Inquiry Approach ISBN: 9781553797999

Authority:  Author Jennifer Lawson has a PhD and has contributed to over 50 resources for students and teachers, while author Melanie Lawson is an Indigenous educator specializing in Indigenous ways of knowing.                                                                                  

Appropriateness and audience: This is a teachers’ guide for Kindergarten to Grade Two. It is written at an adult level and is of important educational significance as we move towards Indigenizing the curriculum.

Scope: This resource is a great example of scope. It presents the properties of Matter from a First People’s Perspective. This is a perspective absent from the library collection.

Authenticity: This resource was published recently (in 2019) and is specifically designed to meet the new B.C. Science curriculum.

Treatment: The coil binding format makes for easy photocopying of the resource as well as the use of tab dividers for organization.

Arrangement and organization: The curricular competencies chart in this resource makes it easy for staff to plan teaching units.

Instructional design: The resource encourages creative thinking by focusing on A.D.S.T. challenges, makerspace activities, and learning centres.

 

2.      2. “Matter – Physical Science Kit – Gr. 2

Authority: This resource was distributed by Wintergreen Learning Materials. This is a Canadian company that has been serving the educational community for 44 years.

Appropriateness and audience: The resource kit was specifically designed to engage grade two students with hands on Science experiments. The bounce test tower to measure how high certain materials bounce will be a particular hit with elementary students.                             

Scope: This resource kit only contains four activities so it is limited in scope. The connection cards do help prompt students to make connections from the experiments to the real world though.

Authenticity: The description of the kit does not state who created it. So, it is unclear what expertise the creators had.                                                        

Treatment: Laminated investigation cards help prompt students through the hands on activities. The format of each card is the same and their use of colour symbols also supports the reader.

Arrangement and organization: The materials are all organized into their own pouches, but unfortunately the laminated index cards are not hole-punched. They may quickly get out of order or be lost.

Instructional design:  The kit is not designed to exactly align with the British Columbia curriculum. Instead, it is designed to match the American Next Generation Science Standards.

 

3.      3. The Digital Professional Membership of N.S.T.A. (National Science Teaching Association) provides access to all of N.S.T.A.’s library of interactive e-books, all professional learning units, and all web seminars for only 60 dollars a year.

Authority: The N.S.T.A. is an association of 40 000 members. It has 60 full time staff and is dedicated to the best practices in Science teaching and Stem.

Appropriateness and audience: The membership provides access to professional resources appropriate to an audience of Elementary teachers.

Scope: The scope of the N.S.T.A. membership is vast. They host dozens of professional learning units and 78 interactive e-books alone. This membership increases the access to high quality professional resources enormously for teaching staff.

Authenticity: The N.S.T.A. resources are created by both highly recognized educators and leading industry experts.

Treatment: The N.S.T.A. website is clutter free and visually appealing. The drop down icons are easy to use. I did not encounter any broken links in my searching.

Arrangement and organization: The N.S.T.A. website is easily searchable by subject, grade level, and resource type (ranging from scholarly journals to lesson plans).

Instructional design: The N.S.T.A. is an American organization so their lessons plans don’t align exactly with the B.C. curriculum. 

                                                                                                                        

4.      4. “Curious Pearl Science Girl” by Eric Mark Braun

Authority: Eric Mark Braun has an MFA from Minnesota State University and has published 12 books for three different publishers.

Appropriateness and audience: “Curious Pearl Science Girl” has child friendly illustrations that are in full colour. The main character is also an elementary school child which makes the story more relatable to K-2 students.

Scope: The scope of this book is relatively small as it only looks at the transformations of a liquid into a solid.                                                                                                                                                           

Authenticity: “Curious Pearl Science Girl” was published in 2019 so the information it contains is relatively recent. I would note, however, that the main character is a female person of colour while the author is a Caucasian older man.                                                          

Treatment: The fictional aspect of the story may draw in students not typically engaged by non-fiction texts.                                                                                                                                                          

Arrangement and organization: The reading level and interest level of the book are listed as between Kindergarten and Grade Two. The length of 24 pages is appropriate for the attention spans of lower elementary students.

Instructional design: The story poses the problem of how to turn juice into a frozen Popsicle for the main character’s little brother. It takes an abstract scientific concept of matter changing states and makes it personal and relevant to students.

 

      5. “Super Science Matter Matters” by Tom Adams.

Authority: Book Page has been reviewing books for over 30 years and 3400 public libraries and bookstores subscribe to it. Their review of “Super Science Matter Matters” states, “It’s impressive how much kids can learn with SUPER SCIENCE: MATTER MATTERS!” (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220722/super-science-matter-matters-by-tom-adams/)                                 

Appropriateness and audience: The book is designed for elementary aged students. Its use of bright colours, comic book style illustrations, humour, and pull tabs and pop ups would be engaging for students.                                                                                                                                    

Scope: The scope of the text is quite broad but may not be as deep as it should be. It covers atoms, elements, states of matter, water, air, chemical reactions, acids and bases, biochemistry and radioactivity in only 18 pages.

Authenticity: The author Tom Adams is a TV producer with credits for the Discovery Channel and the BBC. He is a member of the Association of British Science Writers (https://www.amazon.com/Super-Science-Matters-Tom-Adams/dp/0763660965).                         

Treatment: The resource is interactive as students can pull on tabs and open pop ups on many of the pages. Pop up books are some of the most popular items in the library among elementary students so this likely would be a popular book in terms of circulation.                      

Arrangement and organization: One concern with the resource may be that each page is so busy with interactive elements that students may focus more on the novelty factor than on the scientific information. 

Instructional design: The seven experiments in the book will help students to make abstract scientific ideas real for students.              

                                                                                           

 6. “Matter: See it, Touch it, Taste it, Smell it” by Darlene Stille

Authority: Darlene Stille was educated at the University of Illinois and is a Science writer of 98 books (https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2314/Stilie-Darlene-R-1942.html).             

Appropriateness and audience: This resource is only 24 pages long and contains a limited amount of text on each page. The illustrations also do a great job of showing real life examples of the text e.g. "A liquid does not have its own shape" is illustrated with a child sitting in a bath holding water.

Scope: The scope of the text covers all of the 3 states of matter as well as the changes of state that matter undergoes. These are the main areas covered in the Elementary Science curriculum.

Authenticity: This Resource was published in 2012 which makes it older than is recommended by the Crew formula. There is, however, no factually incorrect information.                                       

Treatment: The book does an excellent job of featuring people of colour in many of its illustrations.                                                                                                                                                   Arrangement and organization: The book’s use of a table of contents is helpful for students looking for particular information. The glossary would also help students to learn new vocabulary.

Instructional design: The Fun Facts sections on many of the pages contain very engaging for students. Likewise, the real life experiments that are shown would help students to understand how Matter is important to them in the real world.

 

Reflections

I am stunned by how much work goes into deselecting and selecting resources for even a tiny section of the library. This report was the product of many hours of thought and research, and yet it would only represent a change of 14 resources out of the 8000 in the collection. I truly understand now that deselection must be an ongoing process (one small section each week), and that building a collection is a matter of many years and much hard work.

I also recognize that the work of creating a library collection that responds to student and staff needs is a truly collaborative effort. There is no way that I can be an expert in all areas of the K-7 curriculum. I need to better enlist the support of teaching colleagues in the building.

Finally, I recognize the importance of having clear criteria for deselecting and selecting material. Weeding is an emotionally difficult job for someone who loves books. Having set criteria, however, makes the job easier. I do not want the next librarian in my role to be weeding so many out of date and unused resources.  

 

Works Cited

Adams, Tom. “Super Science: Matter Matters! by Tom Adams: 9780763660963: Penguinrandomhouse.com: Books.” PenguinRandomhouse.com, Candlewick, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220722/super-science-matter-matters-by-tom-adams/.

“Darlene R. Stilie (1942–) Biography - Personal, Career, Member, Writings, Sidelights.” Personal, Career, Member, Writings, Sidelights - Books, Minneapolis, Compass, and Series - JRank Articles, Biography Jrank.org, https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2314/Stilie-Darlene-R-1942.html.

Mardis, Marcia A. The Collection Program in Schools: Concepts and Practices. Libraries Unlimited, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2021.

“Policy 201: Learning Resources in the Classroom.” Policy 201: Learning Resources for Classroom Use - North Vancouver School District, North Vancouver School District, 15 Oct. 2019, https://www.sd44.ca/Board/PoliciesProcedures/Series200/Policy201/Pages/default.aspx#/=.

“Super Science: Matter Matters! - Amazon.com.” Amazon, Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Super-Science-Matters-Tom-Adams/dp/0763660965.