Making Correlations: Part II

Michelle Baldini and Meghan Harper

The Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education ( ILILE) and the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) introduced the Correlation Project at Ohio Educational Library Media Association's ( OELMA) conference and at the American Association for School Libraries ( AASL) 2007 conference in Reno, Nevada. School library professionals were intrigued by the idea of enhancing their collection to support their school's standards, but one common trepidation voiced was, "How in the world am I supposed to assess an entire collection and match hundreds of resources to my state standards?" Some felt that it would be too overwhelming to initiate considering the thousands of resources in any one collection.
The Making Correlations series will provide a descriptive and transferable process of correlating a school library collection. The five areas covered will include:

• Introduction of the Correlation Project. Assessing your collection. Completing a collection analysis. Weeding your collection. Why the SLMS should correlate.  
• Reviewing existing and new materials using tools and guidelines for matching resources to standards.
• Selection and Acquisition of Library Materials. How to identify gaps in the collection and select new materials.
• Planning a budget, comparing identified materials and conducting a quality analysis to purchase the best resources to correlate with academic standards.
• Cataloging materials, utilizing the 658 tag and Notes tags to make these resources accessible in the library's OPAC.

Get to Know State Academic Content Standards

High quality collections that connect with academic content standards help to stimulate collaboration and establish the important role of the SLMS as a curricular leader and partner in the instructional process. Dr. Ross Todd's study, Student Learning through Ohio School Libraries, showed that school libraries are crucial to facilitating learning. According to the Ohio Study, "The school library and librarian provide up-to-date diverse resources to meet curriculum informational needs" ( Todd and Kulthau, 2003). Consequently, an understanding of national and state standards enable the School Library Media Specialist (SLMS) an opportunity to demonstrate curricular expertise and content knowledge that is critical to improving student academic achievement. Information Power states, "As instructional partner, the library media specialist joins with teachers and others to identify links across student information needs, curricular content, learning outcomes, and a wide variety of print, nonprint and electronic information resources" ( ALA, 1998). Therefore, a strong collection that supports curricular demands can also spark SLMS-classroom teacher collaboration.

A quality library collection comprised of library materials that directly support teachers and students in the learning process is an important advocacy tool for the SLMS. Documentation gathered, such as the database of high-quality, award-winning materials which support district standards through the correlation process, can be used as key evidence of the impact the LMC has on student achievement. Creating a visual representation of the interrelatedness of the library collection and academic content standards illuminates how the school library media supports the curriculum. Additionally, it provides opportunities for the SLMS to collaborate and connect with teachers and students in the learning process. A SLMS should be knowledgeable and understand state standards in order to create useful tools that promote the connection of library resources to state academic content standards. These same resources can then be utilized to support instruction and collaboration efforts. The process of connecting with classroom teachers will nurture the building of professional relationships and advocacy for the school library media program.

By design, state standards align to national standards. In Table A there are links to further information on each discipline's national standards. Each state offers bound Academic Content Standard subject booklets that further explain the standards, benchmarks and standard indicators by grade. For example, in Ohio, standards which educators refer to for curricular guidance are about 1 inch thick and approximately 300 pages each. The Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education scaled this resource down by creating checklists, which are by grade and about 2 to 3 pages in length. These checklists (See Figure 1) quickly became popular with educators as a useful and handy tool.

Create Tools to Aide in Correlation Process

The Evaluation/Count of Resources tool (See Figure 2) was created using the ILILE checklists, which originated from Ohio's Academic Content Standards booklets. The checklists, a handy tool for educators, are divided by discipline and then by grade. However, in terms of evaluating a particular resource to correlate to state standards it was important to have multiple checklists readily accessible. All of the Ohio standards remained static for every grade and the only sections that changed were benchmarks and indicators. To solve this problem, the Evaluation/Count of Resources tool was developed as a result of the lack of efficiency the checklists offered in terms of evaluating a resource. This tool is divided by standard and grade band, making all information viewable and making it easier to evaluate a resource.

The Evaluation/Count of Resource tool serves two purposes:

1. To have all benchmarks/indicators visible for a particular grade band.
2. To tally resources that have been correlated so that one can easily identify weak areas of the existing collection that still need developed.

By taking each individual standard from the checklists and pasting it and all grades with benchmarks and indicators within a word document, a two-page tool document was created for each standard grades K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. These tools effectively served the purpose of evaluating a resource with all of the information readily available. The new tool was structured to contain the standard, benchmarks and indicators for each grade band (i.e. K-5, 6-8, 9-12). The tools were placed in a binder that enabled reviewers to have each grade band in view as a resource was considered for correlation. Later, it was discovered that the new tool could be used to identify weak areas of the existing collection that needed strengthened. Additionally, as committee members reviewed resources the process encouraged a deeper understanding of the academic content standards. In Figure 3, the Evaluation/Count of Resources tool describes the standard, Earth and Space Sciences, K-5. A range of grades and subjects can be identified that are addressed by a specific library resource. For example, in the Earth and Space Sciences tool Kindergarten's Benchmark C and Indicator 5 (Observe and describe seasonal changes in weather) and Second Grade's Benchmark C Indicator 4 (Observe and describe that some weather changes occur throughout the day and some changes occur in a repeating seasonal pattern) and Indicator 5 (Describe weather by measurable quantities such as temperature and precipitation) are similar. One resource may address two grades and several benchmarks and indicators. Using Microsoft Excel's sorting option SLMS can display how many standards, benchmarks and indicators and grade bands a particular resource covers. Comparison of library resources using the evaluation tools along with the spreadsheet provides a useful way for the SLMS to identify resources that best support academic content standards. Consideration was given to selecting materials that would address varied reading levels among students and that would meet grade level standards. Additionally, some materials were intentionally selected as teacher resources that could be used in the classroom to enhance instruction.

The SLMS may develop tools such as these for their own state. Furthermore, the development of these valuable tools that support the curriculum and enhance a libraries' core collection will also garner attention to the importance of the SLMS's position as a professional and innovative curricular leader.

Limit Your Focus/ Decide on a Pilot Discipline (i.e. science)

The amount of time the SLMS will need to dedicate to correlating resources greatly depends upon the scope of the intended goals. There are several factors to consider, such as collection size, curriculum needs and resource issues (i.e. time, money, available personnel, etc.). The ILILE Correlation Committee started by mapping out a year long plan that included goals and objectives and set aside time to reach them. In ILILE's case, evaluation began by focusing on one discipline and limiting selections to just the K-5 audience. The decision was made to focus initially on the resources that received awards or were notables. Science was chosen as the first subject to address due to the  objective nature of the topic. Non-fiction and fiction materials, print and non-print were included in the evaluation process. In fact, it was observed that some picture books covered numerous standards. For example, Five for a Little One by Chris Raschka, which received starred reviews, addressed two of Ohio's state standards and four benchmarks and indicators for grades K-2 in science (Life Sciences and Scientific Inquiry). In Five for a Little One, the rabbit character discovers his five senses, which satisfies Ohio's standard, Scientific Inquiry, benchmark C, indicator 4, which states "Use the five senses to make observations about the natural world." Raschaka's illustrations depict a charcoal father and a white mother. Little bunny is a mixture of both parents. This provides the Kindergarten teacher the opportunity to initiate a discussion with young students about how they may look like their parents in addition to how plants and animals resemble their parents. The latter satisfies Ohio's Life Sciences benchmark and indicator "Describe how plants and animals usually resemble their parents." Using tools designed by the collaborative efforts of committee members, such as the ILILE rubric, which measures a resource's relevance to standards (See Figure 3). The ILILE rubric measures a resource's currency of information, level of correlation, interest and reading level, awards and reviews received, "Bang for Buck: Cost of Resource and Amount of Correlation", and whether the source fulfills those difficult to meet standards.

The Evaluation/Count of Resources tools that contain all of the information for a particular grade band and is divided by standard, each resource was examined and linked to standards. The results were added to the Science spreadsheet until a quality core collection of resources was gathered.

Review Shelflist and Create Spreadsheet

Once the collection analysis and weeding were completed, a shelf list of all remaining science resources was printed out. This list of resources was then reviewed and an excel spreadsheet of existing resources that correlated to academic content standards was then produced. A spreadsheet for each subject was created. Then it was divided by individual standards, one for each sheet (i.e. Earth and Space Science, Life Sciences, etc.). The following headings: standard, title, author, grade band (i.e. K-2) the resource covers, grade, reading level, benchmark and indicator, publisher, copyright date, ISBN, price, awards/honors and reviews were included as columns (See Figure 4). The spreadsheet was a useful tool because information could be sorted to serve a variety of purposes. For example, the spreadsheets were developed as a matrix tool ( See Figure 5 ) for each standard that served as a guide to easily locate resources that link to state benchmarks and indicators.

Consider Reviews for New Purchases

Materials aligned were selected from those that had received the best reviews or awards. The following lists were reviewed: National Science Teachers Association's Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12 and the National Council for Social Studies. All publish a yearly list of Notable Trade Books for Young People. Resources from these lists were selected that best aligned to the benchmarks and indictors for a given standard. The gathered resources were then added to spreadsheets and those that were not relevant were eliminated. There are many professional collection development resources that provide teacher and librarian reviews. Professional journals such as Booklist and School Library Journal provide good detailed reviews. Amazon.com and Children's Literature Comprehensive Database http://www.childrenslit.com/ are easily accessible sources for online reviews. Many of the online vendors include reviews as a searchable parameter. This enables the librarian to quickly find quality materials that have been reviewed in professional publications.   SLMS should tie their state academic content standards in with the American Association of School Libraries http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/learningstandards/standards.cfm

Conclusion

To summarize Part II of Making Correlations, an SLMS can:

• Get to Know State Academic Content Standards
• Create Tools to Aide in Correlation Process
• Limit Your Focus / Decide on a Pilot Discipline (i.e. science)
• Review Resources in Shelflist / Create Spreadsheet
• Consider Reviews for New Purchases

Assessing an existing collection may appear intimidating. However, the process of evaluation stimulates weeding efforts and illuminates the weak sections of the collection that have inadequate resources to support the curriculum. Conducting an inventory of the existing resources and the subsequent correlation to state standards enables the SLMS to address inadequate collection areas and develop a budget plan. This process also enables the SLMS to prioritize and target purchasing of library resources in a systematic manner. Thus, this process also highlights the rationale behind the selection process to teachers, parents and administrators.

Future articles will address the process of selection and acquisition of library materials, budget planning and cataloging of correlated library resources.

May/June 2008

Works Cited

   American Association of School Librarians. Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning. Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1998.

   Todd, Ross and Kulthau, Carol. Student learning through Ohio school libraries, 2003.

About the Authors

Michelle Baldini is the grant coordinator for the School of Library and Information Literacy Science at Kent State University. She is the co-author of a young adult novel, Unraveling , Delacorte Press, July 2008.  Michelle's website: www.michellebaldini.com

 

 

Dr. Meghan Harper is an assistant professor at Kent State University in the School of Library and Information Science and is currently writing a professional textbook Reference Sources and Services for Youth K-12.