Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo
Design for Instruction
School & community
demographics; student
characteristics
Standard(s) – this could be
CCS, Ga. Standards, or
Information Literacy Standards
1
IMPACT ON LEARNING Requirements – May be used at Tk20
Alternative School in Fulton County School District that is by choice that they attend, and it is currently located in
Alpharetta, but we will be moving to Roswell in December because they are tearing our current building down to
build a STEM school. Some students are there because they want to graduate early or possibly got behind in some
classes. There are 18 teachers, and the demographic break-down is as follows:
Student/Teacher Ratio: 8.8
Number of Students: 176
Racial Breakdown:
 Hispanic: 38.1%
 African American: 34.1 %
 White: 22.2%
Free and Reduced Lunch: 55.1%
The school follows a mini-semester (45 days) schedule, and they must cover an entire semester in the 45 days. It is
also a block schedule which is 4 classes that last 80 minutes each. This requires teachers to be creative and utilize
personalized learning techniques to create engaging activities to teach the content effectively and quickly. Classes
do not exceed 21 students at any point so that we can provide more individualized learning and help students
achieve high school graduation.
The class utilized for the Dewey Lesson has 17 students. The breakdown is as follows:
2 African American Females (1 female 504)
3 African American Males (1 Male IEP and 1 Male 504)
1 White Male
1 Asian Male
1 White Female (504)
4 Hispanic Males (3 ELL)
5 Hispanic Females (3 ELL)
21st Century Learner Standards (AASL):
Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo 2

Information Literacy Standards:

Grade level 10th-12th (Ages 15-21)

Pre/Post Test (include actual Dewey Decimal System
Pre/Post-Assessment
test here or provide link or
attachment) 1. Name w

2. In the Dewey Decimal System, you would find a book about Sign Language in which section? w

400

500

300

100

3. If I want to find a book about cars, where would I need to search? w

Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo 3

000

600

900

500

4. If I am wanting to learn more about Bigfoot or Aliens, where would I go? w

100

400

300

500

5. If I want to find a book of poetry, which section would I look? w

800

900

000

300

6. In which section would you find an encyclopedia? w

000

200

400

500

7. If you want to research the Fox theatre, where would you look? w

700

400
Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo 4

000

300

8. You are researching the Civil War, where would you look? w

800

900

000

100

9. You want to make a cake from scratch, where would you look for resources?

100

600

300

000

10. You are in search of a folk tale, where would you look? w

300

100

200

400

Detailed Activity explanation
(include all activities you did
plus all resources used for this
unit of instruction/lesson)
1. Students completed the Pre-Assessment before learning content about Dewey Decimal System Categories.
2. Students completed the Nearpod (Join Code: KGOES) about Dewey Decimal Categories as whole class
which included a video, an activity to create a tool to help the class review, and then a fill-in-the-blank
activity as a final review of the content.
3. Part of the Nearpod required them to choose one of the tools to help the class remember the category:
 Create a Quizziz
 Create a Kahoot
Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo 5

 Create a Mnemonic Device

 Create a Matching Game
 Student Choice with Teacher Approval
4. After students finished creating the tool then we played them to practice learning each category and what
could be found in them.
5. We traveled to the Media Center, and I gave a short tour of the Non-fiction section.
6. Students then participated in a Scavenger Hunt competition to see if they could find the locations of
resources. The winner received a treat.
7. After the Scavenger Hunt, we returned to the classroom to finish our Nearpod. Students completed the Fill
in the Blank Activity on Nearpod as a final practice activity. I created it using one of the mnemonic devices
a student created during the tool creation activity.
8. Students then completed the post-assessment.
9. The next day, students visited the Media Center again to find resources for their projects.
Analysis of Student Learning
Table, chart, or graph of whole
group data
Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo 6
Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo
Table, chart, or graph of
subgroup data
Narrative of findings
(explanation of visuals)
7
The data chart explains the composition of the class including race, sex, and any sub-group that each student might
fall under. Class Results has the whole class results that indicate that the class average score on the Pre-Assessment
is 22% with an average Post-Assessment score of 80% which indicates a whole class growth in score of 66 points.
When reviewing the different demographics it shows that:
 Asian: Growth of 78
 White: Growth of 80
 Hispanic: Growth of 54
 African American: Growth of 58
 504: Growth of 63
 IEP: Growth of 67
 IEP/Gifted: Growth of 78
 Gifted: Growth of 56
 ELL: Growth of 58
Growth occurred in all groups, however, there were 2 students who scored the same or dropped. It was due to lack
of motivation or interest and language challenges. There is also less growth in some subgroups because they
Impact on Learning: Dewey Decimal System Categories
Fall 2017
Erica Carrillo
Reflection and Self-Evaluation
Reflection on your instruction
– strengths / weaknesses /
changes recommended
8
performed higher on the Pre-Assessment so there wasn’t much room for growth.
Strengths: The results indicate that growth did occur in whole class, demographic groups, and sub-groups which
implies impact on learning. The majority of students were very engaged in the activities and were excited about
having an opportunity to visit the Media Center. This supported the research project that students would be
completing over Migration, Adaptations, and Extinction in Earth Systems B the next day. Students were able to
locate resources that supported their projects with little support.
Weaknesses: I would have preferred to have the entire class in the Media Center but was unable to reserve an entire
period so I had to break up the lesson between classroom and Media Center. I also would have liked to see the class
average a bit higher than 80%. It was very rushed, and likely the reason more growth wasn’t present was because
they didn’t have enough time/days to truly practice the skills.
Reflection (what I would change): I would make sure that students had an entire class period held in the Media
Center versus dividing it up between classroom and Media Center. I believe it would also be beneficial to have
short mini-lessons over a week’s time prior to the project to ensure that students have enough time to truly learn the
different Dewey categories. It just seemed very rushed. I also would like to possibly create an Escape the Media
Center where they have to locate books and solve clues using Dewey Decimal correctly in order to get the key to
“escape” the Media Center. I think this would be very engaging because it is such a popular activity for teenagers
right now. This would be a culminating activity prior to the post-assessment. Another issue was that because our
internet and technology were having issues, I had to create a paper/pencil pre and post assessment versus the
Survey Monkey I created. Students also liked reviewing the categories with the tools they created, and honestly, I
used some of their tools to make sure I memorized/learned the Dewey categories. I think another change or addition
I would make is to include a sorting activity where students have to place the books under the write Dewey
Category. This could be one of the tools students created to help the class review the categories, and the class could
play it like a game. It could be created as a Learning Object using technology as well. At my school, it is hard to
spend much time on an activity like this because we have to cover a full semester in 45 days which is a challenge in
itself. I chose this particular class because they were ahead in their curriculum, and they do not have an EOC they
have to take.