Competency 6: Search 3

In this search I used the Successive Fractions technique which begins with a broad strategy that will produce high recall. Then restrictions are applied as needed to narrow to the results desired.

Search: Successive Fractions

Database: WorldCat

S1 Broadest Facet: Reading Programs = 13, 188 hits

S2 Narrowed by adding S1 AND Accelerated Reader = 30 hits

S3 Narrowed again by adding the third facet: S2 AND Elementary Libraries = 1 hit

Below are screen shots from this search:

S3 produced the following hit:

Title:
Analysis of the Principal's perceptions of the implementation and impact of the accelerated reader and other selected reading strategies used by Texas gold performance elementary schools
Author(s):
Elmore, Olivia Carol, 1948-
Publication:
[College Station, Tex. :; Texas A&M University,
Year:
2005
Dissertation:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Knowledge of the implementation practices of successful elementary schools will be beneficial to other elementary principals who seek to improve student success in reading. This study examined perceptions of principals from elementary schools in Texas whose schools received the Gold Performance Acknowledgement (GPA) from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for Continuous Improvement in Reading (CIR) on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) in 2002. The study had two purposes: (1) to identify the principal's perception of the levels of implementation and impact of selected reading strategies used by selected elementary schools in Texas to improve student success in reading and (2) to determine the principal's perception of the extent to which Accelerated Reader (AR) and AR-like recommend practices were used in selected elementary schools in Texas. The research design for this study was descriptive. Parameters, which are descriptive measures of a population, were used since all 721 members of the population were mailed questionnaires. Research was conducted during the winter of 2004. Two hundred fifty-two principals responded. A questionnaire using a Likert type scale for the principals' responses was used to collect the data. Principals' perceptions were measured to determine the degree of implementation and impact of AR and other selected reading strategies. Data were analyzed for all 252 respondents for selected reading strategies and by the categories of AR and non-AR schools for AR recommended reading strategies and AR-like recommended reading strategies, respectively. This study identified the characteristics of a successful reading program in Texas elementary schools. To maximize their budgets while improving student success in reading, principals should provide their teachers with professional development, implement student/teacher conferences to direct reading practice, allow students to self-select books on their independent reading level for independent reading practice, consider use of literature circles, classroom libraries and reading textbooks, review the use of rewards and posting of goals to determine if these practices increase students' success in reading, assess computer reading programs to determine if there are less costly options available, and in schools using the AR program, review implementation practices for greater impact.

Results:

My objective here was to demonstrate how to use successive factions. When I arrived with the results of the query S2 I could have stopped there because 30 results is a good number to work from. Instead, I chose to add the third and final query for demonstration purposes. S3 query ended up with just one hit. Although that one particular hit did offer good information, a person who is researching would want more information to work from. I would then go back to S2 and work from those 30 hits to find the information needed for my study.