Pathfinder Report

Michelle Allen

ICL 7731

November 11, 2016

I chose the topic of the early colonies of America because this month a 4th grade teacher at my

school had the students come to the library to find books on the thirteen colonies, the lost colony

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of Roanoke, and Jamestown to read for extra credit. As I was helping the students find books, I

noticed that most of what we owned was too hard for the majority of them. Most of our books

were on a 7th through 9th grade level and very dense, boring books. The median reading level

for this particular class was 3rd grade. I looked up the Tennessee state standards to see exactly

what the students were learning and chose the standard that the teacher mentioned the most

which was the competition between the countries who settled the colonies. The 4th grade social

studies standard states, describe the early competition between European nations for control of

North America and locate the colonization efforts of the English, Dutch, French, and Spanish on

a map(Tennessee Department of Education, 2013).

Encyclopedias

I began general and made my way to more specific sources. I started with encyclopedias. I

searched for several key words in World book; New France, New Sweden, and New

Netherlands, because my first thought was to include them all in the pathfinder, however in the

end I decided to keep the encyclopedia articles general. The Jamestown, Virginia article I found

in Wikipedia was good and included information on the colonies I was looking for, but the

article also went to the present day and included fiction on Jamestown. I felt that having a larger

time span may confuse the students or they may waste time reading something that was not

directly related to their subject. Shelby County Schools provides a subscription to Encyclopedia

Britannica online. The article I found there was exactly what the students need to fulfill the

Tennessee social studies standard. There was also a map that was so good I felt it needed to be in

the powerpoint presentation.

Books

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 My next set of resources were books, however they were a challenge. I first searched for

what my library at Macon-Hall Elementary had, however, they are on a 6th or 7th grade reading

level and my students in 4th grade range from mostly 3rd grade reading level to 4th grade. I also

needed to have access to the books online, so I could write a annotation about them. I did two

searches one for myself to eventually purchase for my school library and one for this assignment.

I did that by searching WorldCat.org for colonies with limiters for non-fiction and

juvenile. I then cross compared them on arbookfind.com to check their Accelerated Reader

levels. I created a bibliography for myself for future purchases for my school library. I then

took that list from WorldCat and added the extra limiter of ebooks in order to find books for

this assignment. I was looking for books that students would want to read for this extra credit

assignment. I thought I had noticed during our previous assignments that WorldCat gives access

to the content of an e-book, but none of my top choices were available to me. I then went to the

University of Memphis catalog and searched for thirteen colonies and juvenile limited it to

e-books. The books I included and annotated in the powerpoint were the result of this search.

There was one book because the teacher specifically mentioned the lost Colony of Roanoke. I

also took the liberty to include it because it was part of this time period and because it is part of

another of the Tennessee state standards for 4th grade social studies that states they have to

theorize what happened to at Roanoke.

Online Databases

Next, I wanted to see what magazine sources I could find. When I started my online database

search I chose to use Student Resources in Context first because I have used it in many of my

previous assignments and I like how it uses the symbol as an easy and fast way to assess the

articles level of difficulty. The articles chosen were basic content level articles because I was

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trying keep the difficulty level at a minimum. I found one article that was a play that I wanted to

include called Silent meadows: while the American Colonies are on the brink of revolution, one

Massachusetts. I liked that was a play based on true events and could be interesting addition to

the basic histories the students have read so far. However, I decided not to include it because

the time period is close to 1776 and I wanted to stay in the 1600s as much as I could because of

the specific standard I chose. The students will have to know about that the American

Revolution, but it wasnt the focus of this pathfinder.

I switched from Students Resource in Context to Kids Infobits looking for more content at

lower reading level. I tried a search for thirteen colonies and found three books and one

magazine article that were all very short. One book was a timeline. I thought about including

the timeline at this point, because sometimes students may get to this point and still be confused

about how all they have learned fits together. However, technically since this was a book it

belonged in another category, so I tried another search in Kids Infobits for colonies and I

found a very interesting article on the Lost Colony of Roanoke from Dig magazine. However, I

had already included a book source on Roanoke and it was hard to find, so I chose to keep the

book instead. I searched again for another biography since I had good luck with the biography

on John Winthorp. I considered John Smith and found a biography on him. However, I knew I

didnt have any information yet on the southern colonies so I searched for James Oglethorpe

and found a basic biography similar to the one I found for John Winthrop. I also liked that it

provided me another opportunity to put a picture in the powerpoint.

Websites

Ironically, I began that websites part of the powerpoint first as I was learning about my

subject. I gathered many websites that I did not use in the end. I had several on the Dutch

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colony and kept the one from USHistory.org over The Park Service because the site was down

when I went back to compare them, though I had just found it and read it a few days ago. One

website from Americas Library on colonial america was very good. I didnt use it because it

was very similar to the .org site above. I chose it over this one because it was a .org site. I ended

up including the WebQuest in with the websites because that is the best place it fit. I also put the

Library of Congress presentations list on a slide by itself but within the website category. Since

there were so many resources included in it, I decided to stop there because I did not want to

overwhelm the students with more websites.

Videos

When I starting thinking of what to include in websites I realized that I did not have very

diverse medium. I thought of WebQuests and videos on TeacherTube and set out to find

something I could use. The WebQuest was easy. The video was not. I found a rap about the

colonies on TeacherTube, but it would not load. I also found a song, but I had problems playing

it too. I thought to switch to Youtube, but it is not supposed to be used in the Shelby County

Schools. I switched gears and looked at WorldCat to find dvds. I found one called Colonial

House in which modern day people move into a village and try to live like colonists did with the

same tools they had. This was interesting, but the field trip to yesterday about Colonial Times

had actual footage of where the settlers lived, as well as giving the history that I preferred. There

was another dvd that I liked but did not include because it stated that it was a video quiz. The

information about the dvd was very similar to the one I did chose, but even though the quiz

intrigued me, I didnt know exactly how they would use the quiz, so I just to left it off. The one I

did chose was a PBS special about a archeological dig at Jamestown Colony. The title of the

video is intriguing as well, it is called Jamestowns Dark Winter. I had read in previous material

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from studying this subject that it is speculated that one year while Jamestown was waiting on

supplies their starvation was so bad that they are thought to have turned to cannibalism. I was

curious if this PBS special may cover that period of time for Jamestown.

Overall, I was absolutely surprised and how much content I learned putting together this

pathfinder. I have created pathfinders before at the public library, but I dont remember

annotating all the resources. Creating several pathfinders in specific subject areas would make

librarians experts on those subjects and specially equipped to help their customers find sources

on the subject. I have always thought pathfinders were useful for novice librarians to use when

they would come to help on in subject departments at large libraries. Also, online LibGuides are

a good way to keep the pathfinders that require so much work updated as the sources date

themselves. I do like an online pathfinder better that the static paper ones I learned about and

created in the beginning of my library career. In the future, I think I will reserve creating these

detailed pathfinders for large projects my school gives every year (science projects that were

assigned in Shelby County Schools each year before Common Core came along comes to mind).

I could create one large pathfinder per year if time permitted. The result is wonderful and useful,

it is just very time consuming.

References

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13 colonies rap. (n.d). TeacherTube.com. Retrieved from http://www.teachertube.com/video/
colonies-rap-358043

Americas Library. (n.d.) Colonial America (1492-1763). Americas Story. Retrieved from
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_subj.html

Carmel Clay Schools. 13 colonies Webquest. Retrieved from http://www1.ccs.k12.in.us/

teachers/downloads/cms_block_file/61552/file/64222

Colonial America time line. (2003. Junior Scholastic. Retrieved from http://
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITKE&sw=w&u=tel_s_tsla&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE
%7CA109352921&asid=aaca690edb9a7b10acfcb9e8c78b4f14

Colonial History of the United States. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_history_of_the_United_States

Clement, S., Walker, K., WNET (Television station : New York, N.Y.), Wall to Wall
Television., & PBS Home Video. (2004). Colonial house. United States: PBS Home
Video.

Dutch Colonization: The Middle Colonies. (n.d.) UsHistory.org website. Retrieved from http://
www.ushistory.org/us/4a.asp

Gundersen, J. R. (2016). New Netherland. In World Book Advanced. Retrieved from

http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar388900

The Jamestown Settlement in 1607. (2000). In J. Lehman (Ed.), Gale Encyclopedia of

Multicultural America: Primary Documents. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from http://
ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/PrimarySourcesDetailsPage/PrimarySourcesDetailsWindow?
disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=PrimarySources&currPage=&scanId=&
query=
&prodId=SUIC&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&disp
lay- query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE
%7CEJ2129100113&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentar
y=&source=Bookmark&u=tel_s_tsla&jsid=b2f17b13722fbe99457ea1be11348a72

James Oglethorpe. (2011). In UXL Biographies. Detroit: UXL. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITKE&sw=w&u=tel_s_tsla&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CEJ2
108101727&asid=3a45a3cdf95879b40e2c48fb20785394

John Smith. (2011). In UXL Biographies. Detroit: UXL. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/
ic/suic/BiographiesDetailsPage/BiographiesDetailsWindow?
disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Biographies&currPage=&scanId=&quer
y=&prodId=SUIC&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-
query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ21

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08102123&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&source=Book
mark&u=tel_s_tsla&jsid=41cc0d889fe6d66276d68be908293fb0

John Winthrop. (1998). In Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale. Retrieved from
http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/BiographiesDetailsPage/BiographiesDetailsWindow?disa
bleHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Biographies&currPage=&scanId=&query=&prodId
=SUIC&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-
query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE%7CK16
31007034&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=&source=Book
mark&u=tel_s_tsla&jsid=1141f17a998b7b810d2e360589075753

Library of Congress. (n.d.) Colonial and Early America: Exhibitions and Presentations.
Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/colonial-
america/ exhibitions.html

Mcgraw-Hill. (n.d). A New World (10001776). Higher Education. Retrieved from http://
highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/0809222299/45391/USHistory.html

National Park Service. (n.d). Dutch Colonies. Retrieved from https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/

kingston/colonization.htm

Palmer, K. (2013, April). Silent meadows: while the American Colonies are on the brink of
revolution, one Massachusetts family finds a secret way to aid the Colonial Army. Based
on a true story. Plays, 72(6), 13+

Raifteiri-McArdle, J. (2016). Stressed out. Cobblestone. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/

ic/suic/MagazinesDetailsPage/MagazinesDetailsWindow?
disableHighlighting=false&displayGroupName=Magazines&currPage=&scanId=&query
=&prod
Id=SUIC&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&mode=view&catId=&limiter=&display-
query=&displayGroups=&contentModules=&action=e&sortBy=&documentId=GALE
%7CA466294355&windowstate=normal&activityType=&failOverType=&commentary=
&sourc e=Bookmark&u=tel_s_tsla&jsid=9d2a55b0ff0b22c0104ff07999f0ce6b

Rink, O. A. (2016). New Sweden. In World Book Advanced. Retrieved from http://
www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar389090

Rose, M. (2005). Waiting! Lost colony clues? Dig. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/
i.do?p=ITKE&sw=w&u=tel_s_tsla&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE
%7CA138991535&asid=1db29e4a28c078ccc1aa7d40d8cf07b8

Sanders, J. O. (2015). Jamestown's dark winter. PBS Distribution (Firm).

Sunburst Visual Media. (2000). American history video quiz: Colonial days. Pleasantville, NY:
Sunburst Visual Media.

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