The Expansion of Literature Program For The Garadagh School District

Project Duration:
September19, 2005 - December 25, 2005.

Financial support:
Azerbaijan International Operation Company
(ACG Project STEP
Block1003, Tbilisi prospekti 5, Baku..


Purpose:
The purpose of this program is to provide school libraries and teachers of English as a Second Language in the Garadagh School District with elementary educational and general reading materials written in the English language.

Receptors:
Under this program the receptors were the sixteen (16) school libraries in the Garadagh School District. Books were selected under 25 titles. Thirty books were given to each school from each title. Thus totally 12000 books were purchased to be distributed to the secondary schools of Garadagh School District.

Description:
Based on a needs assessment survey conducted among the teachers of the district by “Sonmaz Mashal Cultural Relations Center” it had been determined that within the district there was a critical shortage of materials available that were written in the English language and that could be used as instructional or practice/supportive reading material for the secondary school students of Garadagh schools. School libraries did not have the funds available to them to provide the resources needed to establish or maintain library services for the needed books in the English language. “The Expansion of Literature Program” was based on the selection and purchasing of books written in the English language for the school libraries of the Garadagh School District. Every school had "class sets" of elementary reading books available for teachers to use for class reading assignments and related classroom activities. When the class sets are not in use by the ESL teachers they can be made available to the general student population or other teachers interested in personal use or classroom instruction. Educational materials to be provided only include supportive teaching and reading materials and not textbooks.
Selection of books to be purchased and distributed were based on the input of district teachers through a district wide survey and group discussions with teachers from a number of local schools.

Program Evaluation:
The evaluation process included in-school meetings with librarians and teachers of English as a Second Language and final survey forms were distributed and discussion of major topics of concern were addressed. The recommendations suggested by the teachers in the survey forms about the outcome of the project were discussed by the members of the project team and were accepted to be taken into consideration in future.