The sixth grades were in the library most of last week for library orientation. Students learned about the library and the services and resources it offers. They worked at different stations to complete a Dewey Decimal scavenger hunt, learned about databases, and learned how to evaluate websites. Each student was assigned a specialty (authority, content, bias, or design) and then had to evaluate three websites in regards to that specific criteria. After, each specialist presented their findings to their groups.
The 9th and 10th graders were in this week working on various aspects of their projects. Ninth grade students got a refresher course on how to use NoodleTools, a citation management tool, for their National History Day projects. They also learned how to navigate our databases for relevant information and how to find scholarly sources. The 10th graders spent their library time taking a deep dive into local sources.
The library held its first book club of the school year. Students talked about what they read over the summer. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was a popular book between Adam and Saheb, with both of them describing it as more dense than The Martian, but a great plot. We also had a lively discussion on movie adaptations of books and which are better (the books are better).
Friday saw the beginning of Teentober and a writing contest to celebrate teen voices. The library’s helpers wrote out interesting prompts on Post-it notes and put them on the front window for students to draw inspiration from.
Bonus:
Thank you to our two secret admirers for the lovely flowers!
The library was full of 7th and 10th grade students this week. The 7th graders began by searching the Credo database and brainstorming topic ideas for National History Day. This year’s theme is Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences and students are sure to come up with fascinating topics. Later in the week, the 7th graders were back to learn how to find and annotate a database article (annotating is a way to take more interactive notes) then they added their sources to NoodleTools (a research management platform that also helps them generate a bibliography). Meanwhile, the 10th graders were in this week to research local sources for their Sophomore Project topics.
Books & Bytes 