Week in Review: Sophomore Project Round-up + Return of Leadership Lunches

The sophomores visited the library every day this week to work on some aspect of their project. And there were many! Students worked on focusing their topics and went on “The Walk,” where they discussed their subject with a classmate while walking around the track. They also learned about Boolean search techniques and lateral reading, two important research skills that will help students find accurate and authoritative information for their papers.

The Leadership Lunch also had its first interview of the school year—and it returned to its pre-COVID lunchtime slot! Junior Ryan interviewed senior Amaya about her involvement with the Latinx Club. Amaya talked about wanting the club to focus on art in the Latinx community and hopes to have a bake sale in support of Latine artists. She plans to have the first meeting of the club before Hispanic Heritage Month ends in mid-October.

Week in Review: Orientations, Projects, and Other Assorted Fun

The sixth graders finished their library orientation last week. To demonstrate what they learned about evaluating sources, they finished up with a game of Friendly Feud to test their knowledge. Good thing Steve Harvey was on hand to host!

To practice their new skills, they spent the rest of the week learning more about algae and soil to get some background information for their trip to Clay Banks.

This week, the tenth graders joined us daily for lessons relating to their Sophomore Projects, including how to paraphrase, determine their research question, and use NoodleTools. Students were also visited by archivist James Scott of the Sacramento Room at the Sacramento Public Library. He talked about the research tools available at the public library, like databases and ebooks, as well as the wealth of local information in the Sacramento Room. Students will learn more about the Sacramento Room when they visit in person next week.

Students have been enjoying the new whiteboard in the Quiet Room. This week they used it to play Boggle!

In bookish news, the Middle School Book Elective met in the library to read and discuss their books. We also drew winners for the Summer Reading Raffle. Congratulations to Zachary, Phoebe, and everyone else who participated!

We also acknowledged Banned Books Week with a counter display showing where and why books are most often challenged.

Finally, Ms. Melinson’s advisory proved that they have the best snacks. Advisee Ava D. made cannolis to share with the group.

Week in Review: We’re Back!

The new school year began last week and the library was off to a running start with the 10th grade visiting to learn about their big assignment, the Sophomore Project. We were also visited by the Middle School Book Elective, who came in to browse the shelves for a new favorite.

The High School Book Club met for its first meeting of the year—and the first to take place at its previously usual time at lunch. Students and faculty shared what they read over the summer, and Ms. Melinson shared some new-to-the-library books. Read more about book club here.

This week, the library held its 6th grade orientation. Sixth graders were introduced to their new library and went on a silent conga through the stacks to learn how the books are organized. Then they rotated through stations where they learned about the library’s databases, watched videos on evaluating websites (which will come in handy next week when they further explore the topic), practiced sorting call numbers, and then used those skills for a library scavenger hunt.

Bonus:

It’s always a good day when we get dog visitors, and today we said hello to Ms. Adams’s dog, Ruby, and Mr. French’s dog, Fritz!

September Book Club

A new school year means the start of the High School Book Club. Students and faculty met on Wednesday to share what they read over the summer.

Ms. Melinson started us off by reminding us that the On the Come Up movie will be released soon. She then talked about some new books in the library, including The Lincoln Highway. Ms. Melinson described the book as a road trip and said if you like The Odyssey or O! Brother Where Art Thou, then you’d probably like the book.

Ms. Melinson then discussed reading The Sentence, a somewhat meta book about a bookstore the author owns. She touched on The Coasts of California field guide by Obi Kaufman, a beautiful full-color guide to water in California. Ms. Melinson also shared the updated covers to classics like Nine Stories and Red Mars.

Then Jordyn said she read Dry by Neil Schusterman and loved the layered plot and character growth. Avery has been mostly been reading for school, but did enjoy reading The Alchemist over the summer. Samhita read The Sympathizer and The Refugees, both which made her feel like a changed person. She also gave Murikami a second chance and returned to Kafka on the Shore.

New Latin and Humanities teacher Mr. Comer shared his love sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson. He also discussed an interesting book on economics, The Dawn of Everything, that tries to disprove the use of bartering in ancient times. He also mentioned reading The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which discusses the development of Christianity from a different viewpoint than usually presented.

Mr. Wells talked about reading Damnation on Halfaday Creek, a book he describes as starting out sad and just getting sadder. But he also started a fun historical fiction book called Doc to clean his palate.

Visit our Goodreads page to see what we’ve discussed in book clubs past and present!