by Library | Jan 10, 2017 | Library News, News, Uncategorized
Thanks for being willing to read aloud to others. Doing this effectively brings the reading alive to your listeners and their responses can make it even more fun for you.
Tip 1 Preview the material. Read it through once on your own silently so you can appreciate the meaning and check for tricky words. The read it through aloud at least once. Many picture books have a rhythm and pace that come alive when you read the words aloud – but this does take practice. Also this helps you plan how to do special voices for the characters, when to have a loud voice and when to drop to a whisper.
Tip 2 Try to read the book in a way that allows your audience to see the illustrations AS YOU READ. Don’t read then show the pictures, that can frustrate your audience. Try to practice sitting and holding the book so you can read it and show the pictures at the same time.
Tip 3 Decide ahead of time whether you will allow your audience to comment and question as you go OR to wait for comments and questions at the end. This can depend on the age of the audience AND the number of people. Sometimes it is good to allow comments about the cover and title before reading then invite the group to wait until the end of the story for further discussion. This is so that the story can answer the questions as it goes.
Tip 4 Don’t worry about making mistakes – just relax and enjoy the experience as well. This can be fun – especially if your audience is enjoying the story and the way you are reading it.
There are quite a few Youtube videos for teachers on how to read aloud – not so many with advice for students on how to read aloud to other students. The one below will give you some inspiration I hope. Good luck and enjoy yourselves….
by Library | Jan 8, 2017 | Library News, News, Uncategorized
http://www.litworld.org/wrad/
It may seem like a long time away but there are some ways we can start to prepare ourselves. First we need to start to think about what we will read aloud. The website has a book to download it is called “New day, new friends”
Now is the time to think about what to read and to practice reading aloud. Here is a challenging TED talk about the choices of books we make and the impact that they can have on us. What do you see in the books you choose to read? Is there anything missing? Are you missing? Grace Lin is a writer and illustrator below this talk is a list of some of her books we have in the library.
Destiny https://iics.follettdestiny.com
by Library | Oct 14, 2016 | Library News, News, Uncategorized
On Wednesday 12 October the Grade 12 students went to Koç University to complete some intensive research for their Extended Essay and their subject Internal Assessments. The University allowed us to use their print and electronic collection for the day. Our students really appreciated the opportunity to spend the day on campus. They completed research for many important assessments.
by Library | Jun 23, 2016 | Library News, Uncategorized
In March all of the teachers and assistants at IICS attended the CEESA conference here in Istanbul. Our library assistants Lindsey Paze and Dina Abizaid, along with our Primary Councilor Vivian Huizenga went to a workshop about Librarians and Councilor collaboration. This workshop looked at how the students 
benefit when the librarian and councilor work together on specific lessons. It was called Meeting the Social-Emotional Needs of Elementary School Students through Library and Counseling Collaboration and was presented by by Rebecca Battistoni and Laura Giosh-Markov from Anglo-American School of Sofia.
We thought we would try to do this with our primary students over one week just before the end of the school year. We wanted to focus on saying goodbye – something we seem to do so much at this time of year in International Schools. We used Deborah Underwood’s book Bad bye, Good bye as a prompt to discuss the emotions that go with having to leave your home and start afresh in a new location.
We found our students were very willing to talk about their previous experiences and to share their feelings about farewells they were experiencing right now. Teachers and parents gave us feedback as to how valuable these sessions were to their students.
We plan to continue exploring this collaborative relationship next year. We hope to focus on the IB attitudes taking about 8 or 9 of them over one year. As students will be in new classes and forming new friendships we will start with empathy. We will be blogging about this – watch this space…
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/61/ef/28/61ef280c64cc928f9df7f241d37c4592.jpg
by Library | Jun 23, 2016 | Library News, Uncategorized
Congratulations to TEAM T.A.M Jams, Tallulah Burns, Alice Van Roste and Marie Van Roste of grade 6K who won this year’s Battle of the Books. Not only did these students read all seven of the Battle Books but they contribute more than 50 questions to the practice quizzes before the Battle. Creating those questions meant they got to know the books very well. We are already preparing for the 2107 Battle by asking this year’s grade 5 and 6 students to nominate one book for the Battle. Where did we find the winners to photograph them the day after the Battle? They were reading books on the couch in their classroom. Happy summer reading everyone.
by Library | Mar 4, 2016 | Library News, Uncategorized
During Celebrate Reading week we created our version of Blind Date with a Book. We wrap books and then put a clue on the wrapping. Students read the clues then select a book. Their commitment when they participate is to read the entire book. The students are risk takers when they participate because often they will read books that normally they would not choose to read. The books selected for this are taken from the Young Adult section of the library and have some aspect of international mindedness about them. We restrict participation to grades 5 and over due to the books that are available.
Two of our students this year read their books in one night – they couldn’t put them down. Which books? Galax-arena by Gillian Rubinstein and Shadow by Michael Morpurgo.
