We encourage our returning students to borrow books over the summer vacation. Prep – grade 5 can borrow 6 books total and from grade 6 and up there is no borrowing limit. Please fill in Summer reading letter home, have it signed by a parent and return it to the library on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Happy Reading and Happy Holidays
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Our International Story reading event happened on both campuses. Below is a mosaic of photos from the Hisar Campus.
Like the mastercard advertisement – books – 20 – 30TL each, parents coming in to school – cost of fuel and their time, children enjoying stories read to them in their home languages – priceless. Below is a mosaic of images form our story reading half hour last Friday. a big thank you to the parents and our staff who read stories. I think you can see from all the smiles that everyone enjoyed this experience. Frankfurt International School has some website pages dedicated to explaining why it is important for English language learners to maintain and develop their home language (mother tongue). They write “ESL students in international schools learn English more quickly and effectively if they maintain and develop their proficiency in the mother tongue.” Our story reading time was a little step in helping highlight this understanding. Thanks everyone who took part.
When creating research reports or presentations we expect our students to acknowledge where they found the information they are using. In our school we are using the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for attributions.
This week we have been working with Grade & Design Technology Students exploring MLA citation methods. The tool we use to create citations is called EasyBib Not only does it create citations and works cited lists it has a brilliant guide as to how to use MLA for in-text or as they call it parenthetical citations. MLA citations have special rules about the font size, the spacing and the layout of ‘Works Cited’ lists. With EasyBib this is all taken care of. It is harder to make the in-text citation because special rules apply according to how you have used the information in the text. To create this citation you need to consult the rule book.
So we revised and learned more about two important tools for Information Literacy – MLA guidelines and EasyBib.
When trying to find information on a library catalogue, using a search engine or in a book we all need to use KEY words. These are the words we type into a search box, look for in an index, scan a page or seek on a website. Key words help us to locate information we need to answer our questions.
In our library we have begun to make these KEYS very obvious. Our lower primary students are given laminated card keys to write their main key word AND four other words that may relate to their key word. Students who learn to use synonyms while searching for information become confident at locating relevant information. In using alternative words they quickly overcome problems if their original search word is not available. This is part of our Information Literacy strand in the IICS New Literacies.
Here is one student from grade 2 using her keys. Notice she has the main KEY word “Hummingbirds” and on her alternative word list is the word “bird”. She couldn’t find “hummingbirds” on the catalogue so she tried “birds”. The KEY was useful in finding a book on the catalogue, finding “Hummingbirds” in the index and then on the page….
Grade 2 is exploring Communication Systems during their Unit of Inquiry.
As part of their work in the library we invited them to look carefully at some images.
These images were uploaded from the Internet and even though they looked very strange, like a box, a flower vase, a musical instrument – they were all early versions of the telephone.
We invited the students to look carefully at the image and simply record what they saw. A cord, a box, wood, metal, buttons, numbers.
Then we asked them to record what they thought the image was.
“I think it’s a machine.”
“I think this is a camera.”
“I think you can open it.”
“I think the man is in a movie.”
Finally we asked them to create some questions they were wondering about.
“What is he doing?”
“I wonder how does it work?”
“Why is the machine near his mouth?”
“Does it go around?”
After they shared with the class their photos and their ideas we gave them the telephone timeline to see when their telephone was first made.
They were surprised that some of these strange machines were early telephones.
After doing this with grade 2 at Hisar one of the students looked at the phone in the library and realized it was first made in 1965.
This thinking routine was a great way to introduce the history of the telephone.
Photos here are of grade 2BC as they complete the activity.
Being challenged to be risk takers our students flocked to our latest book display – “Blind date with a book” We covered Young Adult Fiction books with an International setting and the only clue as to what the book is about is a short message. Students take a risk by choosing a book based only on the message. They are challenged to read the book and let their classmates know what they thought about it. For grades 5 and over this display went up on Thursday and was almost empty by Friday morning. A grade 6 teachers said she had never seen students so excited about books.
Here are two sites which are very useful for finding free images.
The first is Google Image Search.
Simply go to Google search and select IMAGE. Then type in the search term for the image you want – here I put in BOOKS. 
Then go to the right hand side of the screen and click on the COG icon
Select Advance Search. On the new screen right at the bottom of the page where it says usage rights, use the downward arrowhead and select “free to use or share” All your images searches for that session will be images where the creator has given permission to use their image publicly.
The second if Flickr’s Compfight
Simply type in the word for the image you want and then check you have selected “Creative commons”
REMEMBER to acknowledge your sources – you need to cite your images using the citation method your teacher asks of you. If you do not know how then ask Mrs Bond. All images you use that are not your own need to have an attribution.
