February 2015
Program Highlights
Elementary School
- Ms. Hissa continued to review the Super 3 Research Model with grade 1-5. Grade 1 finished the DO stage of their book cover project; Grade 2 listed questions to find out about bats; Grade 3 learned about taking notes; and Grades 4 and 5learned about MLA referencing and how to reference a book.
- Grade 2 continued their Alphabet Adventure by revisiting the letter ‘C’ in order to get a mini-author study on Eric Carle. Two age-appropriate non-fiction books were consulted in order to obtain facts about chameleons and then the students listened to the lively storytelling of the book The Mixed-Up Chameleon. The students were able to appreciate that Carle uses collage techniques for his illustrations when they viewed video clips of the author/illustrator producing his books. The Clumsy Click Beetle – also by Carle – has the added feature of ‘sound’ that is activated by a battery at the back of the book and this captured the students’ imagination. The follow-up activity: create your own Mixed-Up Fish using a template and colors. This same activity was adapted for both Grade 1 and 3.
- Grades 4 and 5 have now reached the 400’s as they continue their Dewey classification Discovery in the Library. The read-aloud book Henry P. Baloney allowed the students to see how language in its many forms can enhance a story. To follow-up, the students then used library dictionaries to play ‘Challenge the Librarian’ as they tried to find words that Ms. Fiona would not know the meanings of. This was a mini-lesson in citation as next to the definition, the students needed to write down the page number so that, should there be a disagreement, the book could be easily referenced.
- KG students are studying How Things Are Made during the month of February. To support their learning, Ms. Fiona asked them to consider how to make a book. The read-aloud book for this unit was titled Press Here and in order for it to be an interactive experience, students were asked to volunteer to follow the instructions as presented in the book and observe the results. A Reading Rainbow video of How Crayons Are Made was shown in both classes and then the students proceed to create their own pictures using circles and crayons.
Secondary School
- Mrs. Melanie collaborated with Individuals and Societies Grade 8 on research about early explorers. She established a Reserve Collection of explorer resources, assisted students develop research questions, and was available to help individual students with note-taking and developing flow charts.
- Mrs. Melanie searched for resources on the local effects of urbanization for Mrs. Lina.
- Mrs. Melanie, Mr. Islam, and the middle school Arabic and English Departments met to plan Battle of the Books 2015.
- Mrs. Melanie negotiated a contract with Qatar National Library to gain access to some of their online resources. Currently we now have access to Tumble Book Library, Tumble Book Cloud Jr., and Tumble Audio Books.
- Mrs. Melanie facilitated a discussion with students in grades 6-10 on Academic Honesty. Students defined cheating and plagiarism, identified motives for cheating or plagiarizing, and debated whether students who intend to cheat, but do not have the opportunity, should be treated the same as students who do cheat.
- Mrs. Melanie provided a summary of the ATL in DP for the middle school faculty.
- Mr. Islam and Mrs. Melanie hosted a visit in the library from the IBDP Authorization Team.
- Mrs. Melanie pulled resources for Mr. Hovig on student motivation.
- Mr. Islam taught Grade 6-10 how to cite resources.
- Mr. Islam met with all of the department heads for Arabic for all QF schools to share resources that would benefit the DP program.
Mr. Islam and Mrs. Hissa prepared reports on all of the Arabic Resources in both the elementary and secondary libraries. - Mrs. Melanie planned collaboratively with Mrs. Lisa on the Around the World in 80 Days unit to be taught in the future, and made a resource list for the unit.
- The librarians updated the Library Policies and Procedures for the Student and Parent Handbooks.