"What Are We Doing in Library Class?"

What a busy year it has been! As we enter the final month of the 2011-2012 school year things are hopping in the library. We spent last week in classes hearing about the American Library Association’s award winners for 2012. There are some wonderful choices, and we have recently purchased copies of all of the award winners for the school library. Some of the authors were new names to us, such as Thanhha Lai and Eugene Yelchin. Others we are familiar with were winners again, like Jack Gantos and Chris Raschka. I’ve encouraged my students to look into reading these books, as they are obviously the best written and illustrated from the past year in children’s literature.

This week we will be focusing on different concepts at the different levels of learning. The youngest grades will be doing some work with puppets and fairy tales. The middle grades will be learning how to use a thesaurus, or comparing factual reading to personal opinions. The junior high just finished giving their prepared book talks and we will look at evaluation sources of information as they are working on their research papers in an integrated literature and global studies project.

The children are scurrying to get their AR points in, as the due date to make the AR Field Trip is May 10. The trip itself is scheduled for May 16. Look out for those children who won’t go outside to play as they are too busy reading!

Internet Safety

• teenangels.org
• CyberSmart.org

“Can You Help Me Find a Book?”

• arbookfind.com
• Kidsreads.com
• ReadKiddoRead.com
• SLJ.com
• amazon.com

Research Tools

• Tennessee Electronic Library
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• FactMonster.com
• Kidsclick.com
• Big6.com/kids
• EasyBib.com

Sites to Visit for Fun or Information

• library.nashville.org
• PBSKids.org
• Scholastic.com
• kids.nationalgeographic.com
• ispy.com
• billnye.com
• historychannel.com
• catholiconline.org

Library Mission

The following mission statement is one established by the American Library Association and one that aligns with the mission of Saint Ann School:

"The mission of the library media program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information. This mission is accomplished:

• by providing intellectual and physical access to materials in all formats
• by providing instruction to foster competence and stimulate interest in reading, viewing, and using information and ideas
• by working with other educators to design learning strategies to meet the needs of individual students." -Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (1988), p.1

This statement supports our school mission of providing a quality, innovative education within a nurturing environment.

Library Goals

The goals set forth in Information Power shall be adhered to in the Saint Ann School Library. They are as follows:

1.  To provide intellectual access to information through learning activities that are integrated into the curriculum and that help all students achieve information literacy by developing effective cognitive strategies for selecting, retrieving, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing, creating, and communicating information in all formats and in all content areas of the curriculum.

2.  To provide physical access to information through

• a carefully selected and systematically organized local collection of diverse learning resources that represent a wide range of subjects, levels of difficulty, and formats;
• a systematic procedure for acquiring information and materials from outside the library media center and the school through such mechanisms as electronic networks, interlibrary loan, and cooperative agreements with other information agencies; and instruction in using a range of equipment for accessing local and remote information in any format.

3.  To provide learning experiences that encourage students and others to become discriminating consumers and skilled creators of information through comprehensive instruction related to the full range of communications media and technology.

4.  To provide leadership, collaboration, and assistance to teachers and others in applying principles of instructional design to the use of instructional and information technology for learning.

5.  To provide resources and activities that contribute to lifelong learning while accommodating a wide range of differences in teaching and learning styles, methods, interests, and capacities.

6.  To provide a program that functions as the information center of the school, both through offering a focus for integrated and interdisciplinary learning activities within the school and through offering access to a full range of information for learning beyond this focus.

7.  To provide resources and activities for learning that represent a diversity of experiences opinions, and social and cultural perspectives and to support the concept that intellectual freedom and access to information are prerequisite to effective and responsible citizenship in a democracy.

Saint Ann School Library Media Program

A warm welcome from the Saint Ann School Library! The School Library is both figuratively and literally the center of learning at Saint Ann Catholic School. The library collection is housed in two rooms in the middle of the upper floor of the building. The K-2 Library contains appropriate picture and chapter books, child-sized tables, and a dinosaur reading loft and cave perfectly suited to provide an inviting place for young children to learn to love reading and books. Recently remodeled, the beautiful main library serves the 3rd through 8th grades in a warm environment with a very good collection of about 7000 reference, fiction, and non-fiction books. There are library tables and chairs to enable regular classroom library instruction, three student computer workstations, a circulation desk for the automated system, audio visual equipment including a DLP projection system, an IP video conferencing camera, and a mobile cart housing 29 wireless laptop computers. The library became automated in 2003, using the Follett Automation System. The newly renovated space was funded by the Home and School Association's fundraising efforts, along with the 2006 Annual Fund Drive.

Kindergarten through Eighth Grades come for a 40 minute scheduled library class each week. Information literacy, library, research, map, and Internet safety skills are taught according to the Nashville Diocesan Library Curriculum. The library is open for student use outside of library class time for research, laptop use, or video conferencing when scheduled with the librarian. There are three scheduled study halls during the week for the Upper School, for additional checkout time or research.

The librarian, Ms. Judy Graham, serves as media specialist, technology support and assistant principal for the school. Ms. Graham is a graduate of Saint Ann School and has taught in one capacity or another at Saint Ann for about sixteen years. Also a graduate of Saint Bernard Academy and Tennessee Tech University, Ms. Graham returned to school at Trevecca to earn her librarian’s license in 2000. She has attended workshops for training in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation process and is active in helping other schools attain their accreditation. Ms. Graham loves the fact that her job not only allows her to be a lifelong learner with constant new challenges and projects, but that she gets to work with every child attending Saint Ann School. "My position at Saint Ann is an enviable one because our families are allowing me to help them prepare their most precious resources for a lifetime of learning."

The Saint Ann Reading Culture

Reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic – all are very important to our curriculum at Saint Ann. Our primary emphasis has been on reading, as it plays such an integral part in all the other disciplines. Our reading curriculum varies from grade level to grade level. Kindergarten, First and Second Grades use Harcourt’s Trophies language arts series encompassing reading, grammar and phonics. Third and Fourth Grades use a novel-based approach to strengthening those reading skills developed in the primary grades. They read a novel and tie their literacy skills, spelling and vocabulary words, and other lessons like math, science and social studies into their story. The Upper School uses the Invitation to Literacy and Elements of Literature series in addition to several novel units that they do. We teach reading and the accompanying language arts skills all the way through eighth grade at Saint Ann.

To support these important lessons we use the Accelerated Reading Enterprise program for reading practice. We’ve adopted the expanded format of AR this school year, and this has opened up so many more choices for our students. Choosing from over 110,000 books allows even reluctant readers to find books that will interest them. Our Upper School program requires students to read three books during the summer months, and then three books every quarter during the school year. This provides a basis of 15 books read and many choose to read many more as they acquire points through the AR program. Our library classes provide a forum for book reviews and recommendations, both from the school librarian and other students. Taking the STAR diagnostic test helps place students in the reading zone that will result in the greatest gains in their reading skills. Progress is then documented, not only through our annual standardized tests, but on a regular basis with the use of Yearly Progress Pro. Saint Ann students are indeed surrounded by a climate that encourages and cultivates a love for the written word.

Policies and Procedures

Collection Development Policy

Objectives: To provide students and teachers with a wide range of educational materials on all levels of difficulty and in a variety of formats, with diversity of appeal, allowing for the presentation of any different points of view.

To make available to faculty and students a collection of materials that will enrich and support the curriculum and meet the needs of the students and faculty served.

Responsibility for Selection of Materials: The responsibility for the selection of media resources rests with the library media specialist working collaboratively with faculty, student, and parent suggestions.

Criteria for Media Selection:

1.  Supports and enhances the curriculum.

2.  Intellectual content of the material is studied.

3.  Supports the Mission and Beliefs statements.

4.  Interest and comprehension levels.

5.  Supports the needs of the Accelerated Reading Program.

Procedure for Selection:

1.  Review children’s book journals, such as School Library Journal.

2.  Consider requests from faculty and students.

3.  Purchase books which are needed for the Accelerated Reading.

4.  Gift materials are judged carefully to determine their usage.

Challenged Book Policy

Any student or parent who wishes to challenge a book should adhere to the following:

1.  A written challenge may be presented to the school library media specialist.

2.  The librarian then decides if the complaint is valid. The librarian would then present the complaint to the principal and other faculty members. The book is evaluated for appropriate age level, and story content.

3.  No parent has the right to determine reading, viewing or listening matter for students other than his or her own children.