Searingtown Students Learn Library Commons Skills

November was a busy month for the Searingtown School library as Mrs. Kliegman attended the American Association of School Librarians conference, where she got to meet the PTA-sponsored visiting author for this year, Meghan McCarthy.

While the school’s youngest students enjoyed Thanksgiving-related stories, such as the Native American tale, Baby Rattlesnake, first graders were learning about how our fiction books are organized in the library. They learned that every book in the library has its own special "address" just like a house does.

In second grade, students learned about parts of a book. They read the book, A Book is Just Like You, and followed up with SmartBoard lessons to reinforce what they learned and also watched one of our Capstone Digital Books on parts of a book.

Third grade students were excited to learn how to set up their own personal accounts on DestinyQuest. They will soon be able to review books and recommend books to their Searingtown friends via DestinyQuest. Also, third grade parents should be on the lookout for a NOOK Permission Slip. Starting in January, third graders with signed permission slips will be able to borrow one of the NOOKcolors for a week.

Mrs. Kenny's students worked hard on Aliens in New York. The NYS regional teams read a FollettShelf ebook about NYS Native Americans and used FollettShelf's note-taking app to research how NYS natural resources and geography played a part in the survival of the Native Americans. Next, they had to collaborate in their groups to paraphrase their notes on a post-it that was their "ticket out the door.”

Other fourth grade classes have been working on their "Be a Super Searcher" project. This project teaches students how to search for a book on their reading level in DestinyQuest, an online catalog and how to navigate the Virtual Library Website. Students investigated the many online research tools, author websites, and free eBooks available through the Virtual Library.

Fifth grade students have been working hard on their Digital Literacy lessons. Classes learned how to evaluate Internet websites via a lesson called "Spoof or Truth" - starting with a spoof - a website called "The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus". After spending a half hour researching the habitat, size, etc. of this "species," students were shocked that they were tricked. Students discussed the clues on the site that clearly were ridiculous - such as octopuses that live in trees and listing Sasquatch as a predator of the tree octopus. Students then worked in teams, comparing and evaluating two sites on the same topic - one site a valid one and one a hoax. Students were able to point out the 'giveaways' on the hoax sites and explain what made a valid site a trusted site. We will continue our digital literacy lessons in December, focusing on copyright, plagiarism, paraphrasing, and citation.

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