Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism andfollowing a standard format for citation.
Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas,avoiding plagiarism and over-reliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.
NCHS Library Works Cited Support
NCHS teacher-librarians co-teach with classes during the research process. Teaching students to develop research skills, including creating a proper works cited, is a focused competency and supports standards-based learning. Teacher-librarians give feedback to students on how to correctly cite sources. Besides in-class support, the NCHS library provides different resources to meet students' diverse needs.
The NCHS library homepage has valuable, user-friendly resources that students can access 24/7. Students have access to contacting a librarian for help both physically in the library and in the virtual library during school hours. Simply click on the words Virtual Library to contact a librarian during school hours.
There are tutorials and sample citations in a citation resource guide that students can access online on the MLA Help Page.
Students can also use a checklist that has live links to resources to check their works cited.
13. I made sure links to url addresses are not live (blue).
14. I have a period at the end of each citation.
15. I have included a variety of sources.
Creating a works cited doesn't have to be laborious when there are resources and librarians as a support system. It is a skill that will be valuable in students' academic endeavors.
We are still working on this post. Please check back later on Saturday. Thank you!
COVID-19 has made it clear that it is essential for New Canaan High School to provide digital access to library resources. Fortunately, we have been carefully curating our digital collection since 2003.
At this point, we own 3,840 ebooks, 800 of which are fiction titles, and we also own 533 audiobooks.
Over the years, we have heard parents, teachers, and even some students tell us that they prefer reading in print, yet we continued to develop a digital collection knowing full well that someday, we would need a digital collection and that when that day happened, we would need it all at once. We anticipated that that paradigm shift would be driven by student need and/or interest. We never imagined that it would be a global pandemic!
Over the past few weeks, we have been posting flyers throughout the building that direct students to titles in our digital collection. Here are a few examples:
Once students hover their phone camera over a flyer, they will be prompted to open a link that appears across the top of their screen. Then all they need to do is click the link and sign in to open the digital book. Each flyer is a slide i a deck. The complete deck follows.
We are still working on this post. Please check back later on Saturday. Thank you!
Teacher-Librarians have been collaborating with social studies teachers to teach students how to effectively research. Ninth Graders in Global I have been wondering about how civilizations emerge and investigating how civilizations and universal belief systems develop. Students learned how to use the NCHS databases and keywords to locate and access information. Schoology, the high school's adopted Learning Management System, allows students to access the databases right through courses.
Students learned how to use the various features of a database to research more efficiently. Databases allow the users to save articles to their Google Drive for easy access for reading and note taking.
Students also learned that the database collection can be located and accessed through the NCHS library page.
Just enter any character or keyword in the search box.
Once verified as a NCHS student (Log into Google Drive), the databases populate on the right hand side.
Students read across texts to answer their inquiry questions, used an organized notes system, and synthesized ideas. Students creatively expressed ideas through the lens of the elements of civilization and the use of Google Draw.
Students reflected on their strengths and areas to grow using their research skills. As a result, they know what to skills focus on when they conduct research again.
On Wednesday, we met with the 9th grade parents via Zoom. We highlighted some new library services we are offering this year. We recorded the slide deck to share it with you. The video follows:
We are starting to update our usage statistics. Please take a peek to see how hybrid learning has changed how our students use New Canaan High School library materials!
Period 3 study hall on a rainy Friday
Friday, October 2, 2020
Destiny Discover
Portal to NCHS Library Collection
Destiny Discover gives our learning community access to print and digital resources. With a single search, users can find books, eBooks, and audio-books.
LightBox books are multimedia text. These books incorporate audio, video, curated weblinks, and interactive activities.
NCHS has an extensive collection of eBooks that can be checked out on Destiny Discover with just a click.
The NCHS collection also has over 350 audio-books that can be checked out.
Readers can add books to their favorite list by clicking the favorite button. Destiny Discover curates favorite titles in a digital list.
Destiny Discover lets readers check which books they have out, put holds on books, and curate favorite titles. Books can even be renewed on Destiny Discover.
Want to know more? This short tutorial goes over Destiny Discover features.
It is so fantastic to be back in IRL school! We learned a great deal from URL school, but we will save that for another post. There is too much exciting brand new information to share.
First our library is hybrid! Since the physical room is serving as a study hall right now, our virtual library is open during the school day. Virtual learners can drop in anytime!
At the virtual library, we answer questions about research and reading. We can also refer students to someone who can help with learning tools. To access the virtual library, sign in to Chrome with your @ncps-k12.org email address, then click on the VIRTUAL LIBRARY link on the library homepage at nchsclibrary.info. You can also email the Student Help Desk for help with your learning tools.
We started the year by booktalking up a storm. Ms. Sheehan made an outstanding handout featuring our summer reading list and many other titles. Click on the preview image below to see the entire document.
Eleventh graders have been selecting independent reading materials. Students were surveyed about their reading interests and we produced the following booktalks to align with learners' survey results. As with summer reading, there is a book for every student, but not every book is for every student. Book selection is a part of the independent reading experience.
Course: Junior English
Course: AP Language
Course: American Street Law
As juniors prepare to start working on the first of the two major research papers they will complete this year, we explain that we will provide feedback as they reach the following checkpoints:
Research questions
Works cited lists
Thesis statements
The first research paper, which is assigned in English, uses The Great Gatsby's examination of social class, equity, and The American Dream as a launchpad for research. Students choose their own topics for research. We collected juniors' research questions for the past three years and classified them into 11 broad categories:
Civil/Equal rights/Discrimination/Social justice
Cultural messaging
Education
Family
Law enforcement/Military/National security
Mental/Physical Health/Wellness
Politics
Prosperity/Business
Science
Social pathology
Technology
The chart below shows how many students gravitated to each topic.
As one reviews the above classifications, it is surprisingly easy to let ones' personal viewpoints influence expectations about the subcategories that could nest under each parent classification. Go ahead. Give it a try. ... pause
Our juniors are independent thinkers who are grappling with current issues in their own way. They are bringing their experiences, interests, and ideas to their understanding of, and predictions about the world they will inhabit as adults.
We compiled 3 years of research questions into word clouds, which are images composed of research questions in which the size of each word indicates its frequency of use, then we selected book talk titles to align with these word clouds. See below:
Booktalk Aligned with Junior Research Paper Research Questions:
In order to comply with the district's COVID-19 mitigation plan, students are requesting their titles via a Google Form, which is linked to the library homepage at ncpslibrary.info.
Here is the form:
We then retrieve the books from the collection, check them out to students, and send them to their classroom.
Our collection includes over a thousand ebooks and hundreds of audiobooks. This tutorial will help learners find our ebooks and audiobooks:
We are promoting ebook and audiobook discovery by posting these flyers around the school and making this slide deck available on our website at nchslibrary.info. We, along with our fabulous corps of virtual volunteers, are adding to the list regularly:
In the event that a student requests a book that is currently unavailable, we send them an email featuring alternative titles. We base our recommendations on our expertise as reader's advisory specialists, our experience with NCHS readers, and, occasionally, Goodreads, which has a helpful "Readers Also Enjoyed" carousel, and displays popular tags.
Here is our list of alternate choices so far. This is a "living document", which means it will grow. A lot.
Well, there is more, but we'll save that for the end of the month. Be safe and be well!
To celebrate Digital Learning Day (February 27, 2020), we are dedicating this post to showcasing the wide range of digital learning resources the New Canaan High School learning community can access anywhere, any time. NCHS Library
At New Canaan High School Library, we have a plethora of digital resources that students can access remotely. We have approximately
120,000 curated eBook chapters in EBSCO's Academic eBook Collection
75 databases including periodicals, books, and specialty information such as curated international census data and public opinion surveys
2,000 eBooks
400 audiobooks
370 YouTube research lessons created for NCHS students by NCHS librarians
The slide show below shows students how to access these resources.
Check out the NCHS Library reading collection. Did you know that NCHS has recommended reading called VIDE, which means love of learning in Latin? These books can be found filed in front of the circulation desk and have a yellow V label. Also, students come in for book talks to find out about different popular and notable books. Students are welcomed to check out more than one book. Please note that our own Megan Mabee is a writing contributor to BookRiot, a website that is like the BuzzFeed of books. Check out ↙her articles by clicking this link.
New Canaan High School Vide Collection
Featured new books at NCHS
Book displays
NCHS On-Line Resources
NCHS has a plethora of resources available with a click of any character or word in the search box. All the database resources will populate and let the search begin.
Signing Up for a New Canaan Library Card
Any current resident can sign up for a library card upon proper presentation of identification. Children under 15 years of age may have a card in their name with proper identification and signature of a parent or guardian. Registrants are issued two cards, one wallet-sized card and one for a keychain, which may be selected from several designs. The card is valid for three years.
Identification Process
Proper identification must be provided in person at any public service desk to obtain a library card. Preferred forms of identification include the following:
Current Connecticut driver's license with current address
Government issue ID cards or documents (US passport; US Permanent Resident Card)
Utility bill, bank statement, tax bill or other official mail with recent postmark showing residence address
Rental receipt or mortgage paperwork
Managing Your Library Account
Your New Canaan Library card creates an account in your name, which can be accessed by clicking "My Account" on the library's website. Your account gives you access to items checked out with due dates, fines due, holds pending and other information. You can also renew checked out items online. Usually, email reminders of items coming due are sent.
Check Out the YA Section
Check Out Special Events
New Canaan Library is hosting Leonardo at the Library. The name of the program is Celebrating the 500 year Genius of Leonardo DaVinci. It is an exhibition of large-format photographs by renowned artist Ahmet Ertug. One highlight is Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, which is photographic images in three triptych-like panels that are nearly nine meters in length and reveal amazing details of this masterpiece.
New Canaan Library and NCHS Library work well together for you!
Ninth grade English students read a non-fiction books, such as Little Princes by Conor Grennan, A Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah, Enrique's Journey by Sonia Ensario, Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg, Daring to Drive by Manal Al-Sharif and A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming. Students then did research on an issue related to the book and wrote a persuasive speech that identified a social problem and possible solutions. Students incorporated information from their research and created a bibliography. Teacher-librarians modeled effective research techniques and gave students feedback on their bibliographies and students revised them.
The Collapse of a Civilization
What does the collapse of a civilization and design thinking have in common? Global 1 students are learning why a civilization collapses by studying Jared Diamond's ideas presented in his book. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Students are creating a Rube Goldberg machine that simulates how civilizations like the Easter Island, Angkor, Anasazi, and Norse Greenland collapsed. Students used design thinking to plan out the machine in order to demonstrate how the effects of one factor of collapse, like deforestation, could lead to another factor of collapse, starvation. After reading and thinking about the collapse of a specific civilization, students got to work designing their Rube Goldberg machines.
Students then set to work to build their machines in the makerspace. They documented their progress each day and noted successes and failures in design.
The machines are teaching tools used by students to explain why a certain civilization collapsed.
Power of Words
Junior English students saw a one-man play called Frederick Douglas: An American Slave by Daniel S. Campagna at the Kline Auditorium, which highlighted Douglas'writings and life. A copy of the play is available in the library. Students also participated in a panel discussion and saw an original version of Douglas' book, Life and Times of Frederick Douglas, printed in 1882 by the Park Publishing Company in Hartford, Connecticut.
