A new addition to the EMASI curriculum is the Library Skills classes.

The Library skills classes will focus on information literacy skills as well as developing students’ love of reading and books. The Information literacy skills will integrate technology and be taught across grades 1 to 10. This program will support students in developing skills in locating resources, researching and evaluating, note taking and academic honesty, writing and presenting as well reading for pleasure.

Kindergarten
Students are divided into smaller groups during library lessons. Half of the students listen to a story read by the teacher or librarian while the other half read books and choose a book for borrowing. Halfway through the lesson, students swap over. Students are encouraged to answer questions about the story being read or to talk about the books they have chosen to read. This helps in their language development, communication, using their imagination and critical thinking skills. Learning how to care for books and understanding library routines are also very important in the Kindergarten lessons so students develop lifelong habits for their literacy development and enjoyment of reading. Reading with your children at home is crucial to this development.

Elementary
During library lessons students have been learning the library routines. These include walking around the library, using quiet voices so as not to disturb others, borrowing procedures, how to look after books, using shelf markers to find books and the responsibility for returning books on class library days. Developing a respect and love of books and building good reading habits is very important and storytelling sessions have been a wonderful introduction to students of all grades. Moving forward, students will be developing skills to locate information in the library, on databases and the internet. They will also be learning how to take notes for research projects and rewrite these as their own words. In the upper grades, students will be developing skills to think critically about information sources and write citations for their research.

Middle School and High School
Students have started to become familiar with the library routines of locating and borrowing books from the library. They are learning about the Dewey Decimal Classification System and using the catalogue to find books for research and pleasure. During the year students will be developing research skills in evaluating sources both in books and web sites, note taking and rewriting their own research projects, using multimedia to present their research and academic honesty. Students will strive to become independent learners while developing academic excellence and encompassing skills in self-management.

The EMASI library is striving to become the hub of the school. After school reading ECAs are a huge success and we plan to have Book Week next April with book sellers and activities to celebrate books and reading. Parent information sessions will be held during November 2019.