DMS School Library September 2012 Newsletter

Guest teachers on WDMS

News from the
Discovery Middle School Library
October 2012

Wow! It was a busy month. So far, I think genre-fying the library works! I'm collecting data as we go, but the library feels busier than ever!

In August we checked out 851 items and in September we checked out 1,081! We had quite a few new items come in for September so our holds were through the roof with 75 holds placed!  Can we keep the pace?

These are the Top Twenty titles checked out last month, though the report is a little wonky right now.

1. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
2. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
3. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (book club)
4. Enclave by Ann Aguirre
5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
6. Divergent by Veronica Roth
7. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
8. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
9. The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan
10. Insurgent by Veronica Roth
11. Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol (book club)
12. The Death Cure by James Dashner
13. Sidekicks by Jack Ferraiolo
14. Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien
15. The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney 
16. I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
17. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
18. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
19. Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
20. Gimme a Cal by Sarah Mylnowski

Top Search

These were the top 10 items students searched for last month:

• hunger games
• divergent
• dork diaries
• legend
• the hunger games
• warriors
• shatter me
• enclave
• big nate
• kill order

Book Clubs

Holy Moly! 30 students (20g, 10b) completed both steps to be in the 7th grade book club!! We also had 10 (10g) for 6th grade book club and 12 (12g) for 8th grade book club. 

6th graders read Sidekicks by Dan Santat 

and 

8th graders read Anya's Ghost by Vera Brosgol.  

Next up for each group:

6th grade - Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

and

8th grade - two books

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

These two books deal with similar subject matter so we will read both and compare. Speak is also on my Printz Challenge. 

7th graders are still in a flux as I try to decide how to make this work. I've recruited two teachers to help me out and we divided the group into 3 smaller groups.  One group is reading The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, one will read Grave Mercy by RL LaFevers and one will read Hero by Mike Lupica. As soon as books arrive, we will start our club!

Look!

Leading the way!

DYSTOPIA!

The success of the Hunger Games movie,the switch to genre-based fiction in the library, and our past One Book, One School choices has led to an increase interest in dystopian novels.

 Hoping to capitalize on student interest, some of the 8th grade language arts classes are doing a unit that includes reading some scifi/dystopia/post-apocalyptic literature.


 If you are looking for something to read, here are some of my favorite titles in those genres (linked to goodreads):

WDMS 2012 2

Created a partial Animoto video to show students how to use Animoto and to show parents their students during the school day.

Welcome Back! August 2012

SciFi and Dystopia

Woo-hoo! Today was the official first day the library was open.

Schedule

Mondays 7th graders

Wednesdays 8th graders

Thursdays 6th graders

Checkout policies vary based on grade level.  

Library is open from 8:50a - 4:00p each day with the following exceptions:

The library will be closed on 

Mondays 1:20p-1:50p

Wednesdays 11:10a-11:40a

Thursdays 12:15p-12:45p

Genre-fying the School Library

Some Sports books

I've been talking to my twitter PLN and after much discussion, I've decided to re-organize the school library. Again.

As always, my goal is to make the library a space students and staff not only want to visit, but want to borrow materials from. I also want those materials to be as accessible as possible.

Last year we moved all the series books to one area in the library. I also order those books separately so that they have my special SER prefix instead of FIC.

This year I'm putting all the fiction, and some of the non-fiction, into genres! This will be similar to what you would you find in a bookstore but based on past student interactions.

We get lots of requests for mysteries, romance, sports, action, horror, and just general good books! We are keeping our good books table but will try to highlight a different genre each month!!

Since I started this over summer with very little help (thanks Jess!) there is still a lot of work to be done! Especially since I'm slow at this stuff - it took me a long time to decide on the genres then decide where things might go! I had Jess measure the shelf space too because that doesn't exist anywhere! No worries though, the library will still open in time! I'll just have the students help me along the way!

Not even 1/2 the books

Once upon a SER section

WDMS School Tube Channel

Tune in to our new School Tube channel where we will upload some of the videos we do in class.

Find us at: http://www.schooltube.com/organization/145569/

Here's a video the students made this Spring 2012