Category: G4

Did You Know...?

12/9/2019

As our Head of School Stephen Dare shared last week in the HKA News, all our professional bios are now available on the Directory in Veracross. If you would like to learn more about us, your PS Library Team, see our bios below. To discover more about us as readers, have a closer look at our shelfie pictures as each of the five books in the pictures represents a part of our reader identity. Curious to know what each book stands for? Stop by the library during one of our community afternoons - every Tuesday and Thursday from 3-4pm - and we are happy to share more, as well as assist you in exploring our collection and discovering some books you and your family might enjoy reading together. Looking forward to seeing you at the library!

Tanja is in her eighth year as the Primary School Teacher Librarian at Hong Kong Academy. Tanja believes that everyone is a reader but not everyone has found books they love yet. She is passionate about matching books with readers. While reading, she is always thinking of whom to recommend the book to next. She guides students in developing their identity as readers through reflection and by modelling her own reading life. Tanja believes that voice, choice and ownership are key to lifelong reading and learning and therefore strives to create environments that promote agency. Originally from Germany, Tanja has lived and worked in Ghana and Hong Kong for over twenty years. She holds a Master’s degree in Linguistics, specialising in African languages, from University of Bayreuth (Germany) and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology with Library Media Specialisation from Indiana State University, Terre Haute. As a result of her studies, she conducted research and participated in oral history projects, co-authoring an annotated bibliography on Nubian languages and contributing to a publication on West African trade beads, becoming a collector of trade beads in the process. Tanja shares her life as a bookworm on Instagram @temgaletti

Lynn is the Co-teacher Librarian and believes there is a reader in everyone. It is her goal to inspire students to become lifelong readers, introducing them to new worlds, allowing them to empathize with others and better understanding themselves. Growing up, Lynn was not a reader. Reading is a passion she has found as an adult and one she hopes all children will find at a much younger age. Lynn has five years experience teaching in learner support and classroom roles from kindergarten to grade 5. She has also volunteered in school libraries for several years. Previous to having a family, Lynn enjoyed a 12-year career in public relations and marketing communications, consulting corporates throughout Asia. Lynn enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys. She loves reading children’s literature and adult fiction and also enjoys crafts, being creative and hiking. She is passionate about saving the environment. Lynn was born in Taiwan and raised in the United States. She graduated from Colby College with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and a minor in Mandarin, which led her to study in Taipei and Beijing, and to live in Greater China for over 30 years.

0 Comments

Back-to-School-Night @ the Library

6/9/2019

0 Comments

It was wonderful seeing so many parents at the library last night as we specialists briefly shared a bit about our programs as part of Back-to-School-Night. We, the Primary Library team did this with the help of three books, each representing one of the ways in which we support the learning and teaching at Hong Kong Academy. In case you were not able to attend, here are the main points of what we shared.

For Every One (Jason Reynolds) - A space for everyone

We aim at providing a warm and inviting space, where
everyone feels welcome,
everyone finds the resources they need,
everyone feels safe to ask questions and seek answers,
everyone finds themselves reflected in the books on our shelves.

We do this by continuously developing our collection, so that it reflects and meets the interests and preferences of our readers and learners. In addition to books in various formats and on a wide range of topics, as well as online resources, we keep adding objects and artifacts to spark our students' curiosity.

How to Read a Book (Kwame Alexander) - nurturing a lifelong love for reading

We aim at nurturing a lifelong love for reading
by giving students a taste of the magic that can happen between the covers of a book,
by letting them experience the power reading has in helping us understand the world around us and ourselves.

We do this amongst others through read-alouds, author inquiries, book talks and recommendations, reflecting on reader identity as well as sharing our own love for reading. Most importantly, we give students the freedom and time to explore what is available and then let them decide what they want to read and the kind of reader they want to be.

A Chicken Followed Me Home (Robin Page) - supporting the development of inquiry skills

We support students as they grow as inquirers, equipping them with the necessary skills to be able to
express what they are curious about,
search for the respective information efficiently in a variety of sources.

We do this in collaboration with the classroom teachers, teaching the respective skills when and where they are needed, and building on them from year to year. The inquiry process students go through remains the same, no matter the students' age; what changes is the degree of independence with which students inquire. In addition, we continuously aim to nurture our students' curiosity, looking for opportunities to wonder, also by modeling our own interests and wonderings.

We look forward to seeing many of you in the library this year.
Remember: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-4pm, the library is open to the entire HKA community. Come and enjoy some reading time with your child, explore what our collection has to offer, and check out some books.

0 Comments

Who We Are As Readers

31/8/2019

0 Comments

An important element in becoming a lifelong reader is finding out who we are as readers. As we brainstormed with our grade 4 and 5 students this past week, reader identity includes amongst others the kind of books we like (format, genre, specific titles, authors, illustrators), preferred ways of reading and reading environment, the particular emotional response we are expecting to experience, reasons why we read, as well as "reading quirks" (yes, some readers read the end of a book first, others like the smell of a new book,just to mention a few exmples).

As a way of starting conversations around reader identity, we usually begin the year by making shelfies with students in grades 3-5. For this purpose, students (and teachers) are invited to select five books that show who they are as a reader. The aim is not to find one's favourite five books but rather to find books that represent a favourite genre, format or other reader trait.

A Child of Books (O. Jeffers)
I have a great love for picture books - and feel I am a "child of books".

Here is my shelfie as an example:

The Butterfly Lion (M. Morpurgo)
This book represents my favourite two genres: realistic and historical fiction.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (G. Lin)
Reading allows me to travel, to fictional and real places. Wherever I go, I read books about the places I visit and buy book souvenirs. This book also represents the Battle of the Books, which has become a big part of my reading life.

Brown Girl Dreaming (J. Woodson)
I love reading biographies and memoirs, even more when they are in the form of a novel in verse like this one.

Being the Change (S. Ahmed)
I read professional literature that helps me to grow as a teacher and librarian.

Our students are loving making shelfies, as you can see from the big smiles in the pictures below (while you only see a selection here, all of our students' shelfies are on display in the library).
For us teachers and librarians, it is always wonderful witnessing the enthusiasm with which students compile their shelfies, with how much confidence they locate the respective books, how passionately they recommend books to each other and celebrate when they discover connections between their shelfies. Therefore, this learning engagement does not only allow students to reflect on their reader identity but it is also a perfect way to (re)establish our reading community at the start of the school year.

Noticing how much interest the displayed shelfies always get from students in lower grades and knowing how well also our younger students can already reflect on who they are as readers, we decided to invite students in grades 1 and 2 as well to put together a shelfie - a "starter model" with just three books. There was much excitement when we announced it during the past week, allowing students a week to think about which books they might want to include before having their picture taken. Stay tuned to hear more about shelfies in grades 1 and 2!

0 Comments

Snapshots from the First Week of School @ the PS Library

24/8/2019

0 Comments

It is hard to believe that the first week of the school year 2019-20 is already over; it just flew by! It was wonderful having our students back in the library reading, exploring, inquiring, filling the space with their enthusiasm and smiles.

Besides looking for books, reading and checking out, there was a lot of interest for our new research station. Our students are such passionate inquirers!

During class visits, students got to play a sorting game through which they learnt a bit about Ms. Lynn and myself. They got stacks of images of book covers and had to decide which book matched which librarian. Through the book covers, students found out a bit about where we come from, our families and special interests.

Below are the book covers we used - and if you have a child in grades 3-5, they can tell you all about the meaning behind these :)

This game also provided an introduction into thinking and chatting about who we are as readers. I will share more about this next week, as we continue our conversations during the next class visits.

0 Comments

Happy First Day of School, 2019-20!

20/8/2019

0 Comments

What a great first day of the school year 2019-20! Our library is alive again, filled with enthusiastic readers and inquirers. It was wonderful seeing so many of you, parents and students, all rested and relaxed and ready for the new school year. The morning passed so quickly...

...as students were browsing and exploring our book shelves...