The TIE Creative Writing Book Club Feb. 23 Feb. 24 March 25 March 4 March 3 To Kill a Mockingbird March 9 March 10 by Harper Lee March 18 March 17

Club Meetings

read Agatha Christie

Renowned as the Queen of Suspense, Agatha Christie is one of the most widely published authors in the world. She was quite prolific, writing more than 80 crime novels, 19 plays, 2 memoirs and six additional novels under the name Mary Westmacott.

Two of Christie’s characters, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple have become iconic figures in literary history. She introduced her Belgian detective, Poirot in her very first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. He appears to be quite pompous, but he is always shrewd enough to unravel the case at hand. Miss Jane Marple from the quiet village of St. Mary Mead first appeared in magazine stories and then finally in her first novel, Murder at the Vicarage. She employs her amateur sleuthing skills to uncover the identity of the murderer in ?? of Christie’s books. Both Poirot and Miss Marple

have been brought to life for television viewers in two successful BBC series.

Agatha Christie, herself led a fascinating life. She had two marriages, she was a world traveler, she had a great interest in archaeology and of course, she had an amazing career as a best-selling novelist, which all began because of a bet she made with her sister. Imagine having Mrs. Christie over for dinner! Undoubtedly, she would have regaled the table with fascinating stories and anecdotes. I plan to read her autobiography, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography, and during my next trip to the U.K., I would love to visit her historic house in Devon. She and her family used Greenway as a holiday home. Today it is part of the National Trust in England. To learn more about Christie, visit her official website (www.agathachristie.com).

Members of our Book Club are Christie fans. We recently read her gripping novel, And Then There Were None.

Research Across the Curriculum 2

Imagine a Classroom of Curious Readers 2

VHS Star of the Month 3

Discover Untried Resources 3

Recent Acquisitions 3

Book Review 4

Learn a Little History with Podcasts 4

Book Club News 4

SJP

Libra

ryREAD,

IMAGINE,

DISCOVER

AND

LEARN

JANUARY 2015

Tamare and Colleen are in the holiday spirit.

Research Across the Curriculum

At the end of January, the freshmen in Mr. Scarlata’s World History classes visited the Library. As part of the Research Across the Curriculum program, I taught them about the benefits of using the Gale Databases to conduct research for not only their history class, but all of their classes at SJP.

As members of the Massachusetts Library System, our school has free access to the Statewide Databases including those published by Gale. The Gale Databases offer magazine and news articles, academic journal articles, reference sources, primary sources and even video and audio files in areas of study that span the curriculum. 

The Wor ld Histor y students practiced using three specific da tabases , In f o t rac S tudent Edition, World History in Context and General Reference Center Gold, to answer an essential question about the trans-Atlantic slave trade in conjunction with their current unit on Africa.  They will cite and summarize their sources in an annotated works cited page.

Please encourage all of your students to visit our Electronic Resources webpage and begin their search for information there for any research assignments you assign.

As a member of the Massachusetts School Library Association, I belong to an excellent email listserv through which I receive advice and suggestions from my fellow librarians. Recently, I received a message about an online news service for students called Newsela.

The site is designed to help students read closely and think critically. The daily news articles are arranged by category: War and Peace, Science, Kids, Money, Law, Health, Arts and Sports. Students can build their reading comprehension skills by perusing pertinent, up-to-date articles, many of which feature teens like them. Today’s front page of the Newsela

site includes links to articles about a measles outbreak near Chicago, Harper Lee’s soon to be published second novel, high school students learning health-science skills, and the Patriots.

Teachers must sign-up for a free Newsela account to access the full articles. Once your account is activated, you can designate whether you prefer to receive daily or weekly email updates about current articles. Each article includes a tool bar with a number of options. You can adjust the reading level, have the students complete writing assignments or take quizzes and print to the article. The articles come from newspapers across the country or the Associated Press. The lower reading level articles are adapted by the Newsela staff.

I have added a link to Newsela to the Electronic Resources page of the Library website. If you would like your students to improve their reading skills through non-fiction, explore the site and consider creating your own account today.

January 20152

Clevis takes a moment to say hello.

IMAGINE A Classroom of Curious Readers

Congratulations to the staff of The TIE on the publication of the

January issue now available online on the SJP Student Life webpages.

VHS Star of the Month

Congratulations to Mary Dougherty, the VHS Star of the Month for January. Mary takes AP European History through the Virtual High School Program.

Mar y consis tent l y meets her assignment deadlines and submits t h o u g h t f u l c o m m e n t s t o a l l discussion threads. Each week, Mary has a lot of reading and multiple assignments to complete. She is learning test taking strategies and how to write document based question (DBQ) essays in addition to the course content. Mary’s teacher is impressed with her ability to keep up with the demanding workload in this rigorous course.

By continuing her consistent and determined efforts week to week, I am sure, Mary will be well-prepared for the AP exam in May. Supplementing the print resources lining the

SJP Library shelves, we have a growing ebook collection. Although these books are “invisible,” they are still available to everyone in the SJP community through the Library website. SJP readers can access the ebooks through a number of different platforms. One of them is our Follett Shelf.

In order to read the Follett ebooks, students and faculty should download the Follett e-reader app called BryteWave K-12. All students and faculty have a Follett account. Please see me for your user name and password, as well as our Follett Shelf URL. Patrons can borrow the ebooks for a period of 21 days. Please come up to the Library if you need a Follett Shelf tutorial.

The Follett Shelf features titles in many areas of study, including ESL resources, Shakespeare, American History, world religions, science and health, American literature, writing skills and

geography. Some titles you may want to peruse are: • Building the Panama Canal • Crime and Punishment in America • Elizabethan England • Money for Minors: a Student’s Guide • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Exploring the Life, Myth and Art of Ancient

China

All of these books are available directly through the SJP Library catalog.

January 2015 3

Aesop’s Fables Dress Codes in Schools Are Athletes Good Role Models? Frida & Diego: art, love, life Careers in Engineering Hybrid and Electric Cars Chinese Mythology She is Not Invisible Cloud Computing Teach Life a Champion The Freedom Summer Murders Vegetarianism

DISCOVER untried Resources

Recent Acquisitions

BOOK REVIEW

She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

Laureth Peak and her brother Benjamin fly to New York from London in search for their missing father. He is a humorous, formerly successful novelist, who has spent years working on his latest book (not one of the funny ones). When Laureth loses contact with him and then receives a mysterious email message, she feels she has to make sure nothing terrible has happened.

She cannot complete her quest on her own. She needs her brother to act as her eyes on the trip. Laureth is blind. Her unusual point-of-view adds a thought-provoking lens to the story, as Laureth relates the twists and turns of their adventure.

This fast-paced young adult mystery explores the universal themes of family dynamics and finding your place in a sometimes unaccepting society. Sedgwick writes with a philosophical twist. I would like to read more of his work.

Recently, I discovered the fascinating world of podcasts. I listen to them on my iPad or my phone. Some of my favorite shows are The Moth, The Dinner Party Download and This American Life. I also listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class.

Each week, two HowStuffWorks staff members, Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Frey, discuss a particularly fascinating, but often overlooked, story from history. In a conversational, but informative presentation, the hosts highlight individuals or events that played key roles in history, sharing interesting facts and anecdotes about the subject.

Some of the topics covered in recent podcasts include Christina of Sweden, Ethan Allen, The Father of Dark Matter, A Brief History of Colors and Orphan Trains.

If you want your students t o c o n s i d e r history to be comprised of more than just i m p o r t a n t d a t e s a n d

names, consider having them listen to one of the Stuff You Missed in History Class podcasts.

January 20154

Mr. Russo praises The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein and shares his book trailer with the Book Club.

LEARN a Little History by Listening to Podcasts

Book Club News

In December, the Book Club had a Free Choice meeting. We chose a favorite book to recommend to the group and created a trailer for it. We enjoyed learning about The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein, Forget-Me-Not by Linda A. LeVasseur, The Help by Kathyryn Stockett, Psycho by Robert Bloch and a Korean book about an inspirational doctor during our Book Trailer Film Festival.

Over the holiday break, we read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. One of her most suspenseful mysteries, the story is set on a deserted island off the coast of England. Ten hapless victims, all of whom have apparently

gotten away with murder, are lured there under false pretenses. Their unidentified host wants them to pay for their crimes. According to an author’s note, Christie is particularly proud of this novel, since it was such a challenge to write. In between snow storms, we were finally able to meet on February 4 to talk about the sad fate of the ten party unsuspecting guests.

Our next meeting will be devoted to Harper Lee’s classic book, To Kill a Mockingbird. We will get together after school in the Library on March 25. New members are always welcome.