The Centre for Learning and Innovation (CLI) Library has been abuzz with Year 12s studying for their exams and other year levels doing research classes this term. The PERMA rooms have been booked out and the study carrels well used as our school leavers hone their skills and review their knowledge.
Carey students learn research skills as they undertake assignments that are focussed on resource-based learning. Classroom teachers and library staff explicitly teach how to break down a task into smaller tasks and to develop focussed research questions. For example, Year 7s have been researching World Religions in CARE and Sustainability in Geography, Year 8s Social Justice in CARE and the Middle Ages in History, to name just two year levels developing their research skills as they gain new knowledge. Working in small groups, students have been studying specific areas of interest. Working with the teachers, the library staff develop LibGuides to support the students’ research with good quality resources and referencing tools and templates.
LibGuides typically provide resources across different formats (books, online encyclopedias, databases, videos, websites). While working in the library, the students usually make use of any books which are relevant. It is becoming increasing difficult to find good books, but we are fortunate that the Carey community can access to numerous databases across nearly all learning areas. All the online resources included on the LibGuides can be accessed 24/7 remotely. Usernames and passwords are provided on a Login Sheet, which is also included on the LibGuides.
Library staff have been making LibGuides for several years across all the Carey Libraries and they include guides for book recommendations. Click here to see the full range of LibGuides students can access for their studies in Middle and Senior School.
As we come to the end of the year, I have been asking individual students about their reading journey this year. One avid reader sent me this email and, as you can see, we have some amazing readers here at Carey.
I started off this year with The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E Fiest, a thrilling tale of a young boy who becomes a magician and is then captured into slavery in a different universe. After I finished this spectacular series, I discovered that Fiest was a goldmine of amazing books, and continued reading some of his books, with the Firemane saga, a story of a boy who has grown up training for a spy agency, and has no idea that he is the last on the Firemane line, a line of kings that ruled over their kingdom for centuries, until their entire line was assassinated and the kingdom crushed, as well as this, the disturbing power of the church continues the story and the protagonist battles for freedom of religion.
After this dark series, I decided to take a break from Fiest and began to read The Moontide Quartet, the story of two countries that go to war every 12 years when the tides lower enough for a bridge to be crossed between their respective islands. I then discovered the world of Scardrial with Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, the story of a lowly thief on her way to overthrow a god. After reading all seven of Brandon Sanderson’s, I moved into the Grishaverse, with Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and its sequel Crooked Kingdom. Six of Crows is a unorthodox tale that follows a group of thieves, each with their own strange problems, a tall sharpshooter who can’t tear himself away from the gambling tables, the estranged son a rich merchant who ran from home for an unknown reason, a magician with the power to kill with a thought but harbouring deep-seated guilt over sending an innocent man to prison, an acrobat who can scale any height who was sold into slavery as a prostitute, and their leader, a ruthless genius who can’t handle the touch of human flesh. Finally, after all that reading, I have saved the best to last, with the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss, a trilogy so good that the first two books have taken 30 years to come out, and the third hasn’t yet been published.
Marg Moran
Head of the CLI Library
