Academy School: Where learners are launched. Discovery through curiosity, creativity and intellect.
Library
The library collection contains approximately seven thousand highly curated books that not only support the school's rigorous class curriculum, but also provides fiction titles not found in the classroom. In addition to the very best in modern children’s fiction, students will find fascinating biographies, current books about scientific discoveries, poetry, picture books with glorious art for family read-alouds and so much more. Academy students love books and it shows with the high circulation rates. From the silliest graphic novels to the classics like Treasure Island, the library meets the needs of all our readers, whatever their mood or interest.
All students have library weekly. This enriching part of their day includes read-alouds at all grade levels. For Lower Elementary classes, Ms. Parks reads from well-established masters of children’s fiction such as William Steig, Roald Dahl, and James Thurber as well as new authors emerging as masters of children’s fiction. After reading, the class discusses the characters, the plot, and the vocabulary.
For Upper Elementary students, the library program asks an essential question and attempts to answer it throughout the year. For Fourth Graders, we ask the question What Is A Hero?. We begin our quest for an answer with Black Ships Before Troy, a children’s version The Iliad. We then move on to study other classic heroes, culminating in a study of the biography genre. In 5th grade we read The Odyssey and ask “What Kind of a Leader is Odysseus?. By sixth grade, we leave the ancient world behind and focus very much on the present by asking “What Makes a Good Digital Citizen?”
After leaving Academy with seven years of library programming, students have a solid foundation in classic stories and modern literature that reflects our diverse world, as well as all the essential skills necessary to be an effective user and consumer of information in the 21st Century.
Students check out books to take home and read on their own, or with their families. Up to five books at a time are allowed, with two weeks until they are due back. Renewals are no problem, of course.
Eileen Parks holds a Masters of Science from Simmons Graduate School of Library Information and a Bachelors in Art History from the University of California, Santa Cruz. The library program at Academy serves all learners with weekly programming designed to not only spark a student's intellectual curiosity, but also sustain a passion for lifelong learning.
The library collection contains approximately seven thousand highly curated books that not only support the school's rigorous class curriculum, but also provides fiction titles not found in the classroom. In addition to the very best in modern children’s fiction, students will find fascinating biographies, current books about scientific discoveries, How To books, picture books with glorious art for family read-alouds and so much more. Academy students love books and it shows with the high circulation rates for our materials. New books arrive monthly to keep the collection interesting and compelling for young, curious minds.
Reading is the most essential component in any person’s educational career. There’s very little a person can accomplish if they do not read widely, regularly, and well. Conversely, there’s absolutely nothing a person cannot achieve if they do.