Library Online

Book Drum is a really interesting new site which sets books into context. Find the book and read about the author, the setting, look at interactive maps, use a glossary and lots more. You can also contribute yourself, if you are over 18.

This site would be very useful for A-Level or GCSE students, for the English Department, or readers who just want to find out more about their favourite books!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: A-Level, books, English, GCSE, reading

This week, we are going to introduce our Year 7 and 8 classes to our reading development wiki called Reading is Fun! We hope that students will use this to track their reading development during this year. They are asked to write a page about their favourite books and magazines using images and embedded videos to enliven the page. Students are also encouraged to comment on each other’s pages with positive ideas and support.

There is a full page with embedded presentations on this site and Mrs Robinson has also put these on this post.

If you are a Dixie student in Year 7 or 8, have a look at the presentation below to remind you how to use the wiki. Please ask Mrs Robinson if you need your username and password.

The presentation as a PowerPoint on SlideShare:

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: books, English, reading, wikis

Here are the photographs from our fantastic Write Path session, which I wrote about previously.

Here are the links to the stories. Our students worked in pairs to write a paragraph, collaborating on stories with schools from around the world. Please read them and tell us what you think! The names in the links belong to the authors who started each story.

Story started by Alex Milway

Story started by Catherine Fisher

Story started by Joanne Harris

Story started by Jo Craig

Story started by Penny Dolan

Story started by Pete Johnson

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: English, special events, Write Path, writing

We had an amazing hour in the Library this morning and Mrs Robinson is exhilarated and proud as punch after taking part in Write Path for the first time! All we can say is “Can we do it again next year, please?”.

Write Path is an annual event aiming to encourage connections with students around the world through the means of a collaborative story writing activity. This year, Write Path is taking place over two weeks with over 60 schools from a wide range of countries taking part.

 The organiser has been able to enlist the support of some fantastic authors and poets.  They will each write a story or poem “starter”. Each day, six of these are available and the students then write the next paragraph (up to 250 words) so that the story/poem progresses during the day. These are then uploaded to a collaborative website so that everyone can see. The last school each day finishes the story/poem. Each school gets one slot during the two weeks.

 The English Department here were so helpful, choosing the 12 students from Year 7, organising a teacher to help out, getting hold of some Sixth Formers who also encouraged and supported the younger students and much more. Thanks so much!

 The students themselves were brilliant – taking to the whole idea with cries of “Awesome”, particularly when told that the finished stories would be published in book form. They were up and running very quickly, and worked fantastically well. We were amazed at their flexibility when some of the paragraphs from the school before us popped up half way through our session – they simply adjusted what they had written. Our Sixth Form students helped some of the Year 7s with typing and kept them focussed on the task – huge thanks to them too!

A fantastic hour!

written by Mrs Robinson \\ tags: English, international, literacy, special events, students, Write Path, writing