Class #42--7th Age Library Class

Friday, March 25, 2011, 1:25 P.M. 7th Age Library Class. Class #42 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. After enjoying a recess, the boys from Ms. Swiss’s class are ready to focus in library class, under the watchful eye of Mrs. Thomas. In 2010, Mrs. Thomas won the Deborah Dorsey Albert Award at Graduation for her “outstanding contribution to the life and mission of Calvert School.” The boys drop off their books onto the “return” cart and then take a seat at round tables in front of the SmartBoard. Mrs. Thomas asks the boys how they sort their books at home. The responses are varied: by alphabet, color, size, series, and chapter (vs. non-chapter books), to name a few. Mrs. Thomas then explains the contributions of Melvil Dewey, the creater of the Dewey Decimal classification system, which, as you know, is a uniform and consistent manner of sorting and classifying books in libraries. On a worksheet, the boys circle pictures of wild animals (found in the 500s in the Dewey system) and put a square abound the pictures of pets (found in the 600s). Next, the boys work diligently in pairs to group sea animal, mammal, and bird words. For the final fifteen minutes of class, the students enthusiastically look for books to check out for the weeks ahead!