Students and teachers utilize the school library throughout the year. As the school library coordinator, my goal is to assist them in using the library effectively. I hope to support our student’s academic and leisure reading needs as well as share my love of books with them, so they too, will be life-long readers. Each and every class day is as varied as the students and their academic and personal literacy needs. The library is up-to-date and available to the students because of our dedicated volunteers, parents and staff.
It is a joy to serve the students and staff of Assumption Catholic School.

LIBRARY NEWS AND SCHEDULE

CONTENT AREA

Within the 40-50 minute classes each week (varies with grade level), I hope to accomplish the following goals over the course of the school year:

• Students will find books in our school library for an assignment and/or leisure reading appropriate to age, ability and maturity.
• Students will use a computer-based catalog to find books in the library and be able to locate the book on the library shelf at school or at a public library.
• Students will have a working knowledge of the Dewey Decimal Classification System.
• Students will have a working knowledge of how to conduct a research report for all curricular areas including, identifying the best resources, taking research notes, converting notes into a written report, and writing a bibliography or works cited.
• Students will understand the terms plagiarism and copyright.  They will be able to explain the social, ethical and legal ramifications of using print or online materials without appropriate citation or credit of sources.

Sampling of curriculum related projects supported by library instruction and materials.

• Newbery Award reading project or other literature-based projects (5^th, 6^th, 7^th & 8^th grades).  
• Use of library research resources to study individual states and prepare an informational booklet (4^th grade).
• Short reports on a variety of historical periods or informational topics (2-8 grades)
• Dictionary / thesaurus skills with all grades.
• Help students with research on the topic selected for the essay contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution (5^th Grade).
• Teach library etiquette and develop an appreciation for different literary genres through the reading of stories and reader advisory. (all grades)
• Teach the MLA bibliography format used by students when completing research papers in core subject areas. We also discuss plagiarism and copyright laws. (5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grades).
• Help students with research, organization, and citations for formal research papers. (6^th, 7^th & 8^th grades) 

TEACHER PROFILE:  Valerie Sonderen
* RETIRED 2018
Education: BA Gonzaga University, 24 credits EWU School of Education, Library /Media endorsement program. Continuing Ed. – workshops on Young Adult and Children’s Literature.
Experience: Assumption volunteer/Library coordinator for 10 years, staff Librarian for 16 years. Married to Mark for 37 years; two children, Matthew and Keva, both graduates of Assumption Parish School.  Member of Assumption Parish for 29 years.