The Nixon Elementary School Library serves our students with the mission of promoting a lifetime love for literacy and learning, providing resources and skills for students to become independent thinkers and information users, and creating a culture of responsible digital citizenship.   Students will develop a rich understanding that the library is not just a space that holds books and technology, but it is also a place for collaborating, critical thinking, tinkering, and creating.
 
We strive to continually build a well-balanced and culturally relevant library with resources that appeal to a variety of student needs, levels, and interests.  As the teacher-librarian, I strive to put the right book in each child’s hand each visit.
 
All students in all grade levels from kindergarten through sixth grade will have access to the library, its resources, and its books for checkout.  Nixon’s collection of books is ever growing.  The library currently holds 8,770 books, 742 of which are in Spanish.  As CPS students, all Nixon students have access to the district Virtual Library, which holds just over 14,000 eBooks, 323 of which are in Spanish.  Students can access Nixon’s catalog of books and the CPS Virtual Library at school or home at https://pac.library.cps.edu/?config=5100ALL#section=home
 
Please read below for an overview of instructional goals by grade band:

Grades	Instructional Goal
​Kindergarten – 2nd Grade	Beginning to develop a lifelong love of reading and learning Basic function and organization of library Picture book author studies Introduction to genres Distinguishing between fact, fiction, and point of view Selecting a “just right” book Responsible book care and return Book checkout procedures Beginning use of call numbers / Dewey system Introduction to Makerspace and beginning use of robots 2nd Grade only: Beginning use of ebooks and SOAR (online catalog) Basic internet safety Basic information searches and keywords
3rd and 4th Grade	Continuing to develop a lifelong love of reading and learning Understanding the need for information Chapter book author studies Call numbers Genre study Website credibility / fact vs. opinion Advanced use of ebooks Mastery of SOAR (online catalog) Sorting and narrowing search results Tinkering with and creating using the library Makerspace and its robots Introduction to coding using Scratch and CS First from Google Intermediate internet safety Introduction to being a good digital citizen Introduction to databases Introduction to intellectual property and citations
​  5th and 6th Grade	​Cultivating one’s love of reading to become a self-motivated reader at Nixon and beyond. Call number review What is a book talk? Preparing for and giving a book talk Author study of book that will be “book talked” Advanced internet safety Studying and discussing what it means to be a good digital citizen Advanced use of SOAR and CPS databases Tinkering with and creating using the library Makerspace and its robots Advanced coding using Scratch and CS First from Google Citing a topic using web citation resources Researching a topic of interest Evaluating information for relevance and credibility Using information accurately, creatively, and ethically