Welcome To The Commons
The Commons... the hub of the school
Our Mission:
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To provide a program and balanced collection of resources that reflect and represent the diverse learning styles, cultures, beliefs, and mother tongue languages of students within the school.
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To ensure learners grow as competent, ethical users and producers of ideas and information.
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To develop learners who can find, evaluate, and use information in response to inquiry through purposeful approaches to learning skills.
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To prepare lifelong learners who are effective communicators, critical researchers, and problem solvers.
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To reflect on ways to continue to grow as learners.
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To inspire and ignite a love of reading and learning within learners.
The IB learner profile are brought to life in The Commons. As risk-takers our readers experiment with a variety of genres, by selecting both fiction and non-fiction books that challenge them as readers. With ebooks and research resources available online, our readers take-risks and are not afraid to use new technologies.
Being principled in The Commons means committing to finishing a book and understanding that this process leads to growth. Through many research opportunities, our students monitor their resources to ensure a balanced reading selection through a variety source opportunities. As communicators, students recommend books to others, talk about literary elements, and share their knowledge of quality sites and dependable sources.
At Briscoe, research skills are introduced early and are slowly built upon as students progress to higher grades using our campus model. Because each grade level builds on the previous year’s learning, students have agency to choose how they will research using print and digital tools while making decisions about how they approach and implement their learning.
We support intercultural understanding and respect by providing resources that nurture and encourage intercultural awareness and global engagement. By actively developing a collection of mother tongue resources, the library supports and promotes multilingualism. The Commons centers around collaboration and connection through concepts and learning engagements. Students participate in thinking routines focused around exchanging ideas, maker space utilizing creative design principals, or puzzles to advance critical thinking. We discuss with students how these attributes and skills can be put into action and reflect on our development. Reading has truly become a part of our campus culture of learning. The Commons is the "Hub" of the our school!