News from The Arthur Holt Library | Extended Essay Guide
This week, we debuted the new Trinity Grammar School Extended Essay guide to senior students enrolled in the IB Diploma Programme. The Extended Essay is a 4,000-word piece of independent research that every boy on the programme must complete in one of his areas of study. It can seem an onerous task to students unused to undertaking such an extensive research project and that is why we helped put together this guide to enable the boys to better understand what is expected of them.
This week, we focused on ideation, or the process of identifying and exploring a potential area for research. The boys were asked to brainstorm ideas, explore each other’s suggestions and then to settle on a topic area that they will start exploring in more depth next week. We used a scaffold called a Lotus Diagram to help them to reach beyond what they already know into those areas where they need to engage in further reading and build their understanding.
Next week, we will guide the students through their preliminary research. They will be asked to complete an annotated bibliography, which lists those sites and research articles that they have accessed and what key pieces of information they learned from them.
The boys will then be allocated a supervisor in their individual subject area and we in The Arthur Holt Library will continue to support them with advice on conducting deeper research, accessing Academic Databases, and making sure that they track their sources and reference them correctly. It’s a genuinely exciting time in the academic development of the boys on the IB Diploma Programme and if previous years are anything to go by, some of the work produced will exceed all expectations.
Of course, we are also on hand to support our HSC students. Our Teaching and Learning Librarians delivered lessons this week on finding secondary sources to all the Extension English students. They were told how they can access critical essays and use them to develop their own arguments. They were also shown how important an understanding of historical context can be when analysing a text.
We might not be available in person, but we are still on hand to help any of our students with their reading, research or Academic Scholarship needs. Any and all students are very welcome to email us any time at librarian@trinity.nsw.edu.au if they have any questions or require further support.
One final word to all of our holiday borrowers! If you’re worried about overdue books, don’t be. Any overdues that you’ve been fined for can be returned once face-to-face teaching resumes, and we will provide a refund for any items that are less than two terms overdue. For complete peace of mind, email us at librarian@trinity.nsw.edu.au and request that we renew your overdues – this will result in your fines being cancelled.
“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
– Oscar Wilder
