A Teacher on Assigned Reading: "We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack Up"

Ok, I'll be honest, this article is directed toward teachers, and is written by a high school English teacher, but as it deals with how teens feel about the literature they are assigned in school. I think it's worth a read.

'"Butchering." That's what one of my former students, a young man who loves creative writing but rarely gets to do any at school, called English class. He was referring to the endless picking apart of linguistic details that loses teens in a haze of "So what?" The reading quizzes that turn, say, "Hamlet" into a Q&A on facts, symbols and themes. The thesis-driven essay assignments that require students to write about a novel they can't muster any passion for ("The Scarlet Letter" is high on teens' list of most dreaded). I'll never forget what one parent, bemoaning his daughter's aversion to great books after she took AP English Literature, wrote to me: "What I've seen teachers do is take living, breathing works of art and transform them into dessicated lab specimens fit for dissection."'

Strange, that's exactly how *I* felt in high school...

alarming report on teen girls

The YWCA has released a report called Beauty at Any Cost, which contains a lot of very disturbing information about the health, financial and the obsession with looks are costing the teen girls and women of America.

A discussion guide and non-fiction booklist can be found here.

Here are some recent fiction books on eating disorders, as well:

Looks by Madeleine George
Massive by Julia Bell
Perfect by Natasha Friend
More Than You Can Chew by Marnelle Tokio
Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

Any titles you would add if we were to do an eating disorders list?

how friendly is too friendly with teens?

One of the great challenges of working with teens is finding ways to show you care, to reach out, and to make connections...all while maintaining appropriate boundaries. These boundaries are important in helping teens develop into healthy adults, and when properly enforced they provide a sense of dependability and trust that is incredibly important for those of us trying to make a positive difference in their lives.

This article brings up some interesting points about friending kids online. Clearly MySpace and Facebook are wonderful places to connect with teens in an environment they are comfortable in, and I know many people who have had much success in these areas. But where is the line?

Online student-teacher friendships can be tricky
By Mallory Simon

CNN

"As an educator there is a line of demarcation between you and your student," Keith said. "It's a line that you cannot come close to, let alone step over. You've got to establish it from Day One and say, 'I'm not your buddy, I'm not your friend, I'm just your teacher.' "

As librarians, we have a slightly different position. We are authority figures, but not teachers. Where do you feel our line should be? How do you establish this line with your patrons? Have you ever been in a situation where it has been crossed? What did you do?

using texting to advertise to teens

This is something that has come up in conversations with teen librarians a number of times, but this article really hammers home the effectiveness and value to this approach:

Retailers know texting is the totally best way to reach teens
By Mark Albright

What do you think? I'm hoping in phase two of the Sno-Isle Teens: Your Library website we will have a form for teens to sign up for text notification.

How could libraries best use this? What sort of guidelines should we develop to insure the most interesting and effective communications?

looking for a fun activity for teen meetings?

Katy M. from the Selah (WA) Library suggested TAGAD-L trying pipe cleaner pictionary! I think this sounds like lots of fun.

What are some activities that your teens like to do at advisory board meetings and such?

a great response to a book challenged

I assume some of you have already seen this response to a book challenge as it has been making its way around the blogosphere for a few weeks, but I found it inspiring and a wonderful reminder of one of the many reasons we choose to work in public libraries. It would be a good addition to our training on intellectual freedom. Hooray for Mr. LaRue!

great article on video gaming in libraries

Thanks to Jeanne for passing this on!

Libraries' video games are teen magnet

Local program's success earns national attention

Thursday, July 31, 2008

By Elizabeth Gibson

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

"Libraries have gone through a lot of iterations since 300 B.C., when they were founded as a way to improve moral character," said Scott Nicholson, an associate professor at Syracuse who runs the Library Game Lab. "This is no different from when libraries first brought in fiction or started allowing children in."

Lots of good ideas to be copied from these guys!

what is "reading" in the digital age

Penni forwarded me this great article from the New York Times.

Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

Seems to cover both sides of the argument fairly thoroughly.

Thoughts?

summer reading humor

From Unshelved:












Thanks to Kathleen for sharing this one.

Hope your summer is going swimmingly...

fun contest for your library

Do you have great volunteers looking for something fun to do this summer?
Are your regular teens super creative?
Do you have mad decorating skills?

Then you should consider working with them to enter Unshelved's Pimp My Bookcart contest.

Check out last year's amazing winners. Better get started soon...deadline is October 31st.

Author Interview: David Lubar

Video interview with author David Lubar at Adlit - Adolescent Literacy for parents and educators.

David Lubar is the man behind the popular — and hilarious — "Weenies" short-story collections, and critically acclaimed titles Dunk, Hidden Talents, and Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. Lubar is best known for his humor, but his young adult books are also filled with plenty of adventure and suspense.

Interacting in Virtual Worlds

One of the topics for discussion at the ALA Annual meeting for the YALSA Board of Directors was if the organization should devote resources to creating a presence on Second Life. In the end we decided it wasn't a reasonable investment at this time, but it did get me thinking about the future of online services to teens.

Are any of you active on Second Life? What benefits might there be for librarians?

Google is dipping its toe into the pond, but in smaller way:

Google Introduces a Cartoonlike Method for Talking in Chat Rooms

Facebook is working on something similar. In your dream world, what would libraries have?

Arg! Looking for a September program idea?

September 19 is Talk Like a Pirate Day! What fun programs could you have in your library? Here are some ideas for a pirate party.

And don't forget our pirate booklist! Make a great display.

D&D in the Library

Dungeons and Dragons groups and libraries can make great partners! Recently two Sno-Isle Libraries were approached by teen D&D groups about having regular meetings in their libraries. This is a fabulous opportunity and we are glad to be able to accommodate. And just in time, here is a blog post from librarian and gamer Ian McKinney about getting started:

Dungeons and Dragons in Libraries

Looks like he will have more on running the programs, so be sure to set up a feed to his blog if you are thinking about having one of these groups!

OMG FEED IS HAPPENING!!!

(You've read MT Anderson's FEED, right?)

This article poses the idea that because so many people's primary source of reading material is web-based that the source is beginning to affect not only how we READ, but how we THINK.

Add in the fact that more and more profit is ad based...

And then the fact that there's practically a whole language used just online (oh, and in txt)...

Pretty soon we'll all have the interwebs plugged into our brains...

It's a ridiculously long (do I think that b/c my brain has changed? Ugh.) article, but interesting.

A Little Late

But I'm just now reading SLJ's may issue. If any of you've missed it, I've found useful:

Jordan Sonnenblick's article about NCLB (I met him at Ballard library a week-ish ago. He's lovely).

Anastasia Goodstein's article about attracting teens through marketing tactics.

Highlights include:

• Ypulse,
• Muxtape,
• Mixwit,
• Crunchyroll (a site a couple of MY teens are always telling me about),
• Teenhut and
• some philosophy (clearly the most important part, ESPECIALLY if you aren't quite sure how to approach teens - or a good reminder).

Katrine Watkins' article about The Google Game taught me a few new ways to search and reminded me of ones I forgot.

Heard of MMPG? Christopher Harris' article is about PMOG - and how it might just be a harbinger of Web 3.0... I'm a little scared.

An Expansive New Linguistic Renaissance

New study reassures adults that teen communications are not dumbed down, but actually more sophisticated than once thought.

Instant messaging 'a linguistic renaissance' for teens
15 May 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Mark Peters

In a paper to be published in the spring 2008 issue of American Speech, the researchers argue that far from ruining teenagers' ability to communicate, IM lets teenagers show off what they can do with language.

So, there! LOLFOMA at disbelievers, yo.

Teen Retreat

Check out the cool program my friend Sara did with her teens in Multnomah County:

Q. What’s Better Than a Teen Council?

I would love to do something like this with our Teen Advisory Groups someday. Maybe next year?

tweens explore identity on web

A mom gets her tween to give her a tour of some social networking sites aimed at teens. Nothing groundbreaking here, but nice for perspective and to hear about what tweens are into right now. I was most amused that her daughter likes to pretend she is a French single mom with twins.

FASHION & STYLE | May 8, 2008
Cyberfamilias: Today, I Think I'll Be Hippohead
By MICHELLE SLATALLA
For the under-18 crowd, there are new ways to reinvent yourself online.

An assortment of articles

First up is an article from the Washington Post, reprinted in the Seattle Times. Now I like these newspapers. But this article is awful, IMHO. The problem I think I have with it is that I don't really trust the study. I look at the list, especially for the older grades (Besides just lumping 9-12th grades. Please. Like 9th graders are reading what 12th graders are. Whatever.), and I see well, gee, I wonder if some of those books are required reading at 80% of schools out there? I want to know what the top books for pleasure reading are. It's not that I don't think that there'd be duplications, I'm just not terribly surprised that Of Mice and Men shows up when everyone I know had to read it in high school. Did the survey at all cover whether the students enjoyed these titles? Furthermore, I question whether the survey was even balanced when you get what I consider a biased quote from guy who's company did the survey:

'"I find it reassuring ... that students are still reading the classics I read as a child," said Roy Truby, a senior vice president for Wisconsin-based Renaissance Learning. But Truby said he would have preferred to see more meaty and varied fare, such as "historical novels and biographical works so integral to understanding our past and contemporary books that help us understand our world."'

Furthermore, there wasn't any real kind of reporting on the survey itself. What were some of the questions? Did that guy write any of them? Was there another goal? And why does every. single. article concerning youth and reading have to compare whatever to Harry Potter?

I'm probably just cranky 'cause I had such a great weekend and didn't want to come back to work today.

In happier articles...

Containing this quote which I'm going to plaster somewhere: “Teen books are like adult books, without all the bull****” H. Jack Martin, assistant coordinator of young adult services at New York Public Library. That's awesome, right? I think so. And it epitomizes why I dig teen lit. The article is all about what makes YA lit not adult lit. Sherman Alexie was on the panel and there are some great quotes from him, as usual.

We've all read and loved Madeline L'Engle, right? New book, published posthumously (obviously) but written in the 1940's. It's said to be the most autobiographical of her work. Don't know about you, but that intrigues me. Although I hope that cover isn't the one they are using...

Further cannibalizing from PW: Twilight Zone is gonna be a series of graphic novels!