How to use this Page

A brief look at 'grams of interest to engage teens and librarians navigating this social media platform.

This week we're focusing on school libraries and media centers. From board games to book dominos and book clubs to volunteer opportunities, school libraries can provide a place for students to have fun and unwind during free periods or before and after school. Prominent displays are one way to grab students' attention and connect them with books and library services with which they may unfamiliar. Book themed bulletin boards can also call attention to library materials or can drum up interest for upcoming events.

We've included a few examples below, but we want to hear from you! Do you offer before and after school programs for your students? What's the coolest display you've put together? Which bulletin board theme has been most popular? Do your teens give you input or decorate for you?

 

Have you come across a related Instagram post this week, or has your library posted something similar? Have a topic you'd like to see in the next installment of Instagram of the Week? Share it in the comments section of this post.

Add a Comment

Happy Monday, amazing YALSA members!

Can you believe it's already near the end of February?

For those who've made New Year's resolutions to be more involved in the profession, it's not too late!

The deadline to apply to join a YALSA strategic committee, jury, or taskforce is this Sunday, March 1st!

You can see the full list of committees and juries here.

Strategic committees are a great way to get involved with YALSA, as they are virtual committees. Or, if you are a new member and looking to try committee work for the first time, the strategic committees are a great way to learn about YALSA, connect with teen service professionals from around the country, and help you develop your virtual work skills and teen expertise. So, if travel and conference attendance aren't an option for you this year, please take a minute to fill out the volunteer form here and send it in before March 1st!

My Appointments Taskforce and I will begin the process to fill the over 200 open positions that help YALSA accomplish the work of the strategic plan and the work that moves the association and members forward immediately after March 1st, so please be sure to get your application in before then.

I strongly encourage all YALSA members to apply - it is an easy and great way to get more involved in this amazing association, especially if you are interested in joining a YALSA selection or award committee in the future.

Please feel free to contact me at candice.yalsa (at) gmail.com if you have any questions!

Add a Comment

He was an intelligent man and he'd flown high in his career. I know that from the conversation we'd had up till that point. The point when he said, "But we don't need libraries, because it's all online now."

You can imagine the rattle of adrenaline through my veins. But I've learnt that in these situations a rant doesn't help matters. You have to go straight to the point.

"But how will you create readers," I asked, "Without libraries?"

"You can learn to read online," he suggested, clearly not having thought this through. But he's not alone in not having thought this through.

We're not winning the war to keep libraries (both public and school) valued and funded. We’re winning some battles but the enemy keeps popping up elsewhere, just as strong, blinkered and ignorant as before. We’re not winning it because of a fundamental misunderstanding by far too many people of what school libraries do. And what they do that nothing else can do, least of all the Internet. Unfortunately, many of these people are our elected politicians, entrusted with the education of our children and claiming to want a “fairer” society.

Libraries – and, crucially, their trained librarians – create readers. It’s that simple. Without the libraries you used as a young child, you would not be the reader you are now. I doubt any of us became a reader simply through the books our parents bought – even wealthy families wouldn’t choose to buy the quantity of books needed to feed a young reader. Young readers need, as James Patterson said recently, to be “inundated with books”, so they can find ones they like.

Liking books is not optional: it’s essential, if the child is to undertake the thousand of hours of practice necessary for the complicated process of becoming a reader. Teachers and parents, in different ways, teach children to read but that’s only the start of building a reader. Books do the rest and librarians curate the flood of books so that the child becomes a strong swimmer in ever deeper waters.

But that’s public libraries. What about school libraries? Why do we need those, too? Well, many families don’t use public libraries and, remember, we want a fairer society, where everyone can become a reader with a wide mind and big horizons, not just children with socioeconomic advantages. School librarians view each child, from whatever type of reading background or none, as a child who can, with help, have a richer reading life. They know better than anyone the full range of books, modern and classic, and how to make it enticing.

Too many elected politicians don’t understand any of this. Some, like the man I spoke to, believe libraries aren’t necessary because “It’s all on the Internet”. Oh yes, “it” is all on the Internet – all the words and knowledge you want, poems and stories, gems and sludge, recipes for bombes and bombs, facts and falsity, it’s all out there. And you can access it all (or the parts that Google throws to the top of the search results) and sift through it (eventually) and make good decisions about it (I hope) because you are readers. You are readers because as children you were inundated with books.

If politicians know this and still consider cutting funding, they must explain how they will create a fairer society when only the privileged can become real readers. Because that is what will happen where school library services are cut. Families who can afford to will fill the gap: they will buy as many books as they can and their children will have no limits to achievement. The children of other families will learn to read at school (I hope) but, lacking the necessary flood of book choice, will not become proficient enough to read widely for pleasure and so they will read much less. That would be fine if it was their choice. But they would have no choice.

Please help us win this war. CWIG (the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group of The Society of Authors) keeps fighting these battles, and so do loads of authors (particularly children's ones) such as Alan Gibbons, Cathy Cassidy and Malorie Blackman, and many ABBA bloggers and readers. But we need everyone to help spread the message that without a properly funded school library service and a dedicated librarian in every school, we cannot offer every child the power of reading. And without that, it’s just not a fair society.

Libraries are how people become readers.


Adapted from a piece for the Society of Authors in Scotland newsletter. 
Nicola Morgan is on the committee of CWIG, the Society of Authors’ Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group and is a former chair of the SOAIS. She is an Ambassador for Dyslexia Scotland and a specialist in adolescence, the science of reading and reading for pleasure. The Teenage Guide to Stress advocates reading for pleasure as a valuable anti-stress strategy.

Add a Comment

• ·         relates to students the importance of good and accurate research and how they accomplish it
• ·         communicates with the students well and in an unpatronising way
• ·         talks about the work of other authors, and about books that were an influence in their lives
• ·         is able to show that they got where they are by working hard, and that working hard is enjoyable and rewarding
• ·         is able to do a presentation with or without technology (not all schools can afford it)
• ·         gives a presentation that is lively, engaging and witty (even for more serious books they are still looking for lively performances)
• ·         shares the hardships of their lives with the pupils in an appropriate way (I won’t write here about the author I once booked who shared way too much….!)
• ·         talks about other media and not just books. They like you to talk about comics, movies, plays, blogs, social media – not all children want to talk about books
• ·         gives the same level of performance to ten children as to a hundred...or more.

If you pitch it well, and give the librarians and schools what they need then your ears will burn as the forums light up with positive comments about you, and your email will run hot with bookings, and everyone wants that!

Add a Comment

Those of you who have children at secondary school, or are teachers or librarians, may have come across a new(ish) scheme called Accelerated Reader.

Administered in the UK by Rennaissance Learning, Accelerated Reader is a system that grades books, suggests appropriate reading levels and then monitors pupils' reading by giving them a multiple choice quiz on the book they've just read. The system analyses the quiz responses to show teachers whether the pupil has read the book, and what aspects of it they found difficult (e.g., vocabulary, or higher level comprehension).


If they fly through a couple of quizes, they are rewarded with a higher reading band. They can also collect points according to how long the book was that they read - leading to a total score of words read, and the accolade of 'word millionaire' when they get to the magic 1,000,000 words. They are however expected to stay within their bands - books read outside them, although allowed, do not count for rewards and incentives. For a slower reader, expected to progress at a certain number of books per term, or for a competitive reader, determined to get to the millionaire mark first, this more or less prohibits reading outside the given bands.

According to the National Literacy Trust, the use of Accelerated Reader in schools does actually get more pupils reading, and increases the proportion of pupils in the difficult teenage years who say they enjoy reading, will admit to a favourite book, and read widely across genres.

My daughter's school has just started using the scheme and the number of pupils taking books out of the school library has tripled compared with the same time last year. It's hard to argue with that kind of boost to pupils' interest in books and there really does seem to be a noticeable encouragement to read through the motivation of online quizes and rewards, particularly for boys.

What interests me, though, is the banding structure and the rationale behind it. AR uses a computer programme which scans the books and then analyses them for vocabulary and syntax (proportion of complex sentences). The range of banding for the books in a secondary school library is roughly from about 3 to about 11 or 12 for the very hardest books (for a rough idea of what these mean - R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books are about 3; Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov has an AR level of 11.1 )

AR level 3.0

AR level 11.1

More complex sentences and more advanced vocabulary result in a higher banding: and this more or less seems to work in terms of what one thinks of as appropriate progression - nobody is capable of reading Karamazov before they're capable of reading Goosebumps.

But there are two things I think are seriously problematic with the underlying assumptions of this scheme.

The first is a prescription that I think is wrong-headed: that we progress in reading in a straight line - that when we are capable of reading Dostoevsky, we are 'beyond' R.L. Stine. In fact, I think there are plenty of people who might go back and forth between the two and get different pleasures out of each. AR schemes do talk about letting pupils read 'below' their level as occasional 'comfort reads' - but this is presented as a kind of reversion. It's a bit like the idea that we all sometimes need to watch crap telly and eat donuts. It won't enrich our lives but it will give us some 'down-time'. For me, the idea that you are 'slumming it' by reading the 'easier' book is a pernicious one. The lower-level books are not just donuts, they may have all sorts of fabulous and enriching things to say to us as readers - they just do it in a different, though not necessarily less crafted or effective, way.

The second assumption is that the 'straight line' of reading progression is entirely about syntax and vocabulary. And this is where the truly jaw-dropping anomalies of AR banding become apparent. Using the AR website to check the relative banding of books for her, I was amazed to discover that Alan Garner's Owl Service is banded at 3.7. By contrast, Dav Pilkey's Captain Underpants is 4.3. And Captain Underpants and the Revolting Radioacive Robo-Boxers (presumably because of the number of multi-syllable words) is a whopping 5.3.

AR level 4.3

AR level 3.7

Bear in mind that the AR scheme suggests pupils are given relatively narrow bands to choose from - my daughter was started on 4.5–4.9. She was too high for The Owl Service, although she couldn't yet read The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, at 6.3. If she waited to be able to read the Weirdstone, however, she would be too high to read its sequel, The Moon of Gomrath, which is 5.4.

Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur (a fabulous retelling of the Arthur legend from the point of view of a young girl co-opted into helping the bard Merlin, who is presented as a kind of early 'spin-doctor') is 5.6, so she'd reach that well before she was able to read Reeves' knockabout books for younger readers, the Buster Bayliss series (Custardfinger is rated 6.3).

Meanwhile, she is lucky that her favourite author, Marcus Sedgwick, uses relatively simple sentences, as that means that many of his books are in her range (My Swordhand is Singing, a complex tale of vampires set in medieval Eastern Europe, is 4.9). However, she's missed out on his Floodland, which is 3.9, and it won't be long before she's progressed to the point where all of Sedgwick's novels will have to be 'comfort reads', as Kevin-Crossley Holland's magnificent Arthur books already are (4.2–4.3). Never mind - because she can always stretch herself with Daisy Meadows; Kate the Royal Wedding Fairy is 5.4.

AR level 5.4

AR level 5.0

I could go on - but here is one final one to ponder. Debi Gliori's Pure Dead Brilliant is a whopping 7.5. This means you won't be able to progress to it till you are too high for The Lord of The Rings (6.1), and in fact you'd be in the same ball-park band as The Silmarillion at 7.9.

The computer analysis used to grade AR books clearly doesn't read them - it processes them as strings of words. The more important aspects of books - the ideas, the plot twists, the characters, the emotions, the metaphorical language - all of this is entirely missed. Yet this is most of what makes a book enjoyable, memorable, heart-breaking, what touches or thrills you as a reader. I am immensely saddened by the idea that whole swathes of teenagers are going to flick past The Owl Service and fail to pick it off the shelf of the school library because it has a black sticker on it (easy) rather than green or purple (harder, higher, more worthy).

Accelerated Reader is beloved of Ofsted, because it produces quantifiable results and signs of 'progress'. It certainly seems to be getting more pupils reading, and excited about getting their rewards and stickers - but it's encouraging at the same time a very quantitative approach to what reading is, and how we should do it. According to the National Literacy Trust survey, an extra 7% of pupils using the scheme are prepared to say they enjoy reading compared with those that don't use it. I wonder if that's an achievement worth celebrating if 100% of those pupils now think of reading as a goal-oriented activity with 'difficult' vocabulary being the measure of value?



Cecilia Busby writes fantasy adventures for children aged 7-12 as C.J. Busby. Her latest book, Dragon Amber, was published in September by Templar.


www.cjbusby.co.uk

@ceciliabusby

"Great fun - made me chortle!" (Diana Wynne Jones on Frogspell)

"A rift-hoping romp with great wit, charm and pace" (Frances Hardinge on Deep Amber)

Add a Comment

 

Add a Comment

This summer, ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy and Office for Intellectual Freedom released a policy brief marking a decade of school and public libraries limiting patrons’ access to online information due to the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

Titled Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later, the report advocates an action plan to reduce the nationwide, negative impacts of CIPA. I found it well worth a read, and you will too if you wish to understand the progressive possibilities surrounding CIPA at your library and at libraries across America.

Since 2003, those schools and public libraries that accept federal funding to purchase internet access have been required by CIPA to use filtering software on all of their internet-enabled computers. This filtering software must block access to images classified as “obscene,” “child pornography,” or “harmful to minors.” Any adult wishing to access material blocked under the auspices of “harmful to minors” is backed in his/her quest for content by the First Amendment and CIPA, which requires that the material be unblocked by the school or library. The first two categories (“obscene” and “child pornography” images) are not similarly protected under the First Amendment, so schools and libraries are not required to unblock those materials.

In theory, CIPA is fairly unobjectionable: none of us want to provide materials harmful to minors, child pornography, or obscenity. In practice, however, schools and libraries have applied CIPA in a draconian fashion: over-filtering for fear of patrons finding objectionable materials and for fear of losing federal funding. Going above and beyond CIPA’s filtering guidelines has resulted in egregious bans on social media, gaming, and emerging sites; nursing exams and other health information being blocked; embarrassment and confusion for patrons; and a negative public perception of technology at the library.  Furthermore, as Fencing Out Knowledge states, over-filtering does a disservice to our 21st century learners, is contrary to ALA’s Bill of Rights, and disproportionately affects the economically disadvantaged.

Fortunately, the report includes four recommendations for ALA to take action on this CIPA-originating issue of over-filtering. The recommendations are:

1. Increase awareness of the spectrum of filtering choices.
2. Develop a toolkit for school leaders.
3. Establish a digital repository of internet filtering studies.
4. Conduct research to explore the educational use of social media platforms and assess the impact of filtering in schools.

While ALA tackles those items at a national level, in your own community you can advocate for young adults’ broad access to the internet by becoming familiar with CIPA’s requirements; educating yourself on the harms of over-filtering; and advocating for digital policies that best fit your school or library mission and your teenagers’ 21st century needs. Don’t wait for ALA to finish their action items! Start the new school year by coming to the table now. Read the report as soon as possible, and become a consistent, professional voice at your school or library’s Technology Committee.

Click here to read Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later.

Add a Comment

Whether you’re a school librarian or a public librarian, this is a great time to start considering how to work with teachers or school library media specialists in the coming school year. With so few schools being able to afford to have librarians anymore (an issue for another time), public librarians are in a great position to offer their support and create a mutual network between school teachers where both parties can learn and benefit. And school librarians can do the same.

This year I was inspired by an English teacher at my school who used iBooks Author to create an interactive textbook for her sixth graders. Since the units she was teaching involved folk tales, fairy tales, and mythology around the world, iBooks Author allowed her to compile myriad resources, from text to images to videos, into one place for her students. Then, because iBooks are for Internet-enabled devices, of course, those same resources can then be clicked on and link the students to the sources they come from so they can learn even more about what they’re reading. Goodbye to the readers I used in high school and college, where short stories and essays on our syllabus were compiled into a cheaply bound booklet after the library and the bookstore collaborated to get the legal rights squared away.

I was immediately impressed – and immediately struck by how much a project like this depended on the good relationships between that teacher and my fellow librarians at work. So much work went into a project like this – finding resources, learning how to use them appropriately and legally, being creative with the design of the book, working on technical skills to put them all together… In the end, this teacher ended up with a visually interesting, well organized, highly useful resource for her students. And she inspired other teachers on campus to do the same.

I can see a lot of ways that librarians and teachers – or even students – can use this app to learn from and create with each other. Self publishing a book, maybe? Making study guides compiled from students’ notes over the semester? Learning about the publishing process? The possibilities are endless.

Do you have any plans to collaborate with schools this year? Have you ever used iBooks Author?

Add a Comment

Goal setting in a school library run by a single librarian can at times seem pointless.  Some days my to-do list gets longer rather than shorter.  Goals languish on the back burner while the fire in the middle of the library is tended to daily.  It is tempting to just let the months unfold reacting to the greatest need.  Being the only person responsible for multiple requests from teens, faculty and administration can mean our days are fractured and attempts to attend to long-range goals are frustrating and futile.  In order to avoid this frustration I have developed the KIND method of goal setting and follow though.  In short, this KIND acronym represents the following attributes, adapted to goal setting and getting things done; kindness, importance, noticeable and developing.  (Photo by Enver Rahmanov (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

RULE ONE.  Kindness. The first rule of goal setting for the solo librarian is to be kind.  Be kind to yourself if you get off track from your goals.  I put my new year’s goal on a list every year.  When I make the annual list I look at past year’s list.  There is one goal that is on the list year after year.  Instead of beating myself up over the fact that it hasn’t been accomplished I put it on this year’s list and celebrate that I am determined and persistent in pursuing this important goal.  By the way,  the goal that keeps coming up on my list it is to establish a teen advisory group.

I put it on the list this year, again, because not only do I know it is important I know that one day I will get that TAG established.  And without shame, I will say it is likely to be this year!

RULE TWO. Importance. Pick the goals that are important to you personally.  Validate yourself as a professional.  You care about your library and the students you serve.  Don’t pick goals that you do not believe in fully.  There are too many distractions in the year and if you do not pick goals that  resonate with meaning for you you aren’t going to carve out the time to work on them.   Goals that important to you and are also what teens want are goals that will keep you motivated throughout the year. An easy way to get input from students is to encourage them write a sentence or two on an index card describing their ideal library.   Make a list of all the things you would like to accomplish in your library.
Include everything you thing would be happening in an ideal library.
Circle the top ten things you would like to work on.
Rank the top ten in order you would like to work on them.
When ranking consider how likely you might be able to work on this goal, or achieve the desired outcome.  Put at least one goal that you know you can/will accomplish this year.

RULE THREE.  Noticeable. Make sure the goals you choose to work on are noticed.  For yourself, post your top goals where you can see them daily.  For others, choose goals to work on that your teens and your administrators can see and relate to the value of the library you manage.  You want to stay visible and let people see the value that the library, and you as the librarian add to the achievement of students.

RULE FOUR. Developing.  Some of the goals you choose you just won’t get to, will fail, or will not work out the way you had planned.  Make sure at least one of you goals is something that you can and will accomplish.  Perhaps it is a program that you have already piloted successfully and your goal is to expand it.  Nothing breeds success like success and it is important to see that you are setting and reaching goals.  Be flexible when it comes to developing your goals over the year.  I’m going to create a makerspace this year with the 3D printer as the focal point.  As I develop this goal I see how it may be very possible that the students that I am working with in support of this goal may end up being the same students that head up the teen advisory group.  I am planning to develop this goal from the ground up and I see that the need to be flexible when I empower others will be key to the success of these goals.  I can embrace these goals as developing.

KIND goals.  Those are my kind of goals.  Flexible, accessible, accepting and empowering of our school’s teens.  It is the same kind of library I like to foster.  The only way to create a kind school library where young people feel accepted and appreciated is to start with the way we treat ourselves.  If we are realistic about the competing demands for our time as a solo librarian we can begin to set realistic goals that we can  and will achieve.  Good luck as you plan your successes this academic year.

Add a Comment

With the end of summer reading and learning programs on the horizon, thoughts turn to the quickly approaching school year (perhaps with a well-earned vacation in between…).  For front-line public librarians, it’s a new year full of opportunities to make connections with area school library staff.  Perhaps you’ve tried this type of outreach in the past with minimal success; maybe there’s been a staffing change at a school where you’ve had a continuous presence but now you’re not sure how things will go.  If you’re lucky enough to have excellent relationships that will pick up right where you left off…well, leave us your advice in the comments!

This is not a time to be retreating, this is a time to sell your incredible and unique services and support for both students and teachers.  Stepping outside your comfort zone and making a tough cold call, email, or in-person visit can yield amazing results.  Here are some ideas on how you could get started:

• Create a one-sheet that clearly and succinctly lays out what your services are (instruction/database presentations, book talks, lunchtime outreach, etc.).  Include this in a promotional packet with library swag and business cards, and then deliver to school libraries before school starts.
• Browse online staff directories of area schools to identify teachers who might be most likely to take you up on services: traditionally this would be language arts and social studies teachers, but with the STEM/STEAM movement it’s time to expand our message to science and technology teachers.
• Try a lunch time outreach pilot project in conjunction with school library staff.  Book clubs or a presence in the cafeteria with library information and swag bring attention to you and your public library, and also helps create relationships with students and school staff.
• Check in with career and college preparation offices in your high schools to let them know about your resources and services for this population.  You could find out about hosting a booth at college and career fairs.

These ideas all sound great at the outset– but then what?  Patience and perseverance!  Follow up is going to be incredibly important– we don’t want to pester but we want to be sure that our message is heard.  Being aware of any school’s given reality is also important; perhaps they are going through an intense testing year or drastically changing their curriculum.  Both of these situations have impacted my own school outreach in the past, but hooray, it’s a brand new year!  It’s also great to reassure school library workers that we aren’t looking to take over their jobs or their libraries, we want to add value and create relationships that will help students succeed and give teachers additional support.

Further entries in this blog series will be sure to get your gears turning; back to school could become your favorite time of the year!

#backtoschool #libraryoutreach #librarypartnerships

Add a Comment

While many of my public library colleagues are in the midst of their busiest season, I’ve only stepped in my library once since the school year ended (and even then I promptly stepped back out, since the library has no air conditioning). Summers “off” are one of the biggest perks to working in a school, but as any teacher will tell you it’s not all piña coladas and sunscreen. For many of us, summers are the only time we can do vital professional development, including summer courses; for others, summer is a time to pick up another job to make ends meet.

So what does summer look like for this school librarian? 1. Reading. I never feel like I have enough time to read. It’s very rare that I’m reading while I’m at work (it usually only happens when the library is taken over for testing, and even then I’m usually too worried about getting the sideye from colleagues), so summer is usually my biggest reading season. This year for the first time I’ll be working with middle school students along with high schoolers, so I’m trying to take my own crash course in middle grade fiction. One tip if you’re moving into a new age group or just trying to stay current: check out your local schools’ summer reading lists. I like to load my Nook up thanks to the Boston Public Schools lists, conveniently located on the Boston Public Library’s Overdrive catalog.

2. Spending. My district’s budget was frozen last year, which meant I stopped buying new books in February–and unfortunately didn’t spend my entire budget. I’m not about to make that mistake again. I put in my first book order early so that the high school students will be able to walk in the doors to new books, and my predecessor at the middle school was gracious enough to get the first order ready to go so that I could ease my way into buying for the younger audience.

3. Interviewing. While some of my friends are looking for new jobs, I’m looking for a new paraprofessional to support me at both libraries. I’m still a little anxious about the evolution of my job, but interviewing para candidates with assistant principals from both schools has given me a valuable opportunity to have real discussions with my administration about the future of libraries and the role I can play working with this broader range of students. I’m particularly excited about the chance to start the conversations I already have with high school students about research and information literacy with the younger grades.

4. Getting married. Okay, so this one doesn’t happen every summer–hopefully never again!–but planning a wedding has really put my research skills to the test. What’s the market price for oysters? How many tables do you need for 80 guests? In a true testament to my librarian temperament, I put together a massive list of things to do in Boston that lives on our wedding website, complete with color coding for the various T stops.

What does your summer look like? Are you knee-deep in summer programming and reading incentives? Are you still in the classroom at a school with a year-round schedule? Or are you like me, trying to cram all your reading and vet appointments into two months?

Add a Comment

Have you been following #WeNeedDiverseBooks on FB or Tumblr? They’ve been coming up with spot on books pairs this summer.

The WNDB Team has most recently been joined by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton. the Cake Literary Ladies!

You know everything is bigger in Texas, including the state’s annual library conference. TLA has got to be the most popular state library conference in the nation. Call for papers is currently open.

The Américas Award created a list of selected Américas Award titles that highlight issues surrounding children and the border.  This and other thematic guides can be found on the Américas website:www.claspprograms.org/americasaward.  Contribute your activities and titles on our Facebook page: Facebook.com/americasaward.

Children’s laureate Malorie Blackman, authors, illustrators, poets in the UK are part of a movement demanding the government insure a presence of good libraries in all schools.

And in the US? Well, the schools in Chicago all have libraries, but half of them have librarians. The Mayor’s CEO says they can’t find librarians to fill the positions. That reminds me so much of publishers saying they can’t find authors of color. Numerous schools around Indiana have lost librarians, most often in elementary schools. I’ve heard of some schools in the state relying upon the public library to come in and provide library services. Not all librarians are created equal! While both a public and school librarian would be familiar with children’s and young adult literature, the public librarian would work more on programming and not be familiar with the curriculum as a school librarian would. Librarians provide technology training for students and staff, often teaching classes and providing professional development. I don’t know how we think schools can do without them.

Kate DiCamillo is our current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

BrownBookShelf continues the “Making Our Own Market” series with an interview of self published author DuEwa Frazier.

 Eventually, I taught myself how to self-publish. There was no one there to hold my hand through the entire process but I did receive support. I took writing workshops with the late, great poet, Louis Reyes Rivera and was mentored by Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets. I attended many of the Center for Black Literature’s National Black Writers Conference’s early panels and workshops. I later took children’s writing and non-fiction workshops at other centers in the city. I became a part of a community of writers who had academics and cultural consciousness in their backgrounds.

We’re already talking Back to School. Summer here has been slow to warm and it feels like it hasn’t really started yet. Slow to warm and high humidity here makes me wonder how in the world June 2014 could have been the hottest June on record. Ah! To get out of my little bubble! #WeNeedDiverseBooks

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Sunday Reads Tagged: #WeNeedDiverseBoosk, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, school libraries

Display Comments Add a Comment

In these days of budget cuts and less than optimal school libraries and school library staffing, what can a public library system do to help?  Many of us front-line youth and teen services librarians work diligently to make and foster connections with teachers, administrators, and school media specialists with varying degrees of success.  Nearly ten years ago in 2005, my employer, Deschutes Public Library (DPL) ,was ready to take the next step: enter Library Linx.

As stated on DPL’s website,

“Library Linx is a partnership between Deschutes County schools and Deschutes Public Library. It provides the opportunity for students and teachers to place holds on public library materials and have the materials delivered to their school. The materials are then checked out in the school’s media center by the media manager/specialist. It creates library users out of students who might not otherwise be able to visit a public library, and allows for teachers to have quick and easy access to materials that supplement what they have at school.”

While there are other school libraries circulating public library materials, what sets Linx apart are the requirements and participation benchmarks we have put in place to ensure that this program goes beyond materials circulation and enters the realm of an active partnership.  Schools who choose to apply for Library Linx agree to the following:

•  School has regular staffing in the school’s library or media center (communicating the importance of this position to school administrators)
• School library staff will schedule DPL Youth Services Librarians to visit students at least twice per year to provide library resource training that supports the school’s curriculum.
• School library staff will schedule DPL Youth Services Librarians to visit faculty meetings at least once per year to review and promote library resources and services.
• School will support a library card campaign to all students & faculty, with a goal of 80% receiving Linx cards to secure access to DPL databases, place holds, or check out DPL materials at the school.
• School will meet circulation benchmarks to continue on in the Linx program; one probationary year is acceptable.

There are several other requisites addressing user confidentiality, equipment and software needs that support materials circulation, school library staff training on DPL policies and resources, etc.  The biggest challenge, at the start of the Linx program, was getting the commitment of the school courier service to deliver materials to each school.  By encouraging everyone at the table to focus on the ultimate goal of providing library resources to students and teachers we achieved wonderful cooperation.

While accessing public library material at school is an incredible service to students and staff, a valuable synergy develops between Linx schools and the public library through the required in-person visits.   My face time with school staff results in relationships with area teachers who now know they can call or email with an informational need and find support.  Working closely with school media staff leads to new in-school public library programs and increases invitations to open houses and other school-sponsored events.

It is exciting to meet brand new 6^th graders and know that by the time they leave 8^th grade they will have seen me present and geek out about books and library programs at least 6 times.  Requiring these visits as opposed to providing them as an optional opportunity shows schools that we take this project seriously and are committed to increasing awareness about all their local public library has to offer.

A secondary goal for Linx is to also promote the school’s own library; getting school library and media staff involved in Linx puts their work in the spotlight at school.  We have heard anecdotal statements about school library circulation increasing in addition to circulating public library materials, all because library awareness in general is on the rise with students and teachers.

Linx is a highly coveted partnership that now connects DPL with 25 area public schools from at least two school districts.  We have been contacted by numerous private schools for inclusion and will be examining the possibilities for expanding the reach of this program.

How about you?  Are you involved in a great school/library partnership?  I’m looking to cover this topic a bit more in the upcoming year, and will also be looking to the AASL/ALSC/YALSA Joint Committee on School/Public Library Partnerships to provide more resources and ideas.  Leave a comment or drop me a line: aprilw (at) deschuteslibrary (dot) org.

Add a Comment

Something rather nice happened a few weeks ago. I hacking away at the coal face, trying to complete the edits for the third book in my Wild Thing series, when the publisher of my previous book, Wolfie, called to tell me that it had just won a prize – a Fantastic Book Award.

Writing is a funny kind of profession. It’s lonely, insecure, there’s no pension, and you never know if the next book will be taken on – but, being so unpredictable, it does produce its golden moments.

It was a real treat, winning the award. I got a certificate, a fountain pen, letters from the child judges. Best of all, I was invited to the presentation ceremony to meet some of the participating children. I heard what they thought about Wolfie, read their reviews, was stunned by their wonderful Wolfie board games and illustrations, signed their books and led a workshop brainstorming magic animal stories. (I’m tempted to steal some of their brilliant ideas!)

Celebrating the award!

I also got to meet the lovely folks at Lancashire School Library Services (Lancs SLS) who  actually run the award.

So, at this point, you’re probably wondering what this all has to do with the title – Emma supports School Library Services because they gave her a nice day out?

No, no, and no. Encouraging authors, nice though it is, is only a side effect of what School Library Services (SLSs) do. First of all, the point of regional book awards, like the Fantastic Book Award (FBA), is not really about the prize. It’s about the process. And that means the children reading, discussing – enjoying – the books. It’s all about bringing books and children together.  And that is what every School Libraries Service aims to do.

My winning book!

To which some might say – why can’t schools do this without a School Library Service? Just consider the following facts:

 - most primary schools don’t have a librarian
 - most primary schools have limited space for a library, and limited stock
- most primary school teachers are not experts in children’s literature, and so primary schools rarely have someone who can choose stock and advise children on which book to read.

 I know these things because I regularly visit primary schools, and have encountered many “libraries” that consist of little more than a handful of Roald Dahls and Dick King Smiths. I do meet teachers and teaching assistant who are passionate about children’s books and reading – but it is through their own personal interest. Wide knowledge of children’s books does not seem to be considered a key part of the job or its training. (I don’t blame hard-pressed teachers – I do blame an education system which has given so little priority to encouraging children’s reading.)

It’s the children that suffer. Here are some of the things that I have witnessed first hand, the result of primary schools without librarians:
  
 - a Year 3 child struggling and failing to read an ancient copy of Thackeray’s The Rose and The Ring from the school library. Nobody was aware that this was not in fact a young child’s read.
-  a boy giving up on a non-fiction book in disgust because its classifications of dinosaurs was decades out of date. 
- a school library that was revamped by parent volunteers, but where there was no library time, and no chance for children to borrow books, because there was no staff member to oversee this. 
- a school which was over 60% non-white, but where none of the books on the shelves had characters of the same ethnicity/religion as these pupils. 

Here, by contrast, are some of the things I’ve seen with a designated school librarian:

 - children’s reading being guided in a good way – e.g. if you like this, then perhaps you’ll like that: if you like The Rainbow Fairies, maybe you’ll like these books by Emily Rodda (also about fairies but more challenging).
- children able to say “I’m interested in Monet/dinosaurs/space/Greek Myths” and immediately being given something age appropriate that reflects their interest.
- regular library times, for quiet reading, but also finding out what library does and how to use it. 
- a wide range of stock which does not rely completely on just a few well established authors, and which reflects all ages, abilities and interests.

 It’s hard for individual schools to tackle these issues alone. The Society of Authors has been campaigning for every school to have a librarian, a campaign I HUGELY support, but the truth is it’s not going to happen any time soon.

Meanwhile School Library Services (SLSs) provide back up. They are the infrastructure on which individual schools can rely.

What does that mean in practice? Well, the first thing I saw when I visited my local SLS in Leeds was a huge warehouse full of books. There were shelves and shelves in all kinds of categories – and all of these books are available to, and regularly sent out by the box load, to the schools that subscribe to the service.

(A bad back must be an occupational hazard in a SLS!)

A school could phone up and say, “we’re doing a project on transport for Year 4” or “we’re struggling to find books for reluctant readers” or “we need books with Muslim characters” and the SLS would help. SLS staff know the stock. They can advise schools on how to access it, how to create a better school library, and how to create a reading culture in schools. They also organize author visits – so that children can meet authors face to face, and teachers can hear about new books too.

They also organize regional book prizes – like the Fantastic Book Award (FBA). For the schools and children involved, the FBA meant a chance to:

- meet in a weekly group to read and chat about the shortlisted books (chosen to reflect a range of abilities and interests)
- read purely for pleasure and to do other fun things, like post reviews online
- spread the word about the books in school
- let teachers know which new books are out there, and which their pupils enjoy
-  engage in activities like drawing the characters in the books, designing board games and eating chocolate muffins at lunch time! All these things help make reading “cool”.
- correspond with authors and meet them in person.

After the event, I was sent feedback from the children. Here’s a couple of quotes:

This morning was brilliant. Especially when we made the story with Emma Barnes, it was fantastic!

I think today was probably the best day in my life because I saw a real life author!






Unfortunately, School Library Services are closing.  Schools have to subscribe to their services – if they don’t subscribe, the service closes. Many parents don’t know what an SLS is or does, so won't protest – which must make them a soft target for cuts. In my own area, Bradford SLS closed in 2012, and  North Yorkshire SLS is to close next year. Who will step into the gap? Public libraries? They may try (I recently did a wonderful schools’ event organized by Oldham Libraries) but public libraries are also subject to deep cuts.

At a time when the value of reading for pleasure is being recognized and acknowledged – the research evidence for its benefits keeps mounting – it's bitterly ironic that the services needed to support it are being reduced.  I just hope that the politicians and public see what's happening before it's too late.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Emma's new series for 8+ Wild Thing about the naughtiest little sister ever (and her bottom-biting ways) is out now from Scholastic. The second in the series, Wild Thing Gets A Dog is out in July.
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is published by Strident.   Sometimes a Girl’s Best Friend is…a Wolf. 
"A real cracker of a book" Armadillo 
"Funny, clever and satisfying...thoroughly recommended" Books for Keeps


Emma's Website
Emma’s Facebook Fanpage
Emma on Twitter - @EmmaBarnesWrite

Add a Comment

Are you aware of the Hub Reading Challenge? Are you participating this year?
It’s quite the undertaking. Read as many of YALSA’s award-winning, honored, or selected titles from the past year as possible (or at least 25). You know, while reading everything else you want to read and doing your job and living your life outside of work. It’s both exciting and daunting. I signed up for it this year, though with other reading to do for booktalks, articles, and fun, I wasn’t sure if I could complete it (though I had already read many of the books on the list, you can only count the books if you read them during the challenge period). However, I was excited enough to think about inviting my library patrons to participate.

I’m lucky enough to work at a school where encouraging students to read for pleasure isn’t all that difficult. Castilleja is a school for girls in grades 6-12 in Palo Alto, California, and even with their incredibly demanding academic and extracurricular schedules, most of the girls find the time to read for fun, though this is more common with middle schoolers than upper schoolers. We also provide many of the adults on campus, both faculty and staff, with reading material for work and for fun. So when I set out to develop a reading challenge based on the Hub Reading Challenge, I wasn’t sure if it would be overkill or icing on the cake.

It turns out that people (especially middle schoolers and English teachers) will do just about anything if it means they can publicly declare how awesome they are in front of their peers.

Using photoshop and a large-scale color printer, I created a scoreboard with spaces for names and twenty smaller cels, encouraging people to read at least 20 books by the last day of school (June 6). Underneath the chart, I added images of each eligible book. Readers come to my desk any time they finish a book on the list and I give them a star sticker. It seems so simple and almost juvenile, and yet everyone likes looking at the chart and seeing if they’re beating their friend or their teacher (in addition to all three of us librarians signing up, two English teachers, a history teacher, and a math teacher have joined us). Though we officially kicked off on March 4, we’re allowing people to sign up at any time before the end of the school year.

I did make some major modifications from the original challenge to suit our school community’s needs (and my own taste). Since we started a month later than the Hub did, I made the requirement only 20 books, not 25. The Hub’s list of eligible titles is limited to YALSA awards and affiliates, whereas I went a bit more broad. I removed the audiobooks categories, because we don’t have any in our collection (though we don’t have every single print book eligible for the challenge, either), and I added in award winners and honors from each of the ALA’s ethnic caucuses or roundtables. I wanted to be sure there was as much diversity represented as possible, since this is a good way to promote literature that is often otherwise pigeonholed or labeled in such a way that it becomes undesirable. And, of course, I wanted to make sure all the members of the school community felt represented. That means that the books eligible for the reading challenge come from the Alex Awards, Printz Award, Nonfiction Award, Morris Award, Edwards Award, Schneider Family Award, Stonewall Award, Best Fiction for Young Adults, Great Graphic Novels, Popular Paperbacks, and Quick Picks, just like the Hub; plus the Coretta Scott King Awards, Pura Belpré Medal, American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Awards, and Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Book Awards. Titles were omitted if they were for very young readers. Finally – and this took a lot of considering – we decided that readers could count books that they read outside of the challenge period. This choice was made because we decided the point of having the reading challenge in our school community was to raise awareness of how great a world YA literature is, so people should be able to celebrate these books whether they read them now or last year. This, we hoped, would encourage people to join even if they felt 20 books in a less than a semester was too much.

To help participants find the books for the challenge, I created a spreadsheet with a list of all the available titles. They can download this list from our website. Whenever they were available, I added a note with the recommended grade level (from School Library Journal) and noted whether they were part of our collection or not. We also dedicated a display shelf in the library to holding all the eligible books. It’s usually close to empty, because books are always going out as soon as they are returned. On the internal side, I modified the books’ entries in our catalog so that whenever they are checked in, a notification pops up, reminding the person that it’s a reading challenge book so that it won’t be reshelved in the general collection.

A lot of good has come out of this experience, and it’s only just begun. For one, students get to see that their teachers like to read YA, and I hope that they are asking those teachers about their reading during lunch or after class. They also do a lot of advertising for the challenge themselves. If one student comes in and asks for a sticker, her friend might ask what it’s for, and by the end of the explanation, that student usually wants to sign up to play, too. One student asked if she could write a book review for the library website, and I hope more will follow suit. When we don’t have a book a student wants to read, we have a chance to tell them about how public library e-book lending works. Circulation is increasing, and students return books more quickly (partly because they know they are accountable to other students, and partly because they are reading so much and so quickly). We bought 15 new books we had not owned previously. In total, all of the eligible titles (we own 47 of them) had circulated 99 times as of March 26, only three weeks into the challenge.

I think we’re also helping students broaden their reading tastes without feeling like it’s medicine. Many students are reading March: Book 1 or Branded by the Pink Triangle, even those wouldn’t usually pick up nonfiction. Students who seem to be able to smell a grownup book from a mile away are reading novels originally published for adults and finding that they like them. Students I never could have gotten to read graphic novels are trying them out. And, of course, given that I added even more ethnic and gender diversity to the list, those books are flying off the shelves in a way they weren’t before the challenge, even when we put them on displays.

There are, of course, some hiccups and things I would change were I to do it again. I’m not a fan of my original title, the Read Like a Librarian Challenge, and haven’t used it in any context since printing it on the scoreboard poster. I also have not come up with a sustainable method for keeping track of which books people are reading. I wanted to find a sort of tag cloud that could be crowd updated, making titles larger as more and more people read them. When I couldn’t find one, I created a Google Form that people could constantly update, and then I thought I would manually compile the results weekly and put them on our website. But no one wants to fill it out, so that has fallen by the wayside. Word of mouth and individual chats about books are what people seem to want most. I wish, too, that I had sent a message to our parent association inviting them to participate, or at least letting them know about what their kids are doing. I may yet; we still have time before the end of the school year.

If you’re looking for a way to engage both young people and adults (though this is probably easier to manage in a school community than a public library) and for a way to keep yourself more accountable in the Hub Reading Challenge, I heartily encourage you to try hosting the same (or similar) challenge in your library. While the setup can take awhile, the managing of the challenge is easy, and it can open the eyes of readers and nonreaders alike.

Have you ever run a reading challenge (other than summer reading) in your library? How did it go?

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

In our second week of school, we had our first 2013 graduate return from college to visit.

She had popped in on her way from work — she is working a morning shift at fast food and taking 15 semester hours at the community college — and as she looked around our temporary space, she wanted to know when the new school library would become open. “And will it be public?” she said, “I remember they said the library would be public…”

The construction is barely underway, so I told her it would be a while. While the planned space would be available for the community, I wasn’t certain if the library collection would be.

The problem with the library at the community college, she asserted, was there wasn’t anything good to read. “It’s all encyclopedias,” she said.

As I looked at this book-loving girl, a girl who dressed as Effie Trinket for costume day during homecoming week, who was thrilled to tell me that she has the sixth Mortal Instruments book preordered, and I realized I didn’t prepare her for the community college library.

We school librarians tend to worry so much about hoping out students can craft (or generate) the perfect citation, and on inculcating skills like database retrieval and website evaluation that they will need for their college coursework, that we sometimes forget that leisure reading will be along a continuum as well. For students thrust from a library supporting adolescent literacy to a college library organized around the curriculum, those distinctions must seem a rude awakening.

Part of this is my own fault. Beginning my second school year here, I’m still new to the school and the community. I knew more about the resources in the local colleges where I was before, but I have yet to forge that relationship at my new school.

I need a better idea of what the community college does hold, and a contact there with whom I can put our graduating students in touch.

I need a way to wean our graduates off our collections and reader’s advisory, moving them to the really top-notch local public library.

And I need to maintain our digital presence for recommendations, recommendations that might be just as applicable for graduates as current students.

And, actually, I don’t think our school is in a bad situation for transitioning students. Our retired school librarian works at the public library, which is geographically close to the school.

I regret that I let our former student get away without something to read, realizing after the fact that I could have made her a community patron record…but I dropped off The Fifth Wave at her  drive-through later, to keep her reading in the meantime.

Add a Comment

And now back to the present...

The posts in this series came to mind first after a School Library Journal article last year reported  that overall school/public library collaboration was very poor. I wrote a post about tag-team librarianship to share thoughts when that came out. The recent article in SLJ referenced in Part 1 of this series focused on some fairly large libraries and systems with big staff infrastructures - a sure recipe for the vast majority of libraries that serve far smaller populations to feel, "Well, jeez, we can't do that - we so lack those resources/staff/time."

I.do.not.believe.that. No matter size, staff, budget or time, we all can be great partners.

Here and there, over the years, I've heard a few librarians say  they "couldn't get in at the schools". Then a story is shared about how that librarian purchased "useful" teacher books - without consulting school colleagues - and these materials were never checked out. Or I hear that a colleague refuses to collaborate or look for ways to do outreach in the schools because if the public library starts, it will be an excuse to remove school librarians.Or a homework center isn't well-used but in further conversation, I find out that the library has not mentioned a word of it's existence except through in-house PR. The link in all these "fails" is that the public librarian has not talked and listened to, explored or partnered with their school colleagues. Building a service in a vacuum is never a good idea.

If we want to create those links, we truly have to forge a partnership of mutual respect and listening. School colleagues are under alot of pressure. We need to think in ways that address those pressures and make the case that partnerships will benefit kids and staff  and make a positive difference. It's good to be low-maintenance in terms of what we propose or ask of school colleagues. It's worth it to be a good listener and investigator - what is needed; what would help them or what suggestions do they have for us. And I find that flexibility on our part always makes the partnership better.

A first small step can open doors.  Jen the Youth Services Librarian, who started a new job in August, was out in the schools promoting Teen Read Week programs in October. Colleagues I know invite their school partners to breakfast, for cocktails; initiate youth book discussion groups; invite them along to conferences and workshops or to visit the Cooperative Children's Book Center in Madison; give short, snappy presentations at in-services.They set up an occasional meeting with school media colleagues and see what ideas and conversations result.

With Common Core state standards coming into play, there are even more opportunities to chat, talk, plan and collaborate with school colleagues. Many public libraries have strong collections of narrative non-fiction that can be explored and celebrated.

The possibilities are exciting and endless.We can keep the fires burning and do amazing outreach with our school colleagues. Partnerships work - no matter what size library you work at. 

Image: 'Tiki torch'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/83261600@N00/8189871269 Found on flickrcc.net

Display Comments Add a Comment

This is the fourth post in a series I did in 2009 on school and public library cooperation. Any effort we make to partner with schools is a great effort and the simplest thing can reap rich rewards for all the kids in our community!

4/29/09
"But Marge", you say, "we just are so overwhelmed. We want to do great partnerships but time, money, staff and energy are hard to come by. What can we do?" Lots! There are plenty of laid-back partnerships and efforts that even a part-time, one person library staffer can do.

Email Newsletters to School
Periodically mail out a brief, colorful newsletter to school staff (through each school's office - with permission of the principal of course) with children's lit or book news; services you offer; invites to take field trips to the library; suggestions of great new book read-alouds and maybe an announcement or two of perfect programs for school-agers. This kind of communication breaks down barriers and let's your colleagues know about the library and your services and collections.

Invite Classes to Visit
Field trips are fun and you can make them more inviting by using a stuffed book character as tour host for younger kids (Clifford; Very Hungry Caterpillar; Maisy) or jazzing up field trips for older kids by exploring non-fiction and making origami or cataloging and shelving the kids or playing Book Character Bingo in the fiction. Make the library fun and they will come!

Outreach Visits to the Schools
These are absolute bread-and-butter! Outreach gets you out of the library and into the schools where kids are. Offer to come to Literacy Nights and Parent Nights, do storytelling at schools, present book talks - and leave the books in the classroom for a month for kids to devour - and never forget - summer reading promotional visits are some of the best times to reach out to kids and entice them into good reading fun in the summer.

Art Displays
Offer to transform the library into an art gallery for student art and host a reception for the young artists and their families. Art teachers are often looking for end-of-the-year venues to display their students' creativity and the library makes a great gallery!

Book Lists
We often develop these to help staff and patrons find goodies in the collection. But consider developing graded booklists before summer and distributing to the schools. By recommending books that are age appropriate and in the collection, you make kids successful searchers during the summer for reads. Many teachers support these efforts and would love a list like this.

No matter where you are in partnerships with your schools, these ideas can really sparkle and help you create closer relationships with your school colleagues. A big tip of the hat to all my peeps on PUBYAC for sharing ideas and making me think about the vitality of school and library partnerships!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 5

Display Comments Add a Comment

This is the third in a series of blog posts I wrote in 2009 sharing ideas that worked for us when I worked in a library in a smallish (15k) community. I believe no matter what size the library, staff or budget, amazing collaborations can make a win-win situation happen for kids. Into the wayback machine, my friends!

4/21/09
Now you are cooking - teachers use your services, you have some great partner mojo working....what else can you do to make your school partnerships smoke?

School-Created Programs
Talk to school staffers who have cool hobbies, skills, passions and see if they would like to be part of a program or present a program for kids - or be open to them suggesting programs. It is amazing what colleagues who are knowledgable in how to talk to and reach kids can do. I have had teachers present Japanese and German culture programs for kids, a National Adoption Day program, as well as spearheading a monthly bi-lingual Spanish program series.

Shared Book Collections
If you and your school library media colleagues identify a mutual area of both of your collections that need beefing up, consider sharing a collection. We wrote a small grant for easy readers (90 at each school) housed at the schools Sept-May and then at the public library during the summer rush. It was a wonderful project and when we no longer needed to share the collection, simply divided it up between the public library and schools. It took a little oversight but really worked well to make more materials available to kids.

Kids as Book Buyers
What's better than getting a kids-eye-view of what books your collection should have. Book buying with kids for the library is a treat. We worked with our schools to identify at-risk third grade readers to join a public library club and visit a bookstore to select a non-fiction book for the public library. The kids picked carefully, we let them keep the books in their classroom for the first month and then had a party at the public library where the books were housed in a special display. It made a huge difference to the kids and us!

Early Literacy Projects
Gaining school support for library efforts to prepare kids for success in school is golden. If we can make the sale and help staffers see how we are helping them by working with preschoolers to increase literacy, school staffers can become our strongest advocates. It's worth the effort to bring them on board in initial efforts - or ask for a place at the table as they are planning literacy activities so you can let them know how many preschoolers and their families that you see!!

We'll tamp our fire down to embers for our final post and look at some simple ways to be a great partner even if you have no time, money or staff.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5

Display Comments Add a Comment

Display Comments Add a Comment

I have no teaching qualifications. I'm not an educational expert. But simply through being a children’s writer (and in addition, a parent) I’ve been drawn into taking an interest in the latest raft of proposals about our children’s education.

It started with a phone call from my local radio station, BBC Radio Leeds. What did I think about children learning poetry by heart, they asked. Huh? Was my highly articulate reply. The truth was I didn’t have a worked out opinion, but learning poetry by heart is one of the proposals in the new Gove paper on primary education, and so (the radio station reckoned, not unreasonably) as a children’s writer, and one who regularly goes into schools, I really ought to have a view.

So, I read the proposals. I went on air. And I’ve been stunned by the conviction – almost vitriol – that seems to characterise the debate. Learning poetry was an essential art, inducting children into the rhythm of the language, giving them discipline and the lasting gift of verse that their grandparents enjoyed, one side thundered. Drilling kids in poetry was a regressive step, designed to humiliate them, and destroy their love of learning, thundered the other. The trouble is, as with most educational debates, it never seems to me as cut and dried as the opposing camps suggest. It could be a good idea. But a lot depends on the way it’s done.

Around the same time, the Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, was circulating a petition for children’s writers to sign, condemning the provisions on phonics in the same government document. (Read the petition here.) Once more, I felt uncomfortable. Rosen is one of the most articulate critics of Gove’s approach to education in general.

 But...my own impression is that phonics can be helpful. I doubt that - as Rosen sometimes seems to imply – exposure to storytelling and being surrounded by books is enough to get kids reading. Not at first. I’ve watched my own child learn to read. I’ve talked to other parents. And I’ve talked to dyslexia tutors, who often advocate a structured approach.

Above all, as a writer, I’ve visited plenty of primary schools, and met the children who are struggling to read at a level appropriate to their age. That’s desperately sad.

It’s left me feeling that, as a children’s writer, I’m not confident to weigh in on reading methodologies. The important thing is not ideology, but what works. I’d like others to make that decision, based on the very best evidence out there. (Not an easy task I know.)

Where I DO have a strong conviction, and where I strongly agree with Michael Rosen’s petition, is on the importance of reading for pleasure. Once children have mastered the basics of reading – by whatever methodology – they need to enjoy it. Otherwise they won’t read. And they must, if they are to become truly literate, educated people, capable of understanding the world around them – the world that lies beyond their own narrow experience.

As many people, including Michael Rosen and the Society of Authors, have pointed out, it is scandalous that the government, which is so ready to impose targets and objectives generally, is prepared to give no more than lip-service to the idea of “reading for pleasure”. The government acknowledges the vast body of research supporting its importance. Every school should be encouraging it, they say. Yet none of the concrete measures needed to encourage it are in place.

What is needed? It’s simple really.

1. Every school should have a library. Schools make space for computers – but books are far cheaper, and what children need if they are going to read is books.
2. Every school should have a librarian.Somebody on the staff of every school should have the job of understanding which children’s books are out there, choosing the stock, and guiding the children to the books that might interest them. That also means they need the budget and the training. It shouldn’t depend on luck – that there is somebody on the teaching team that has that special interest – as it does at the moment. 

It would make such a huge difference. It really would. So, I say forget about the ideology. The arguments about whether six year olds should be reciting Longfellow, or following whichever brand of phonics.

GET THE BOOKS TO THE CHILDREN 

It’s not rocket science. It’s something surely on which we can all agree.

Emma's web-site
Emma's latest book is Wolfie.

Display Comments Add a Comment

What are your thoughts on the Accelerated Reader program? Are you familiar with this system many schools use to promote reading? Stop by Project Middle Grade Mayhem today, and join the discussion.

For those of you participating in the free, at-home writing conference WriteOnCon, be sure to stop by tomorrow at 5:30 EDT to see a video on publishing put together by The Class of 2k12!

Display Comments Add a Comment

So glad you asked that question. Click on this link and find out 100 Things Kids Will Miss If They Don't Have a School Librarian.

As a former school librarian, I know how important school libraries are--and the people who run them. Studies continue to show that students score better on achievement tests in schools with professionally staffed librarians. Across the curriculum, librarians aid students at their individual levels and needs.

Don't shortchange your students. At a time of budget cuts in many school districts, fight to keep the libraries well-stocked and well-staffed. Every school needs a great library and a great librarian!

Add a Comment

The U.S. Department of Education is currently seeking peer reviewers for the 2011 Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant program. The Department has set February 4, 2011 as the deadline for receiving resumes of potential reviewers.  The announcement is available here:

• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/lsl/lslpeers2011.doc , or at the LSL Web site:
• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/lsl/applicant.html

The DOE is interested in broadening their pool of reviewers to include individuals with experience in tying new media to effective instruction. For questions, please contact:

David Moore Miller

Education Program Specialist
US Department of Education
202-453-5621
[email protected]