Summer reading programs

Library summer reading programs are one of those things that the public intrinsically believes to be good. While public libraries are constantly asked to prove that they are still useful and relevant, I do not see many instances where libraries are challenged to prove the worth of summer reading programs specifically.

A post on the State of Delaware Division of Libraries blog looks at a three-year study performed at the New York State Library whose results may call into question the widespread effectiveness of summer reading programs. While the study applauds the effects of summer reading programs, it also suggests that libraries may need to do more for disadvantaged youth to combat the “summer slide.” Students from a higher socioeconomic background generally have more access to books and encouragement outside of school already. Their participation in summer reading programs is of course advantageous, however, engagement in some sort of summer curricular activity may be more critical for youth who do not have “positive reading practices, and connections with institutions supportive of self-discovery and reading” outside of the classroom.

A second article I examined this week from School Library Journal, titled Flipped!: Want to Get Teens Excited about Summer Reading? Just Add Video proposed an innovative way to spark teen interest in reading programs. I was particularly interested in this article as I often wonder if traditional summer reading programs actually entice alliterate teens into picking up a book. The opportunity to win free passes and novels might be enticing for a kid who already loves to read, but I don’t think a movie ticket is enough to get non-readers to suddenly pick up a book. To solve this very problem, the King County Library System (Washington) created a Read.Flip.Win. program, which asked teens to create video trailers for their favorite reads. As the author affirms, this spin on a traditional summer reading program appealed to existing patrons, but drew new library users as well. The librarians were especially impressed with how at ease their young patrons were with this medium. Also, even though the library purchased some flip-style video cameras so that patrons without the necessary technology could still participate, they found that very few participants needed the library’s cameras. It would therefore be interesting to know if participants were primarily middle- or upper-class teens.

However, it still remains, in my humble opinion, that getting kids to read or even just visit the library under any circumstance (and at any time of year) can never have negative consequences.

Wooten, J. (2009). Flipped!: Want to Get Teens Excited about Summer Reading? Just Add Video. School Library Journal, 55(5), p. 38-40.

Marketing to tween girls

This week, I explored two articles relating to marketing practices and tween girls. According to the first article, Tweens: A billion dollar market by Rebecca Leung, “25 million kids, between the age of 8 and 13, form the most powerful consumer group since the baby boom.” Clearly, marketers are paying special attention to the attitudes and tastes of this age group.

Leung discloses that marketing firm Girls’ Intelligence Agency (GIA) infiltrates slumber parties by providing “Alpha Girls” as young as eight with boxes of never before released products to share with their friends. To me, this takes product placement, already rampant in movies, video games and television programs, to a whole new level. This article was my first encounter with these “slumber parties” and I immediately wondered what role parents played in allowing such direct marketing to their daughters. My question was answered by the second article, How Young Is Too Young: Marketing To The Tween Generation, published by the Journal of Business Case Studies: “The Tween and mom act as one consumer.” Parents want their kids to be comfortable and happy, and with the large amount of disposable income many families have, parents can provide their tweens with the products to facilitate this.

Of course I would love if companies sent me boxes of goodies to share with my friends, but as an adult, I would be aware of the companies’ motivations for doing so. I’m unsure if an eight-year-old can be as savvy of a consumer. The Journal of Business Case Studies article presents several questions for consideration:

• “Is it wrong for a company to target tweens with clothing options that many (e.g., parents, teachers, school principals, etc.) would consider inappropriate for their age?”
• “Does the nature of tween market bring more pressure on the retailers to adopt a higher ethical approach?”

I think our society has struggled for decades with what is and is not appropriate for children, but this concern is now magnified with the fairly recent increase in marketing aimed at tweens.

Are our kids losing their creativity?

“Preschool children, on average, ask their parents about 100 questions a day. Why, why, why—sometimes parents just wish it’d stop. Tragically, it does stop. By middle school they’ve pretty much stopped asking.”

The above is a quote from a recent Newsweek story, The Creativity Crisis, which highlights the sharp decline in creativity seen in America’s children. Between the time spent devouring video games and television and the pressure on our schools to meet standards, the article opines, America’s children are lucky to master reading, writing and arithmetic. Even China, known for its strict learn and repeat standards, has recognized the need to foster imagination and invention to make upcoming generations marketable in the workforce.

Personally, the projects and papers I remember most were the ones that required us to step outside the cycle of memorization and regurgitation. I can’t tell you offhand who was president in 1896, but I can tell you the results of my sixth grade science fair project. I also saw in my younger brother the failure of the school system to nurture those with more creative brains. My brother was expelled from high school after shutting down the school district’s entire computer system. He was bored out of mind, close to failing out, but was smart enough to manipulate a protected computer network. (Do I sound like too much of a proud sister?)

Today’s employers want innovators and go-getters, but those entering adulthood have rarely been asked to step into those roles. Budget cuts have forced schools to enlarge class sizes, meaning students will receive even less personalized attention. On a positive note, I see many school districts are now offering specialized academies, such as nursing, law and theater, to nurture those students who want to pursue a special interest. As always, though, parents can “make up the difference” and encourage free thinking and creativity (with some boundaries, of course) at home.

The TARGET Method: Getting Tweens Excited about Reading

Chapter 4 in Teri Lesesne’s Naked Reading presents the TARGET method (Trust, Access, Response, Guidance, Enthusiasm, and Tween Appeal) as a way to get tweens to (re)discover a love for reading. It is obvious that Lesesne has ample experience working with this age group and truly enjoys it. Lesesne provides easy, concrete suggestions for each of the six steps in the TARGET process. I don’t want to repeat Lesesne’s recommendations verbatim, so I will highlight just a couple of my favorites:

• “Do not try to find books that address problem students might be having in class.”

This was a timely reminder for me, as I was completing the review below on Ida B., about a young girl whose mother is diagnosed with cancer. My first inclination was that Ida B. would be an invaluable choice for tweens who have had similar experiences in their own families. But after reading Lesesne’s suggestion, I realized that the last thing children dealing with a terminal illness in their family want is a heart-wrenching story. They would most likely prefer something light and humorous instead.

• “Print out a master list of possible questions and have students keep that list in their notebooks.”

In addition to a list of broad questions for students to consider as they read, I would also suggest keeping a blank sheet of paper directly in the book and keeping a pencil handy. That way, if the student has a favorite quote, a question about something that happened in the book, or an idea for a paper or project, they can quickly jot it down and continue reading. Of course, if a book is completely for pleasure and there is no reporting required upon completion, then these suggestions should be ignored! As Lesesne also suggests, not every book kids read should have a paper or project connected to it. Sometimes, it is okay to finish a book and just move on.

Although Naked Reading is aimed primarily at teachers, parents and librarians can apply these suggestions in the home or library, since Lesesne stresses the importance of having books everywhere. Have books available in the classroom, at home, and even in the car. Families can find great audio books for road trips and discuss the story together. Also, parents and teachers should constantly demonstrate reading for pleasure.

Finally, as a side note, I recently completed a group project on the effects of teen comic books in libraries. We came across a great case study in our research (Gorman, M. (2009). Comics in the Curriculum: Math, Science and History. Library Media Connection, 28(3), 36), demonstrating one teacher’s use of the graphic novel version of Beowulf alongside the traditional version. In one of her reading lists, Lesesne recommends the graphic novel based on Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Although I still am not sure there is ever a replacement for actually reading “The Canon,” bringing these new techniques and formats into the classroom seems like an excellent idea for getting tweens excited about reading.

Best friends and bullying

Ypulse recently posted a discussion on a New York Times story wherein the potential negative effects of tween and teen best friends are highlighted. (Last week, my professional reading post also included an article from The New York Times. See, newspapers and traditional news sources are still relevant, whether we access them in print or online!) Apparently, some schools have even gone as far as to separate best friends whose relationship is viewed as unhealthy to themselves or other students. The discussion about social cruelty among teenagers, and especially girls, is not new. In fact, the author of the Ypulse article makes a reference to Regina George, the lead character in the movie Mean Girls, which is based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabees by Rosalind Wisemand published in 2002.

We all know that middle school is rife with cliques. The power of the group can build one’s confidence if they are part of that ‘in” crowd or greatly damage one’s self-esteem if they are on the other side. We may have been one of the queen bees, comfortably seated at the top of the middle school social ladder. We may have been one of the outsiders, subject to ridicule by those queen bees but still wishing to be one of them. We may have tried to stay low on the radar of potential bullies. Or we may have been all of those at some point, since as often happens, middle schoolers explore many different identities and social circles in trying to define a sense of self.

The quick and easy fix of simply separating “bffs” (either by not placing them in the same in-class groups or on the same sports teams, or by placing them in different classes altogether) seems like it would create more issues than it would solve. As the Times article opines, "If children’s friendships are choreographed and sanitized by adults, the argument goes, how is a child to prepare emotionally for both the affection and rejection likely to come later in life?" Perhaps teachers need to address the root of the problem and provide lessons to students or administrators need to give school-wide assemblies on bullying. Separating two queen bees is only a temporary solution and, again, does not address the real issue of why tweens and teens need to so viciously distinguish “in” and “out” crowds. I can’t say I have an answer. There have always been popular crowds and has always been bullying to a certain degree. It is hard to say if the extent of cliquishness and bullying is actually greater or if the media and society are simply now more aware of the issue.

Minors and First Amendment rights

The focus on my discussion this week was spurred by three readings relating to minors’ access to information:

The first is a memorandum from the ALA titled Minors’ Rights to Receive Information Under the First Amendment, which was shared by our professor for this course, Mary Ann Harlan. Since I work in a law office, I really enjoyed reading about the case law behind censorship in schools and libraries. From what I can discern, the case law leaves a lot of room for interpretation as to what material is constitutionally protected when it comes to minors. While the task is slightly easier for school librarians, who must determine if something is “educationally unsuitable,” public librarians are constantly in the precarious position of making judgment calls without such clear guidelines. If a minor asks for a website to be unblocked, how does the librarian determine whether or not to do so? Does a picture book about a child with homosexual parents belong among the general population of children’s books or does it belong elsewhere? Unfortunately, I don’t believe the job of librarians when it comes to minors and questionable material will ever get any easier, since definitions of obscenity will always be subject to individual interpretation.

Second, in response to the professor’s post, a classmate posted this article from the Contra Costa Times reporting that Bastard Out of Carolina was pulled from an AP English class in Fremont, California.

Bastard Out of Carolina was not assigned reading for me until college and it was still very challenging for me to read. (The lead character, Bone, is a young girl who faces physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of her mother’s husband.) Unfortunately, the hardships which Bone endures are a reality for too many people. But reading is an avenue for learning about lives outside of our own sphere, even if it is difficult for us to swallow. Whenever a person reads a book about experiences different from their own, they are increasing their awareness, empathy, and understanding towards others. I can understand the AP teacher’s motivation behind assigning this challenging yet powerful book and do not think it should have been removed from the curriculum. Interestingly, the Fremont Unified school board has adopted a policy of not reconsidering banned books for two years…

Finally, over at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy, blogger Liz B recently posted a discussion on the removal of a LGBT children’s book from library shelves in Burlington County, New Jersey.

First, I should preface by stating that I have not personally read Revolutionary Voices, the controversial book in question. However, I find it highly doubtful that any middle or high schooler (or even young child, really) who might come across this book would be shocked or traumatized by its contents. The reality is that many queer youth need to hear that they are normal and can be empowered and inspired by hearing from teens like themselves. Frankly, I am quite appalled that a public library in 2010 would deem such a book so outrageous that it needs to be removed from even the adult non-fiction section.

Whew, I certainly have an increased respect for young adult librarians this week! My professional experience in a public library has mainly focused on the children’s department, where the issue of appropriate versus inappropriate is much more straightforward. With the developmental stages of tweens and teens being so varied, it is difficult for librarians to know what is appropriate to recommend. I think the role of school and public libraries is summed up nicely in the 1969 Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (which is quoted in the ALA article discussed above): “In our system, students may not be regarded as closed-circuit recipients of only that which the State chooses to communicate.”

Indeed!

An article review: Teens & Social Networking in School & Public Libraries

Professor Harlan posted a link via Twitter to a YALSA handbook titled Teens & Social Networking in School & Public Libraries: A Toolkit for Librarians and Library Workers (read the full text here), and the topic instantly caught my interest. One of the key tenets of librarianship is to provide open access to information for all. But librarians, and especially children’s and young adult librarians, are often asked by parents, administration, and the community to step into the role of monitor or gatekeeper when it comes to younger patrons. Should libraries provide open access to social networking sites on library computers? If a minor comes across something inappropriate while using a library computer, who is to blame?

In this handbook, YALSA argues that the benefits to teens using social networking sites far outweigh the potential dangers. By allowing them to develop social networking skills, they can be more connected with their teachers, peers, and parents. Further, libraries can become more connected with those teen patrons who might not visit the physical library, but will instant message questions to the librarian and search online databases. I really liked the suggestion of having social networking workshops in the library, where teens can assist adults in setting up a Flickr account or creating a blog.

The handbook also lists several examples of schools and libraries successfully integrating social networking in creative ways. I might be behind the times, but this was the first time I had looked at a custom social network, created and managed by its members. I second YALSA’s recommendation to check out Rock Creek Academy’s Ning site.

For me, this handbook demonstrated once again that the preferred platform for social networking may change (from Myspace to Twitter to Facebook to blogging), but social networking will continue to open doors for connections between teens, schools, and libraries. As long as children and teens are educated about the potential dangers of having an online presence, librarians and teachers should continue to advocate for social networking as a successful learning tool.