We all know about the summer reading slide. This summer, 180 students from two Buffalo (NY) suburban school districts spent four weeks with grad students working on their reading and writing skills, hoping to reverse that effect.
University at Buffalo Grad Students Help Kids Improve Literacy Skills Over the Summer
By on August 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
A Librarian’s Reason 2 Smile: A Visit to the Jambo Jipya Academy in Kenya
By on August 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
Back in the fall of 2010, SLJTeen reported on one librarian’s dream to build a library at the Jambo Jipya Academy in Mwtapa, Kenya with the assistance of the organization Reason2Smile. The fundraising is almost complete and Jambo Jipya is hoping to expand and purchase the land adjacent to the school to become the future home of the school library. Donna Rosenblum brings us up to date on her quest to build that library.
Secrets of Storytime: 10 Tips for Great Sessions from a 40-year Pro
By on August 8, 2013 1 Comment
Storytime is the premium service for children in public libraries across the country. For many youth librarians, it’s the most treasured part of their job. A storytime veteran shares her best practices.
Urban Teen Fiction Flip Books Show Two Points of View | Giveaway
By on July 22, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Lockwood Lions crosstown rivals, the Grovehill Giants, seem to have it all. Or do they? When the cheer squad and the football players get together, it always gets intense. But there are two sides to every story—whose side are you on? Five lucky winners will get a collection of leveled readers, including the new Truly Fine/Forever Hot from Saddleback.
Pictures of the Week: Michelle Kwan Helps Kick Off ‘Let’s Read! Let’s Move!’
By on July 17, 2013 Leave a Comment
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan hosted the first Let’s Read! Let’s Move! event of 2013 on Wednesday, July 10, at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters in Washington, D.C. Along with Rep. John Kline of Minnesota; Sam Kass, executive director of Let’s Move!; and Michelle Kwan, member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition and Olympic figure skater, the celebrity guests read to a group of students. Kwan then led the children in a session of fun, physical activities.
Fight the Summer Slide—with a Library Card | Annie Murphy Paul
By on July 16, 2013 Leave a Comment
How to counter the “summer slide”? Simple, kids during the out-of-school months should read more books, according to journalist and author Annie Murphy Paul. And libraries play a critical role
Read, Play, Grow!: Enhancing early literacy at Brooklyn Public Library
By on July 8, 2013 7 Comments
Research has long supported the importance of play in early literacy, yet many parents remain mystified about how to engage with young children in fun activities, particularly at the pre-verbal stage. Enter the library.
IMLS Says Libraries Key to Early Learning
By on June 20, 2013 Leave a Comment
The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading today unveiled a new report on the role of museums and libraries in early learning, and issued a call to action for policymakers, schools, funders, and parents to include these institutions in comprehensive early learning strategies.
Bank Street Writers Lab Hosts Early Literature Conference
By on April 24, 2013 Leave a Comment
Lovers of children’s picture books and early literacy advocates gathered earlier this month at Bank Street College for “Literature for Early Childhood: What Do You Need to Know?” an inaugural mini conference sponsored by the Bank Street Writers Lab. The event brought together child development experts, educators, and creators of children’s literature.
Librarians Celebrate World Read Aloud Day
By on March 7, 2013 2 Comments
From Belarus to Brooklyn, the world’s students, teachers, and librarians marked the fourth annual World Read Aloud Day on Wednesday with a diversity of celebrations and special events. The special day was created by Pam Allyn and Lit World, a nonprofit organization she founded that encourages a global celebration of the invaluable practice of reading aloud.
(Mis)Guided Reading | Consider the Source
By on February 13, 2013 1 Comment
Marc Aronson explores the fundamental clash between guided reading and Common Core.
SLJTeen Talks to James Patterson
By on February 5, 2013 Leave a Comment
In addition to best-selling mysteries and thrillers for adults, James Patterson also writes for young readers, and he’s extremely proud of his “Middle School” series. The latest entry, I Funny, is told from the point of view of a middle schooler who uses humor to help him cope with a physical handicap and the loss of his family. In this case, laughter really is the best medicine for Jamie Grimm, the narrator of I Funny.
YA Underground: Books for Teens You Might Have Missed
By on January 15, 2013 2 Comments
Although I didn’t come up with this column’s name—YA Underground—I’m appreciating it more and more. The kids I serve are living underground both metaphorically and literally. My library is in a 350-bed lockdown facility Amy Cheney juvenile cellthat serves adolescents ages 11 to 19, and it’s in one of three rooms with windows. I have the only room with windows that are at eye level. The sunlight streams in and looking out, you can see trees, grass, clouds, sky, and sunsets beyond the barbwire. When Jonas (not his real name), an avid manga fan, was in the library on his every-other-week visit, I heard him describe the library as “a lonely bright spot.” He was talking about books—but aren’t books windows?
SLJ Reviews Rosen’s ‘Financial Literacy’ Database | Digital Resources January 2013
By on January 1, 2013 1 Comment
“ How long will it take me to pay off my credit card?” “How do I create a budget?” “What is a trade deficit?” Students can find the answers to these and many other financial questions using Rosen’s most recent entry into the digital realm.
NCTE Roundup, Two
By on December 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
If your school or public library is looking for some ideas for teen programming, the following sessions from NCTE’s recent annual conference are bound to inspire you. While most of the presenters focused on older teens, their programs can also be adapted for middle schoolers. And there are many more sessions that can be explored on NCTE’s 2012 website, such as But I Hate Poetry, Using Signal Words in Graphic Novels for Sequence and Cause/Effect, or Ah Ha Allusions!—Pop Culture Allusions & Dystopian Literature, to name just a few.
NCTE Round Up, One
By on November 21, 2012 Leave a Comment
Over the next few issues of SLJTeen, I’ll be posting brief summaries of many of the sessions I attended at the annual National Council of Teachers of English annual conference, held in Las Vegas, Nov.15-18, 2012. Hand-outs for many of the sessions are available from the NCTE 2012 website. This round up includes sessions on nonfiction resources for English teachers, literacy efforts for incarcerated youth and adults, and faeries in young adult literature.
Embracing National Novel Writing Month, Librarians Help Kids Turn Off their “Inner Editor”
By on October 31, 2012 Leave a Comment
Thousands of students are meeting the challenge to start and complete a novel over the course of a month this November for National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). Librarians and teachers trying to get students interested in writing have a ton of resources from the Young Writers Program, including lesson plans that align to the Common Core.
Tweet What You Write
By on October 18, 2012 1 Comment
To expand how learners think about writing, national literacy and educational groups are asking teachers, librarians, writers, children and creators of all kinds to share what they write on Twitter on Friday, October 19, using the hashtag #whatiwrite.
Gangs, Drugs, and Renewal: Self-published Memoirs Offer Hope to Troubled Teens
By on October 1, 2012 6 Comments
Ten teens, ages 16 to 17, dressed in tan pull-on pants and dark blue sweatshirts with “Alameda County Juvenile Hall” stamped across their chests, are in my library, crowding around me and talking all at once.
“He said he was hit with an electrical cord, but in the book he says it was a snakeskin belt,” says one boy, pouncing on a disparity between what an author told us when he recently visited and what he wrote in his memoir.
The Other America: Giving Our Poorest Children the Same Opportunities as Our Richest
By on August 1, 2012
Over the past five years, I’ve returned to the New York neighborhood in which I met the children whom I first described in Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace, and other books I published in the 1990s. The neighborhood is called Mott Haven. It’s the poorest section in all of the South Bronx, which is the poorest Congressional district in America.
