Get Teens Hooked With Summer Reading Blogs
RSSBy Lauren Barack
Give kids a summer reading assignment, and you'll hear them whine. But let them blog about it and the task can turn to delight. "They can read anything they want," says Jenn Hosking, a teen services librarian for the Nashua Public Library in New Hampshire, which each summer hands its blog over to Teen Reads, a program that gives young adults the opportunity to have their opinions posted online. "I know the teen advisory group likes the ability to publish their reviews." This summer one teen wrote—and published—24 reviews, a nice chunk of the 283 reviews posted to the site since school let out this spring, says Hosking. While teens can turn each review in for a chance to win movie passes and gift certificates, more importantly, online reviews are a platform where they can share their thoughts with peers on books, including Katherine Patterson's Bread and Roses, Too (Clarion, 2006) and Nicholas Sparks' The Last Song (Grand Central Publishing, 2009), both of which appear on Nashua's site. Although summer reading assignments are a staple across K-12 schools, teachers and librarians know all too well that if the summer slide kicks in, idle minds slide backward when it comes to literacy skills and other subjects. However, trying to find ways to turn what can feel like drudge work into an engaging experience can be as simple as giving them the tools to have their voices—and opinions—heard. Erica Sternin, a youth services manager for the Seattle Public Library, also finds that by giving students a way to express their opinions online, they grow more engaged in the materials they're learning—and drive more traffic to Seattle's "Push to Talk" blog, which gets between 1,500 and 1,900 page views a month. Since launching the blog in October 2007, Sternin has also added a podcast link allowing teens to record, edit, and post interviews with authors and other topics on the site. "[Podcasts] get a huge amount of traffic, have a ton of subscriptions, and get downloaded all the time," she says. "We're constantly looking for ways to have more teen-created content because it's developmentally appropriate for teens." The trick, says Nashua Library's Hosking, is to give teens some guidelines, but primarily allow them to read and write what they want. She doesn't force students to pick from required lists, preferring to have them choose and then create reviews from a wide range of reading levels. And while she'll pick up the digital red pen on occasion to make minor spelling or grammatical corrections, Hosking believes allowing students to have their voice means letting them express themselves as they want—most of the time. "We want them to write as if it were a paper, in complete sentences," she says. "But sometimes they write in text speak, and sometimes we leave it. Because we know the kids will read it." Our <a href="http://www.catconnection2.com"> cat connection </a> is made with the the highest quality materials and your cat will have so much fun. We have been in the business for 25yrs and we believe we have perfected the craft. * = Required information
The teen reading room at Nashua Public Library.
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Posted by catz meow on November 30, 2011 02:56:27AM
