In the real world, how often have you read a chapter, an article, or a blog post and immediately thought the best way to make sense of what you just read is to answer discussion questions or write an essay? Contrast that with the number of times you’ve read something that resonated with you—maybe it thrilled or even haunted you—and then instantly sought someone to share your thoughts with. Or perhaps you sat still after reading, letting yourself fill with feelings first, and then turned those feelings into drawing, music, or even dance. When a text moves a young reader in a significant way, we see them respond to texts in a variety of ways that are more authentic than answering prewritten discussion questions or answering a writing prompt. We see them laugh aloud and physically imitate characters actions or voices. We see them using cushions and giant blocks to…
Author: School-Age Programs and Services Committee
Roll the Dice: Get Outside Your Comfort Zone with School Aged Programs and Services!
As librarians serving school-aged children, it can be easy to stick to our comfort zone with the tried and true programs that we have done in the past or with programs that are on topics that we personally know a lot about. It is also tempting to stick with programs that have all the pieces in place to run smoothly instead of introducing new programs. I am here to encourage you to get outside your comfort zone with new programming, to stretch yourself into new areas, and to try an “everything is beta” approach to programming! I will share about an after-school program that has caused me to stretch outside my comfort zone with my middle school students and offer some tips for making such programs work. When I began working at my middle school, a small group of parents were running an afterschool program for Dungeons & Dragons players. …
Back to School with School Corps
Got school outreach on your mind? You’re not alone. For 25 years, the Multnomah County Library School Corps team has helped students thrive in Oregon’s most populous county. Founded in 1997, School Corps began as a way to maintain the library’s connection with youth. According to the library’s website, “the team has reached more than 83,000 students with 131,000 books, saving 8,700 hours of educator time.” School Corps, which currently consists of a team of three staff, provides a menu of programs and services to K-12 schools. Many of these programs and services existed during its inception but have adapted with the times. Sample menu items include: Buckets of Books: 24-30 books on a topic plus a teacher’s guide Assignment alert: discover a new booklist, collection, or list of websites Presentations: covering a multitude of topics and library resources In honor of School Corps’ milestone and the start of a…
Family Hikes with the Simsbury Land Trust
This summer, the Simsbury Public Library, CT successfully facilitated a Family Hike in partnership with the Simsbury Land Trust. Here’s how we did it, and why we think you should consider planning a family hike too. Health and wellness programs are always a good idea and outdoor programming has exploded in popularity since the pandemic. After 2+ years, we’ve fully mastered outdoor storytimes, outdoor music and movement, and outdoor art programs, but a hiking program was something relatively new to us. Simsbury, CT has an abundance of beautiful natural places, parks, and trails, but some are more visible and well-known than others. Enter the Simsbury Land Trust. We are fortunate that the Land Trust in our community is an active and thriving organization. Founded in 1976, the Simsbury Land Trust is a federally-recognized, not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Governed by a volunteer board of trustees elected by the membership, the Simsbury…
Introducing Dungeons and Dragons to School-Aged Children
“You wake up groggy for your turn at watch. The dream you had before you woke still plays within your mind. You can hear the rustling of leaves off to your left– it’s probably just a small animal hunting for food. Suddenly, the sounds of the forest around you go silent, unnaturally silent. You stand up to take a closer look when you hear it, the soft flapping of large wings getting closer and closer and closer. What do you do?” At this point, the player has to make a decision. They could ignore the sound of wings coming closer, they could wake up a friend and see if they hear the same thing, or they could even go investigate alone. (Or they could come up with some off the wall thing to do that completely surprises the Dungeon Master, you never know with kids.) The player makes their decision…
Summer Programming with the Library of Congress
Along with my colleagues at the University of South Carolina iSchool, I am part of the TPS (Teaching with Primary Sources) Consortium. TPS Consortium is a “professional network of universities, cultural institutions, library systems, school districts, and other educational organizations. Members work together to share information, devise new approaches, and offer collaborative programming focused on Library of Congress primary sources.” (https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/about-this-program/teaching-with-primary-sources-partner-program/tps-consortium/). We host professional development for K – 12 educators, sharing ways to use primary sources and The Library of Congress website in their teaching and work with students. I have become very familiar with the LOC website and have discovered some “hidden treasure” that you can use this summer in your library, especially if you are working with the “Oceans of Possibilities” theme. Ready? Use Free to Use and Reuse as inspiration for event flyers, decorating, social media posts and more. https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/swimming-beaches/. I created this image of my daughter using one of…
Summer Reading Planning at Washington County Public Library System
It has been a long two years for libraries, and summer reading programs were no exception. We spent two summers creating passive programs in what felt like countless grab-and-go bags. This year, we are excited to host our first in-person summer reading program since 2019, but we also began our planning process feeling a little daunted: how could we best create a show-stopping 2022 program after two pared-down years?
Learning Beyond: 21 st Century Summer and Out-Of-School Time Toolkit
Long before COVID-19 upended what we know about informal youth learning in libraries, ALSC commissioned a Task Force to consider the shift in core activities that would mark learning in the 21st Century. From this planning task force, an Implementation Task Force was formed in 2019. The Summer and Out-of-School Time Task Force was charged with creating a national tool predicated upon evidence-based approaches for developing quality and impactful programs and services for children. Learning Beyond: 21st Century Summer and Out-of-School Time Toolkit is the culmination of the ensuing work. The Toolkit reveal happened at the 2021 Annual Conference of the National Summer Learning Association in Washington, DC, where ALSC President Lucia Gonzalez introduced the work as “an integral part of the roadmap we need to help our children move forward through public library service.”