Imagination, Part 2

Tips for Inspiring Your Teens' Imaginations

1. Keep reading aloud. We know the importance of reading aloud to pre- and emerging readers. It helps older kids and teens, too, by exposing them to broader vocabulary than they can read, plus, it means they can spend their mental energy picturing the story you are sharing. Try some of the titles on various "Picture Books for Older Readers" lists or read a (thrilling) passage from a favorite novel.
   
2. Design your programs to be imaginative. I have always done lots of arts and crafts programs and still debate whether or not it's a good idea to have a sample of the project. Some kids and teens want their project to look exactly like the sample which clearly limits their imaginative process. Others can see the sample and still do something unique. So when you're prepping a craft program, think of ways to encourage each participant's unique vision.
3. Science is imaginative! One of the coolest things about hands-on science programs is that they open kids' and teens' minds to the possibilities of the universe. With the CLDC, we've been putting lots of emphasis on STEM programming for kids--teens love science, too, so make sure you're adding in science activities as part of your program menu. There are lots of cheap, easy and fun science projects you can do in under an hour. I'm planning to try out one where you extract the iron flecks from enriched breakfast cereal with a magnet!
4. Try a "fill in the bubbles" program by photocopying a page from a graphic novel that has lots going on in the illustrations. White out or cover the text in the bubbles and have the teens write their own dialogue. You can do this with comic strips from the newspaper, too. I had a great time doing this with teens in juvenile detention.
5. Ask teens questions! Get them to really think about what they think, what they say, what they do. Don't challenge or be disrespectful (I overheard a woman in a restaurant the other night asking her husband "Why would you do that?" That and my much-used "Are you kidding me?" don't count as good questions!). But be CURIOUS and patient, too, because you'll probably hear a lot of "I dunno." Keep at them. Challenge your teens to not be intellectually lazy. Help them explore what's going on in their heads and be able to match them with resources that will take them to the next level.

I am obsessed with the TV show "Raising Hope" on FOX. I love the quirky characters and the twisted humor. What I love most is the sweet and good heart at the center of all that wackiness. One of my favorite episodes so far was called "Dream Hoarders" and it's about how Jimmy (the young single dad) tries to get his parents (who had him as teenagers) to stop "wasting time" on dreams like winning the lottery or hoarding stuff from other people's trash to use in the house they will have "someday." Since this is TV, of course, at the end he realizes how fortunate he was to have been raised by dreamers because the alternative is pretty dull.

So on this Thanksgiving, I give thanks for having been raised by a family that left me alone to my wild imaginings and only tried to rein me in when it involved destruction of property and/or potential injury. I am especially grateful for a career that is all about helping people and MOST especially, I am grateful for the wonderful, important, challenging, vital work you all do EVERY DAY for our teens. Thank you. :)

Cash in the Coffee Can: $110.00

Imagination, Part 1

I've been thinking a lot lately about imagination. I'm not sure why exactly, but it's been circling around in my brain since the summer.

When I think about the benefits of reading, the one that means the most to me on a personal level, the one that I find the most valuable and the hardest to describe adequately is that it gives the imagination a work out. I often tell kids and teens (and adults, too) that reading is like any other skill: to get better at it, you need to practice, challenge yourself, and practice some more.

Imagination is like that, too. What saddens me the most about our teens today is that many of them seem to have really flabby, out-of-shape, underused imagination muscles!

I sat in on an author visit last week by Adam Gidwitz, a teacher and newly published author whose book A Tale Dark and Grimm came out at the end of October. I'm a big believer in synchronicity, so I had to laugh and figure the universe was trying to tell me something when Adam quoted Albert Einstein during his talk, since I'd been musing on this quote for days:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

What was especially great about Adam's talk was that he pointed out that reading works the imagination, but what you also need to do is have time. Time to daydream, time to let things stew in our brains, time to look like we're doing nothing when really our amazing brains are doing the very things that make us human. There was a teacher in the room while Adam spoke who was so much in agreement with this sentiment that I thought he was going to bust a button (the first time I ever saw someone actually fit that description!!).

Our teens are plugged in ALL THE TIME! It seems physically impossible for them not to be (they are no worse than adults though--there should be laws against people who stop on the middle of the subways steps because they can't climb and text at the same time). So when are they imagining? When are they getting a chance to dream?

I read that in addition to the practical problems of illiteracy, the reason so many people who struggle to read end up in prisons is because not reading so limited their sense of what they-and their world-could be, that crime seemed their only option.

So what, besides offering a wide range of books and other reading materials for teens, can we do to encourage their imaginations? I have some ideas I'll share next week. What do you think? Leave your ideas in the comments.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $96.00

A Day Late (But Not a Dollar Short)

I had the privilege of doing a Table Talk Session at last week's NYLA conference on the Queens Teen Book Slam. I had librarians from all over New York State sit in for my talks and the most interesting and important thing that came up was something I hadn't really thought of before.

This past summer, I had teens from 12 different Queens Library locations participate in the Book Slam. All of these teens are what I would consider "readers" (taking on 5 books ranging from average to very challenging earns any teen that title in my book) but yet in many cases, they were strangers to the librarians in the local libraries they use the most.

So when this came up during the NYLA talks, I had a "DUH!" moment, because that was totally me as a teen. I regularly checked out armloads of books from my public library but I never went up to the librarian's desk or went to programs. When I said this at the talk, I got many smiles and nods and then someone said, "But that also means that no one ever came up to you (and now the teens in your program) while you were at the shelves to talk about the books."

And that was an "A-HA!" moment because she was right on. We have a whole population of avid teen readers who slip in under the radar, grab their books and jet. Now, as one of these library mole teens, I had no problems with being treated this way. I didn't WANT anyone to bother me at the library. But on the other hand, I was in college before I started having conversations about books, and that's a shame.

If we don't make the effort to reach these teens at the shelf, we'll never know if the books we're buying are what they want, if they would attend programs if someone would just invite them to, or if they really and truly are happy on their own.

So think about this all year but especially in the summer when we see new and different teens. Take a second to leave the desk, go to the shelves and comment on the book a teen is considering or one of the ones in their arms. Nothing big, just a "I really liked that one" or "I've heard that was good. Let me know what you think when you finish." That small gesture may be the start of a whole new relationship for your library. And that teen.

Cash in the Coffee Can = $82.00

The (Continuing) Evolution of Written Language

This past summer, I read a post on the blog for Changing Lives Through Literature (an alternative sentencing program using book discussion) that talked about how our brains are not hard-wired for reading. This was something I should have been able to deduce logically, but had never really considered.

Written language is only about 5500 years old, a very recent development in the big picture of life on Earth. The processes that we use for reading actually developed for other purposes and that we have managed to cobble them together to be able to create and decode written languages is truly astounding!

What made me think of this now was that I treated myself to a Kindle last week. It is THE. COOLEST. THING. EVER. And it immediately got me thinking about what this technology will mean in the near future.

What I noticed immediately, though, was that reading on it seemed to use different reading muscles than I was used to from reading printed books. I very deliberately had to resist the urge to skim, something I never do with paper books but often do while reading online. I could actually feel my brain making the adjustment, it took some practice, and then I was good to go.

So what does this have to do with Teen Summer Reading?

A person who will be a teenager in 2011 was born during the 1990s; they have never known a world without the internet. Their relationship with written language cannot help but be shaped by this. Texting, AIM, Facebook (etc.) require interacting with written language in ways that are different from opening up a paper and print book. This is both a change in language and a change in format.

I am not putting a judgment on this and I am not saying that today’s teens have an either/or approach to written language. We all know teens who text away with a 300 page book in front of them. These different ways of interacting with written language do not necessarily contradict each other. But we need to be aware that they exist.

What I AM saying is think of what this could mean (from both “positive” and “negative” perspectives) when you are thinking about Teen Summer Reading—the big picture and your own plans. Think about your personal experience of reading as a teen and how it is different (and the same) as that of teens today. Think about ways to embrace not only different interactions with print literacy but the many different literacies.

Cash in the Coffee Can: $68.00