Showing posts with label teenagers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teenagers. Show all posts
Friday, September 9, 2016
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Guide Posts and Cornerstones in Research
 |
| Reflecting on process and product |
I am swamped.
Not complaining.
Just saying.
What I like about this experience is that, as a high school librarian, I get a first hand experience at seeing research being done by students. I also get to work closely with EE Supervisors as they guide and mentor their students in the process of writing the EE. Now, these are two interesting research topics I can work on in the future.
But, it has to wait a while.
Here are some random reflections, questions and thoughts I have been tossing in my head as I push the idea of an action research or a paper on high school research and collaborative teaching back in my head. For now, I wish to entertain these questions and thoughts before jumping into that research paper.
1. Research and writing are both process oriented tasks that involve a lot of cognitive functions. How can complex tasks such as these can be scaled down or divided in chunks so that, the high school student working on college level work can be guided or taught appropriately?
2. Where in the curriculum can a teacher teach writing and research? Apart from process, the word skills comes to mind when I meet writing and research almost everyday of my working life. So, content is essential as the meat or the substance by which the skills are applied.
3. Research is formative as well. Not only is it a test of intellectual endurance, it is also a test of character. Patience. Perseverance. Commitment to finish a task. How are we preparing our teens for the emotional stamina needed to do research?
4. Writing is listening. To one's self. To one's readers. We may teach writing as a form of communication, but, have we considered teaching writing as conversation and discourse?
5. As the school librarian, I am compelled to model research and writing. And reading! Yes, I need to read the curricular content. I need to know what sources to provide both student and teacher working on such tasks. Designing an environment to support research and thinking is a primary expectation, but going beyond and developing knowledge management systems in the school is another challenge.
Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh my.
Where will these thoughts lead me? Or am I misled by my thoughts?
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Extending the Use of the Reading Passport
And then, of course, the avid readers turned in their finished passports way ahead of the rest. To share their reading experiences to the rest of the community, I clipped the passports in a clothesline on the library bulletin board. Anyone is free to read the passports. As a rule, passports must be returned to the clothesline after reading them.
Here are more ways to share the books read and written about in the passports:
a. In a book discussion, readers can talk about their passports; its contents, answers to the questions, recommended reads and their insights on the books the have read.
b. Chose the recommended reads. Pull these books out of the shelf and display them in the library. Put these book displays near the circulation counter where students, teachers and staff can see them. Think of this strategy as on the cashier counter displays, the merchandise that people would buy on the last minute.
c. Take picture of the recommended books and post these in the school's social media account.
d. Have these recommended reads featured in the school paper as well. This way, parents and other members of the community are informed of books being read by students.
e. Compile the recommended reads into a list for use in readers' advisory, reading guidance and bibliotherapy programs and services.
I like planning and implementing activities like these. There is so much you can do with information generated from readers and the books they read. There are patterns in their use of information but there are little surprises along the way too. This makes my work a really enjoyable and meaningful job!
Here are more ways to share the books read and written about in the passports:
a. In a book discussion, readers can talk about their passports; its contents, answers to the questions, recommended reads and their insights on the books the have read.
b. Chose the recommended reads. Pull these books out of the shelf and display them in the library. Put these book displays near the circulation counter where students, teachers and staff can see them. Think of this strategy as on the cashier counter displays, the merchandise that people would buy on the last minute.
c. Take picture of the recommended books and post these in the school's social media account.
d. Have these recommended reads featured in the school paper as well. This way, parents and other members of the community are informed of books being read by students.
e. Compile the recommended reads into a list for use in readers' advisory, reading guidance and bibliotherapy programs and services.
I like planning and implementing activities like these. There is so much you can do with information generated from readers and the books they read. There are patterns in their use of information but there are little surprises along the way too. This makes my work a really enjoyable and meaningful job!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Teen Read Week: My Young Adult Reading List
Here's another query I got from Rochelle Silverio of the UP School of Library and Information Science over at Facebook --
Hi po! I just want to humbly ask on what are your top ten books-to-read for Filipino young adults (local and foreign titles)? I will include them in class. Thank you and hoping for a reply, Coffee Goddess!
She sent me this question a few months back. I deem it appropriate to post it this week for Teen Read Week. I remember sending her a slew of links from this blog on Young Adult (YA) reads I've reviewed over the years. I thought I really did not answer the question so, here goes my post on the matter.
First of all, YA Literature is a name given by American publishers to their line of books for teenagers (13-19 years old). I think this definition for our local YA books, few as they are, will do for now. In the late 80s and early 90s I read Judy Blume, Richard Peck, SE Hinton, Katherine Patterson and a host of romance series for teens like Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High. The local materials I read as a teenager were adult fiction that I found available in my lola's sari-sari store and reading materials swapped from friends. I could not name a Filipino YA writer from my teenage years. Nick Joaquin and Paz Marquez Benitez did not write YA. But, I read their works in freshman college. Laro sa Baga, serialized in Liwayway was an adult material but I read it anyway.
Like Philippine Children's Lit, YA Lit is a young enterprise in the country. We do not have a solid body of work on Philippine YA Lit yet. Back in the 90's, the PBBY espoused the Pilar Perez Award to recognize manuscripts written for Filipino teenagers. While it produced note worthy reads, it did not live long. I surmise that the market was unaware of the reading potential among Filipino teenagers. Perhaps the timing to blaze a trail on a Philippine YA award was not ripe yet. Besides, there exist the economic challenge of publishing a YA novel or novella. During the Ang INK Forum last February, a clamor for chapter books and YA novel surfaced. In the 2nd ReaderCon last August, participants, especially teachers were in search of books for their high school students. The need was narrowed down to novels and novellas in the vernacular.
So, what to do? In my own little way, responding to Ms. Silverio's query and gathering bibliographic data on YA Lit is a start.
My list begins with JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. These books grow with the reader. Harry Potter is not perfect and his friends are flawed characters. But they all rise to the occasion to defeat Voldemort. JK Rowling made nerds and geeks look cool by saving the world not with magic wands but with love and sacrifice.
And the rest are...
Candy Gourlay's Tall Story
John Green's Looking for Alaska
Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book
Richard Peck's Here Lies the Librarian
Markus Zusak's The Book Thief
Laura Gallego-Garcis's The Legend of the Wandering King
Mary Ann Schaffer'sThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Cornelia Funke's Inkheart
Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Game
KUTING's Baget's Anthology
These are recent reads. As a teenager, I read these books. And here are some more - speculative fiction I love to reread! Dear me. This are just fiction books.
There's a long list of non-fiction reads as well!
Hi po! I just want to humbly ask on what are your top ten books-to-read for Filipino young adults (local and foreign titles)? I will include them in class. Thank you and hoping for a reply, Coffee Goddess!
She sent me this question a few months back. I deem it appropriate to post it this week for Teen Read Week. I remember sending her a slew of links from this blog on Young Adult (YA) reads I've reviewed over the years. I thought I really did not answer the question so, here goes my post on the matter.
First of all, YA Literature is a name given by American publishers to their line of books for teenagers (13-19 years old). I think this definition for our local YA books, few as they are, will do for now. In the late 80s and early 90s I read Judy Blume, Richard Peck, SE Hinton, Katherine Patterson and a host of romance series for teens like Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High. The local materials I read as a teenager were adult fiction that I found available in my lola's sari-sari store and reading materials swapped from friends. I could not name a Filipino YA writer from my teenage years. Nick Joaquin and Paz Marquez Benitez did not write YA. But, I read their works in freshman college. Laro sa Baga, serialized in Liwayway was an adult material but I read it anyway.
Like Philippine Children's Lit, YA Lit is a young enterprise in the country. We do not have a solid body of work on Philippine YA Lit yet. Back in the 90's, the PBBY espoused the Pilar Perez Award to recognize manuscripts written for Filipino teenagers. While it produced note worthy reads, it did not live long. I surmise that the market was unaware of the reading potential among Filipino teenagers. Perhaps the timing to blaze a trail on a Philippine YA award was not ripe yet. Besides, there exist the economic challenge of publishing a YA novel or novella. During the Ang INK Forum last February, a clamor for chapter books and YA novel surfaced. In the 2nd ReaderCon last August, participants, especially teachers were in search of books for their high school students. The need was narrowed down to novels and novellas in the vernacular.
So, what to do? In my own little way, responding to Ms. Silverio's query and gathering bibliographic data on YA Lit is a start.
My list begins with JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. These books grow with the reader. Harry Potter is not perfect and his friends are flawed characters. But they all rise to the occasion to defeat Voldemort. JK Rowling made nerds and geeks look cool by saving the world not with magic wands but with love and sacrifice.
And the rest are...
Candy Gourlay's Tall Story
John Green's Looking for Alaska
Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book
Richard Peck's Here Lies the Librarian
Markus Zusak's The Book Thief
Laura Gallego-Garcis's The Legend of the Wandering King
Mary Ann Schaffer'sThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Cornelia Funke's Inkheart
Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Game
KUTING's Baget's Anthology
These are recent reads. As a teenager, I read these books. And here are some more - speculative fiction I love to reread! Dear me. This are just fiction books.
There's a long list of non-fiction reads as well!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
TeenLife: Community Service for Teens
Here is a recent online discover: TeenLife
TeenLife is a website for teens, parents, educators and allied professionals working with/for teens. The website is pretty impressive. It has contents on Summer Programs, College Life, Gap Year, Volunteer Activities and Career/Vocational Guidance. You may wish to sign in as member and get freebies, like newsletters.
For March/April 2012 issue, TeenLife has a neat write up on community services teens could do. This article is connected to "Senioritis", an affliction common among high school students. They slack and turn truants by the last term. The article suggests strategies to hold students up and finish the school year with good, if not decent, marks. Field trips and changes in seating arrangement are included in the tips, but there are more creative ways a teacher can do.
If you are parent of a teen, visit TeenLife's website. Happy reading!
TeenLife is a website for teens, parents, educators and allied professionals working with/for teens. The website is pretty impressive. It has contents on Summer Programs, College Life, Gap Year, Volunteer Activities and Career/Vocational Guidance. You may wish to sign in as member and get freebies, like newsletters.
For March/April 2012 issue, TeenLife has a neat write up on community services teens could do. This article is connected to "Senioritis", an affliction common among high school students. They slack and turn truants by the last term. The article suggests strategies to hold students up and finish the school year with good, if not decent, marks. Field trips and changes in seating arrangement are included in the tips, but there are more creative ways a teacher can do.
If you are parent of a teen, visit TeenLife's website. Happy reading!
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