[Baynet] Infopeople's online course "Readers' Advisory for Children, Tweens, and Teens"

Thu Jan 22 10:53:09 PST 2009

Since some people who may be interested in participating might not receive
this notice directly, we would appreciate it if you would print and post or
route this announcement to staff and colleagues. Thanks!

Title:  Readers’ Advisory for Children, Tweens, and Teens  (Online learning
course)

Dates:  March 3 – March 30, 2009

To register for this workshop:  Use the online registration form at

http://infopeople.org/workshop/418    

Fee:  $75 for those in the California library community and $150 for those
out-of-state.

Do you feel like a deer in the headlights when asked to help a young person
find a book to read? Does your mind go blank when a teen wants "another
vampire book, like 'Twilight'?" Do you see kids and teens of all ages at
your library, and wish you could offer them suggestions for recreational
reading? 

This online course will help you to: 

• Use simple readers' advisory interview questions to figure out what type
of book a young person might enjoy. 

• Discover trends in books for young people, including graphic novels and
Urban/Street Lit. 

• Try out easy-to-use websites and databases that find books to recommend to
youth. 

• Use free online database programs to keep track of books you have read. 

• Learn easy booktalking and other marketing techniques that "sell" books to
young readers. 

Walk away from this course with a renewed confidence about recommending
books to youth, with lots of resources at your fingertips for the next time
a 6th grader says, "I hate reading, but I have to write a book report." Feel
comfortable helping parents, caregivers, and teachers find books to read
aloud, help beginning readers find books they can enjoy, and learn ways to
interact with tweens (ages 7 to 11) and teens so they listen to your reading
recommendations.

Workshop Description: This four-week online learning course will provide
information on books for children, tweens, and teens, including picture
books, easy readers, transitional fiction, genre novels, young adult novels,
graphic novels, popular nonfiction, and urban/street lit; and how to
recommend these books to youth. Through individual and group exercises we
will discover methods to determine what a young person might like to read,
and how to recommend, "sell" and market books. You will compile several
booklists, use websites, and write and record a booktalk to be shared with
other students in the class. The instructor will provide sample plans,
templates, cheat sheets and a webliography, as well as practical, useful
tips that can be applied immediately. 

To complete this course, students must post to the weekly Discussion Board,
share their booklists on the online learning site, and use a telephone to
record a "podcast" booktalk. 

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet
connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and
complete the following learning modules: 

• Module One: Introduction to Readers' Advisory and Books for Young Children

Overview of readers' advisory including what interview questions to ask 

Helping parents, teachers, and caregivers find books to read aloud 

Helping beginning/emergent readers find books on their grade levels 

• Module Two: Transitional, Genre Fiction, and Nonfiction for ages 7-11 

Chapter books/novels for this age group, often referred to as "tweens" 

Trendy/popular books and award-winners 

Helping boys find books they enjoy so they will continue to read for fun 

Using interactive websites and databases to find books to recommend 

• Module Three: Books for Teens 

Novels, graphic novels, and Urban/Street Fiction for teens 

Ways teens share book recommendations with each other 

Censorship and book challenges 

• Module Four: Marketing Books to Children, Tweens, and Teens 

Using Web 2.0 tools to keep a database of what you read 

Booktalks for in-person and podcasting 

Books relating to the 2009 Summer Reading Program themes "Be Creative" and
"Express Yourself" 

Instructor:  Penny Peck.  Penny Peck has been a children's librarian for 20
years; before that, she was Snow White and Mother Goose at Children's
Fairyland in Oakland, ran a nightclub, worked as the wardrobe mistress for
the Berkeley Ballet, and was an agent for a standup comedian. Her experience
includes performing thousands of storytimes, leading hundreds of book club
discussions for students in grades 4-12, conducting hundreds of school tours
and assemblies, reviewing children's books and media, and conducting the
Performers' Showcase for auditioning library entertainment. She is editor of
"BayNews," the newsletter for the Association of Children's Librarians of
Northern California, www.bayviews.org. She is the Senior Librarian Youth
Services for the San Leandro Public Library, an adjunct professor at San
Jose State's Masters of Library Science program, and author of the book
Crash Course in Children’s Services (Libraries Unlimited, 2006). 

Online Learning Details: 

This four-week course will be taught online using the web. When you
register, you will receive a registration confirmation that will include the
URL to get to the course, as well as a username and password. 

Every student proceeds through the online learning modules at his or her own
pace. Students should expect to commit to spending a minimum of 2 to 2 ½
hours per week on this course in order to be successful.  You can work on
each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, you
will be expected to log in to the course each week to do that week's
assignment. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of the
course to begin the course work.

Your instructor will be available for limited consultation support for two
weeks after the official end date of a course, and the course material will
stay up for an additional two weeks after that, to give those who have
fallen behind time to work independently on the course. However, you will be
expected to accomplish the majority of the course in synchronization with
your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: Public or school library staff who want to be
able to recommend reading to a wide age range of young people. 

Prerequisites:

This course is taught over the web. You must: 

•   Be able to save Microsoft Word .doc or Adobe .pdf files to your computer
and print them out. (For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en . Search for
"Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html ). 

•   Be comfortable navigating on the web and navigating back and forward on
a website that uses frames. 

•   To be most successful in this course you should be willing to share
information with your colleagues and be willing to spend time reading and
participating in the weekly discussion boards. 

System Requirements: The online learning product that Infopeople uses is
called Angel. The following are minimum system requirements for using Angel.
You will need access to a computer that has at least these specifications to
participate in an online course: 

• Windows: 

Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista 

Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and above 

Phishing Filter disabled (IE 7) 

• Macintosh: 

OS X and above (OS 9 will NOT work with our online learning product) 

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and above, Safari 2.0 and above 

• General 

High speed Internet connection (dial up not recommended) 

Java enabled (from Sun Microsystems not Microsoft) - test my computer
(http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp ) - Java download latest
version (http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp )

Pop-up blockers disabled 

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, please consider taking
this course with a colleague who does meet these requirements.

If you would like to subscribe via RSS and be notified whenever new
Infopeople training events are available, you can use these links:

**For new on-ground or online workshops: http://infopeople.org/workshop/rss

**For new podcasts: http://feeds.feedburner.com/InfopeoplePodcasts     

To view a complete list of Infopeople workshops and for general information
about Infopeople Training opportunities, go to the main Infopeople Workshops
page at http://infopeople.org/workshop    

If you have questions about registration or scheduling of workshops, please
contact Linda Rodenspiel, the Infopeople Project Assistant, at
assist at infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.

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