Teaching, Programs & Services

A YA Librarian 2.0 philosophy means offering a differnt type of programming & services for teens. For school librarians, this also means rethinking lesson plans and instructional practices to incorporate new technologies and to communicate with teens using their own methods.

Please share your own comments, suggestions, or links to lesson plans& programs.

Instructional Ideas

Using Wikis to Teach Information Literacy

Wikis can be used to create student generated resource guides, instructional guides and lists of recommended websites. Check out some of these wikis to see how some librarians are using them to teach info lit skills.

Using U-High's Online Resources: A Wiki Guide

A student generated guide to using online databases

Good Sites/Bad Sites: Evaluating Web Resources (Another Wiki Guide)

Used to teach a lesson on web site evaluation resulting in class lists of "best site."

The Moncrief Library Resource Wiki

Created by Fort Worth Country Day School freshmen to help the other students at the school learn how to efficiently utilize the print and online resources in the Moncrief Library.

Beyond the Book Report

• Many authors are creating their own playlists for their novels, but why not let teens create a soundtrack for a book instead of a traditional book report?
• Why can't students create a blog for a book character? Some publishers are actually doing this as a promotion (check out Ananka's Diary at http://www.kikistrike.com/)

Comics in the Classroom

Zines, Literacy and the Adolescent

New Services for Teens

• Many college & university libraries offer individual research services to students. Students can schedule and appointment with a librarian, and the librarian spends the scheduled time assisting the student with his/her paper or project. Why not offer these kinds of services to teens in a school or public library setting? Scheduling can be tough, but maybe you can block off one day a week, or two afternoons, or whatever, when the library desk is covered by an assistant or a volunteer, and open your schedule to students who want individual research assistance. This time can be used not just to help the student locate information, but to incorporate information literacy lessons in a one-on-one setting.

Program Ideas