This course was designed to explore titles in adolescent and young adult literature. It included projects, discussions, and more related to the literature that teens like to read. Included are:
- Theme based program- I designed and implemented a teen reader survey. Some students from the middle school took it and I used the results to create a theme based program called "A Blizzard of Bravery". It is a collection of dystopian novels for young adults. It includes an overview, annotated bibliography, resource list, overview, and trifold.
- ALA/AASL Standards: 1, 3, 4
- Author profile- I chose to do a profile of the young adult author Gary D. Schmidt, who is best known for this Newbery Honor books The Wednesday Wars and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy. A selected bibliography and book list are included.
- ALA/AASL Standards: 1, 3, 4
- Intellectual freedom paper- Part of the course explored banned and challenged books. I chose a challenged book called Planet Pregnancy and wrote a defense for it citing intellectual freedom. The book offers much more positive information and should be part of a high school collection.
- ALA/AASL Standards: 1, 2, 3
- This course had a great variety of assignments and readings to familiarize us with notable authors and a wide variety of perspectives. It helped understand the teen reader through a survey and questions, which was helpful insight. In addition, we learned some great promotional ideas such as book talks and library programs to motivate readers. I do think the area of intellectual freedom is still a hard concept to teach at the younger level and I am still working on the best way to do so, especially for 5th and 6th graders who want to read adolescent literature. In addition, this class has helped increase my understanding of all the possible book awards to look for. Course competencies can be found here: http://www.uww.edu/coeps/departments/edfound/library-media/courses