Lariat Adult Fiction-YA Recommendations

This year I began a two-year appointment on the Lariat Adult Fiction Committee of the Texas Library Association. It's a great, albeit challenging assignment. While the free books (much needed for my library) are an incentive, it's also intellectually rewarding to read and process so many diverse literary works. While not all my votes for selections, positive or negative were on the winning side, I nevertheless believe that the book list we generated is very good.

Since I serve a Young Adult population, I thought it would be helpful to create a list of Lariat books from this year's list that would also be suitable and interesting for teen readers. The full Lariat Fiction list for the Winter 2013 will soon be published on the TLA Website.

My list of recommendation for teens appears below:

Blood Song by Anthony Ryan

This coming-of-age Fantasy saga has enough action to engage fans of the Hunger Games. Sure to appeal to fans of Tamora Pierce and other YA fantasy writers.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Based on a true story of a condemned woman, Agnes, sentence to death and sent to live her last days on an isolated farm. Young readers will be moved by the plight of Agnes who must pay the ultimate price for a youthful mistake.

Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

This madcap detective caper written by J K Rowling under a male pen name has the same playful prose that made Harry Potter a smashing success. Set in present-day London with host of colorful and dysfunctional celebrity characters, savvy teens are sure to recognize parallels to our own media-saturated reality.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Also a TAYSHAS selection for teen readers, this story of a first-year college student is guaranteed to appeal to teens who read and write fan fiction.  It’s also a story full of warmth and humor with enough wisdom to recommend it to any college-bound high school girl.

Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh

An epic historical romance set in early colonial South Africa. Ambitious female readers will find the adventures of main character Frances compelling. The gritty and morally complicated landscape of the S. African Diamond mines provides a vivid backdrop for the story.

House Girl by Tara Conklin

A dual-period story set in the present day and Antebellum Virginia. It’s a story of slavery and prospects for intergenerational justice. Idealistic teens that are interested in legal careers will find this story especially compelling and those interested in African-American history via stories such as The Help and The Butler will surely enjoy this one.

Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neal Gaiman

Neal Gaiaman’s work is popular with teens and this fantastic fable will not disappoint his fans.

Murder as Fine Art by David Morrell

Reminiscent of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, this book has many shocking and sensational plot elements that will appeal to teens. Thomas De Qunicey, author of Confessions of an Opium Eater appears as a compelling drug-addicted anti-hero and the plot is sufficiently fast-paced and suspenseful to keep even reluctant teen readers turning the pages.

Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

An unreliable narrator working as a typist for the interrogation unit of the New York Police Department of the prohibition era provides a fascinating look at a time period of interest to many teens. The story is one of many plot twists and mystery to keep readers hooked.

Taken by Michael Totten

A slender volume with plenty of plot-twists and suspense, this story will appeal to even reluctant teen-readers. The scenario of the author imagining his own kidnapping and escape also explores historical topics that will interest teens, including the abduction of Patty Hearst and the September 11^th attacks.

Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes

Teen fans of Nicholas Sparks and Lurlene McDaniel and other stories of love laced with tragedy and loss ill enjoy this story of romance between Will, once a passionately athletic young man, but now severely paralyzed and his nurse Louisa.

Using character and acting to raise awareness of pretense and marketing on social media

I had the opportunity to co-teach a lesson on character in a Theater Arts class and it was a pretty interesting experience. The goals of the 90 minute session were:

1. To have students explore their character by attempting to Tweet in character
2. To raise awareness of nuance, marketing and manipulative behaviors that occur on Twitter and other social media
3. To promote savvy social-media behaviors, even if that does mean 'acting'

The lesson structure was as follows:

1. Begin with survey about social media use
2. Presentation: Analysis of Taylor Swift's Twitter account
3. Tweet-a-Character assignment: compose 10 Tweets using character (previous lesson was character analysis)
4. Peer Analysis of Tweet-a-Character
5. Closing reflection including short post-survey

In addition to fitting into the class, I used this lesson as a research study.  

The pre-activity survey revealed the following:

• Of the 103 participants, 73% said that they do follow actors/actresses, politicians, musicians, and other celebrities on Twitter, Instagram or Social Media
• Of those that follow musicians, actors, etc, students tended to agree that they were more likely to go to a movie or download a song if they followed an artist on Twitter or Instagram

After the presentation and role-playing activity, 37% of respondents were less likely to believe in celebrities online profiles, seeing them as more commercial in nature.  The vast majority of respondents, over 60%, continued to believe that some celebrities are more authentic than others, believing that others are genuine and not driven only for sales or fame.

I'm still processing the data and reflecting on the activity, but I do think it was a worthwhile exercise, one that is worth more time over and above the 90 minutes I gave it. Any interested reader may request the lesson. I will send all 4 files. 

My Evolving Thinking on Educating about Information in Social Media

Today I had the opportunity to present another talk about Twitter in Education. The Plano-Richardson Library Expo proved to be an excellent place to give such a talk because of the perfectly topical Keynote address by Lee Raine of the Pew Internet Research Center.

Mr. Raine expressed one of the central ideas of my talk so-well, calling Information "another skin,"
that is that information one gathers and disseminates online is part of a social identity for many people, particularly teens. This very deep idea is one I have wrestled with recently and I have tried to use the concept to design Information Literacy instruction. Some of those ideas, in their infant/idea stage are presented here in this slideshow.

Since my last presentation on Information Literacy with Easy Bib, I have had the benefit of teaching classes, trying out some new lessons, addressing conspiracy theories, information bubbles and confirmation bias. The goal is to challenge students to own up to their biases and fight against the universal human tendency to discover and present information that conforms to one's pre-existing beliefs and/or social identity.

Challenging students this way without judging their identities and beliefs is the main difference of my new approach. Previously, I may have come across as too judgmental towards people that present conspiracy theories. I believe librarians must adapt to teaching students this way instead of simply demanding that students use databases and peer-reviewed sources. The messaging is much more complicated and the investment in lesson planning much greater, but I truly believe it to be the better way developing the vital life skill of sorting out good information from bad information.

Information Literacy in the Age of Twitter from Dallas ISD New Tech High School

Twitter and Truth: More questions than answers

A few weeks ago I had the honor of presenting a Webinar for the Easy Bib Summer PD Series. This presentation was a real stretch for me. I have spent enough time on Twitter to feel comfortable and I have done considerable research on Twitter as an instructional and informational tool and even some practice teaching with Twitter and about Twitter. However, given the complexity of the subject, I think my presentation, as given is at best a starting point, for myself as well as my audience.

The focus of Twitter in the Classroom, was on Twitter as an information source. My central point is that people are increasingly getting information via social media and are more influenced by peers in the Twitterverse than by traditionally published material. Opinions and perspectives are formed online by interactions with others and the posting of influential individuals, some of whom are actual experts but mostly by self-appointed 'experts,' who may or may not be passing on correct information. To me, it's obvious that librarians need to be a part of the conversation on and about social media, or risk becoming irrelevant as information professionals.

So who am I? I'm really another self-appointed expert with some experience, but by no means a genuine expert. I can say, I've done much reflecting and additional learning about this massive subject and read some contrary viewpoints such as this one by Molly McHugh.

Ms. McHugh is an informed skeptic that is mostly dismissive of Twitter as an information source. I agree with many of her points, especially the fact that information on Twitter is largely suspect because it is contaminated by commercial interest and public relations.

Nevertheless, my point is that as educators we need to train our young people to recognize self-promotion and sensationalism in its natural context and be able to sift through it to glean useful insights. In my talk, I was primarily concerned with conspiracy theories, because they are prevalent on social media, while traditional library information sources generally do not publish conspiracy theories as fact.

Training young people to recognize conspiracy theories is, in my view, vital to the preservation of democracy. That's actually a relatively straightforward process, but one I feel librarians are neglecting. And what are we as librarians if we're not concerned about the role of information in preserving democracy?

What's more complicated is addressing the whole notion of 'who is an expert?' and utilizing experts' perspectives in online research. While I can't claim to know where all this social media is taking us, I know that Twitter has dramatically altered publishing and the overall information ecosystem for better and worse. Let's pay attention.

Here's the recording of my Webinar.

Reflections on #NTAC13-New Tech Schools Annual Conference New Orleans

After missing NTAC 2012 due to the birth of my daughter, I felt a need to make up for lost time regarding my New Tech schools background knowledge. In particular, since I am stepping into the role of literacy coordinator this year, my number one priority for the conference was freshening up my skills in that department.

After years of cultivating an image as a 'techie' librarian, this new 'literacy' title is both a homecoming and a fresh identity. The main reason for my new professional focus is my disillusionment with education technology. When I adopted the techie label, I truly believed that tech integration was the number one need for reaching students and facilitating learning. Now, I just see technology as a tool, not a panacea. It's become part of everyday life and the education landscape for better or worse, and its something we education professionals must understand and adapt our instruction accordingly. The big downside of ubiquitous tech and constant online connection is that most students let the cloud serve as their brain. As a result, I see a decline in inquisitiveness, weaker problem solving skills, and lower attention spans for literacy tasks, which brings me to the rest of the story.

The best thing about conferences, is meeting people that practice in the same field. NTAC is full of great people and I met many literacy coordinators and English Teachers that helped me prepare for the role. However, I was very sad (and a bit worried) to discover few Library/Media Specialists in the sessions. In my 3 days at NTAC, only one person I met was a fellow librarian and this was in a session about using books for building bridges. She was the presenter of that session, and I found it to be among the most enjoyable of the conference.

In other sessions about literacy, I learned some terrific classroom strategies for developing thinking and writing skills related to literacy. However, I couldn't help feel that something was missing.

What traditional librarians (ideally) bring to the table is an orientation toward reading promotion as well as a focus on information literacy instruction. Literacy Tasks as defined by the New Tech Network are generally focused on writing. While literacy and writing are strongly connected and the practices I see employed by literacy coordinators are sound and effective, I see a lack of an emphasis on information literacy, which is basically the ability to locate information and determine whether of not it is reliable information. Information literacy is an umbrella term for a giant subset of skills that includes many New Tech outcomes such as critical thinking, real-world tasks, persistence, work-ethic, and much more.

If we truly want our students to thrive in the complex information universe of the Internet, we will have to demand more of them. This means asking students to locate reliable information on their own and use the information in a practical way. This goes beyond 'text dependent questions' and other literacy strategies.

Information Literacy instruction and PBL are certainly a natural fit. However, there are no easy answers and simple strategies. The best way forward in my view is the bring more of us librarians into the collaborative process of project design! The starting point for this collaborative process is on literacy; the fundamental questions being:

1. How to we get our students to read more and read more complicated and diverse text?
2. How can we wean them off their Googling and scrolling habits?
3. How can we coach students to be skeptical and critical about the information they encounter online?

Of course these questions are by no means the end of the discussion, but I believe we need to ask them when talking literacy tasks.

Social Media Scorecards: an idea for teaching Digital Citizenship

Up until now, this blog has only been about my evolving thinking on Education, Libraries and Technology. It's an exercise in clarifying my own thoughts and seeking out like minded individuals or comments from those that may not agree with me.

This post is different in that I have crossed over to promoting a product that I am selling on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Life circumstances have caused me to seek entrepreneurial outlets to bring in a little extra money. Don't get me wrong, I'm not selling a product that I do not believe in. So here it goes....my first sales pitch.

Most schools when talking to students about cyber-safety and digital citizenship do just that...talk. The talks may be done by a police officer and teacher or school administrator, but the main purpose is to attempt to steer students away from obviously risky behaviors such as meeting strangers online or sexting, etc. There is no evidence that merely talking to students is at all effective and most students will simply tune out the lecture, thinking that this clueless adult wants them to stay offline entirely, which is of course not an option for most teens and young adults.

My previous post advocates using Google+ EDU to create an enclosed online environment where adults and other students serve as role-models for desirable online behaviors and build community via social media. This is an ideal situation where the school is embedding the teaching of digital citizenship in it instructional program. Most schools aren't there yet, so I am proposing a middle way which is a conversation starter called an Online Profile Scorecard.

Currently I have written scorecards for Facebook as well as Echo, which is a system I use as an educator in the New Tech Network. The Echo profile is free and may be downloaded to get an idea what the scorecard concept is about. The Facebook Scorecard is currently on sale for only $2.00, which a retail price of $3.00. I would appreciate if you viewed and rated these products.

The scorecard is meant to be read aloud in and discussed in a free-form manner in a class setting. If done correctly, it's a humorous lesson that lets students know you are aware of the complex interplay between online and offline lives that all young adults wrestle with these days. There are no easy answers in this world, but there are some basic behaviors we want to encourage:

• Friendliness
• Kindness
• Honesty
• Awareness of a larger world beyond peer groups
• Following accepted social norms online as well as offline
• Healthy self-image that is expressed online
• A focus on the future, not just the present

Note that this set of priorities largely ignores the emphasis on self-destructive behaviors such as sexting and seeking out relationships with strangers.

As an educator, one thing I have noticed is that teens that are often pleasant, well-mannered in person, wish to cultivate a 'bad' image online to gain peer approval. This is off course a huge problem in these times when online image is very important in job-seeking and college admissions. If anything, students should try to be 'bad' offline instead of faking it online. 

 Obviously the Scorecard is no cure-all, but it is more likely to produce a dialog with students that may get us as educators begin the process of encouraging positive online behaviors. It's important to realize that the scores on the scorecard are arbitrary and some students may argue with them. That's part of the dialog.

So if you know of anyone that wants to devote a little instructional time towards opening this dialog with students instead of merely lecturing them, give the Scorecards a try. If you know a teacher or administrator that has a need for this product, please send them the link. Thank you for reading.

Google+ for Education Preview

I've advocated explicit teaching of social media skills for around 2 years now, and I've had a couple of opportunities to speak on the subject. One thing I have realized is that when it comes to social media instruction, lecture is a severely inadequate method of directing students towards more positive behaviors.

This year I had cause to investigate some problematic uses of social media by students at my school. Without going into any detail, let's just say the behaviors were typical of teens acting without adult supervision. That of course means, that the students viewed Twitter and Facebook as their little adult-free conversation space which they were freely using while they were in class.

Amazingly, after I made it clear to our students that someone was paying attention to their Twitter conversations, most of the worst behavior ceased immediately. Of course students continue to use Twitter when they should be working, and some of their language is not for polite, public conversation, but just letting the students know they are being watched by someone other than their friends, did make a difference.

There are many lessons to be learned from this experience. Here are the top 4 I would like to address:

1. Students primarily use social media as a means of trying to impress their friends, often with an attitude that does not match their in-person, school persona.
2. Students clearly need adult correction and role-models if they are to use social media in a professional and productive way
3. Merely telling students how to behave in cyberspace is completely worthless, as all students in the school received 1 or 2 lectures on the subject in the first months of the school year.
4. Blocking social Web sites is completely ineffective and most likely interferes with educators actually doing something to help students behave in a positive way online

Shortly after forming these conclusions, Google made available its Google+ for Education to its school customers on a trial, preview basis. I am fortunate that work for a New Tech Network school that uses Google Applications and  immediately jumped at the opportunity to launch the preview.

I briefly considered the downside before doing this. Some schools ban teachers contacting students via social media because it may lead to improper relationships. Would Google+ lead to boundary issues? Secondly, perhaps Google+ would be just another distraction that will negatively effect students attention to academic tasks. Lastly, there isn't much time for staff development to fully train the teachers. How would this work out without training.

With regards to the first potential objection....our school already has a Gmail domain that allows for frequent student-teacher contact. If there are no problems with email, there isn't likely to be any with a social network. 

As far as an academic distraction, that's a very valid concern. However, by following students I can clearly see which ones are spending too much time on Google+, whereas on Twitter and Facebook, I have no easy way of doing so. Indeed, I noticed a couple students that were getting a little carried away with posting to Google+, but the good news is that their postings were completely acceptable and often very humorous and interesting. Also, I was able to talk to these students, both commending them for their interesting posts that I actually enjoyed and telling them gently that school comes first and to post a few times a day instead of 30-40 times a time. This was a net positive in my view, since the students responded well to my compliment and correction.

Now the real problem with implementing Google+ education is of course its adoption by teachers, staff and students. Teachers generally have enough to do without learning yet another technology tool. It's difficult to squeeze in something that is not directly related to curriculum. Also, the students are busy as well and have plenty of online tools at their disposal. What is their incentive to join Google+?

I believe Google+ is a worthwhile initiative and here are my 5 reasons:

1. Google+ is a terrific technology with much to recommend it. It combines the best of Twitter, Skype and Facebook in one. Hangouts in particular of many instructional uses. These great features are the attraction to get teachers and students on board.
2. With an education domain, it creates a safe place to practice and learn social networking skills without everything visible to the outside world as the settings are controlled by a local administrator (me).
3. I believe very strongly that students need adult role-models in social media and a Google+ domain for school allows teachers and staff to be those role models for students.
4. Google+ is a  fun way of learning more about students and building school community
5.  By providing Google+ service separate from the students personal accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks, it creates a place for students to practice professional and academic uses of social media in a 'school space.' Nothing will help students more than giving them the opportunity to practice professional, 'adult' social networking behaviors.

In conclusion, just by turning on Google+ Preview, I've already seen enough positives to justify the service, and virtually no negatives. Adoption is slower than I would like to see, but I'm working to add more teachers to the mix by highlighting uses for Google+ that they would likely find beneficial. I've started to see students complaining about teachers inviting them to circles. That's a good thing! It reminds me of when parents started to join social networks and then kids had to find better ways of acting online. Even if they sneak around on other social networks beyond the view of adults, I do believe that mature adult presence on social networks is a net positive. If we as educators make a conscious and concerted effort to reach and teach students using Google+ we'll all be better for the effort.