ALA | First Time Participating?

First Time Participating?

Teen Read Week^TM is an initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which is the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association. 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of Teen Read Week!

Why is it important to celebrate? For a lot of reasons! Teens are not really reading for fun these days, and reading scores have not been improving for this age group over the last few decades. Also, it’s a great chance to let your school or your public library communities know how important teen services are! Let teens know the possibilities that exist within your doors, and within the covers of books.

More than 4,800 school and public libraries registered to participate in Teen Read Week last year. Join the fun and register now!

Why LOL?

Laughter can boost your endorphins, lower your blood pressure, heart rate and improve your immune system, not to mention lighten your mood. Thus, with this year’s theme of “LOL” for Teen Read Week, teens can enter their school and public libraries for a visit that will produce a smile and happy thoughts, if not have them laughing out loud! Communication, collaboration and implementation are the three most important components of a successful Teen Read Week celebration at a school or public library.

Communication and Collaboration

The most important aspect of Teen Read Week (TRW) is to talk to your students and your teen patrons about what they like. It sounds simple, but successful teen programming consists of activities that teens enjoy and who is a better expert than your target audience? If you don’t have a Teen Advisory Board or teen book club, ask your frequent patrons/students what they would like for a TRW party. Use or adapt this sample survey (pdf). Explain the ideas behind TRW and offer them some examples and let them suggest activities. One of my eighth grade students suggested this teen-friendly activity—host a movie trivia contest where you use quotations from famous comedic movies (such as Napoleon Dynamite) and teens have to guess which movie they’re from a la "Jeopardy" game rules. Buy prizes with the money from the copy machine.

For events, try backwards planning, in other words, know where you want to end up on TRW with teen events and then start planning in August. If you’re a public librarian, ask the principal or the school media specialist at your local middle/high school if you can visit during a work day and discuss TRW events coming up in October. Then, meet with the school media specialist and coordinate events. School librarians should contact their local public libraries and ask for the YA librarian or Teen Services director. According to Michele Gorman, Teen Services/Library Supervisor at Imaginon in Charlotte, NC, a “communicative partnership” is the first step for successful collaboration and involves sharing information about TRW for the benefit of both school and public libraries. Likewise, school librarians can promote literacy with TRW and highlight new genres with their students. TRW can even serve to enhance the school library’s mission of supporting school curriculum. The goal of Standard 5 from Information Power states, “The student who is an independent learner is information literate and appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information.” The tenants of TRW from YALSA highlight the same goal of promoting teen literacy, which intersects with many middle and high school English classes and their collaborations with the school library.

Implementation/Activities:

From the simple to the superb, these activities are suggestions to celebrate TRW in a school or public library. More ideas can be found on the Teen Read Week wiki and web site.

Soundtracks: Ask students to select their favorite humorous book. Their assignment is to make up a soundtrack for the book. They can compile any type of music/songs/etc. Have them bring in their cds/ipods with their book soundtrack. Then, ask the group to compare them. While this activity can be used on a variety of books or on the same book, students should be able to explain why certain songs belong with certain chapters, plots and characters of the book. (www.encompassculture.com)

Host a comedy movie festival with snacks.

Cartooning: invite local artists and amateur cartoonists to submit their creations and hang them in the library. Host an open house and display their cartoons.

Teach teens how to use animation software like Flash to create a short, animated cartoon. Then have a cartoon marathon, projecting them on a big screen.

Invite a local improv group to teach kids how to act or ask the drama teacher from the local school to help instruct.

Caricatures—or drawing on funny faces. Give kids print outs of celebrity comedians and let them draw on them.

Go through an obstacle course with “x-ray glasses” on and try to beat the other teams.

Game Night: Use board games like the Catchphrase game, Balderdash or Guesstures.

Make up a series of “wacky Olympic” challenges, where you have to perform with your opposite arm/leg, etc. like the fling-shot chickens. Use other gag games and be creative!

Contest: Invite teens to make a funny, short video like “Whose Line is it Anyway?”[A group acts out a scene, incorporating audience-suggested lines on pieces of paper given to them.] Then, the winner will be shown during TRW celebrations.

Host an improv comedy sketch. You can use lots of games from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” [For example, the Film Trailer—One person narrates a film trailer while the other people in the group act it out.]

Have a dunk tank, pie-throwing contest, sumo wrestling, gladiator joust, bungee run or other carnival-type event. Most of these activities require a rental, but PTAs are a possible funding source or propose that the public library can partner with the school.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Copy 20 book covers and the blurbs on the back/inside flap. Then create false blurbs for those same 20 books. Let the students decide which the true blurb is and which is false and why.


Registration and Feedback What's New? First Time Participating? Corporate Sponsors, Promotional Partners, & Nonprofit Supporters Plan Your Event Booklists Get Publicity FAQ Products WrestleMania Reading Challenge Teens' Top Ten		First Time Participating? Teen Read Week^TM is an initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), which is the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association. 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of Teen Read Week! Why is it important to celebrate? For a lot of reasons! Teens are not really reading for fun these days, and reading scores have not been improving for this age group over the last few decades. Also, it’s a great chance to let your school or your public library communities know how important teen services are! Let teens know the possibilities that exist within your doors, and within the covers of books. More than 4,800 school and public libraries registered to participate in Teen Read Week last year. Join the fun and register now! If you have other questions, please take a look at our most frequently asked questions or email YALSA. Why LOL? by Megan Fink Laughter can boost your endorphins, lower your blood pressure, heart rate and improve your immune system, not to mention lighten your mood. Thus, with this year’s theme of “LOL” for Teen Read Week, teens can enter their school and public libraries for a visit that will produce a smile and happy thoughts, if not have them laughing out loud! Communication, collaboration and implementation are the three most important components of a successful Teen Read Week celebration at a school or public library. Communication and Collaboration The most important aspect of Teen Read Week (TRW) is to talk to your students and your teen patrons about what they like. It sounds simple, but successful teen programming consists of activities that teens enjoy and who is a better expert than your target audience? If you don’t have a Teen Advisory Board or teen book club, ask your frequent patrons/students what they would like for a TRW party. Use or adapt this sample survey (pdf). Explain the ideas behind TRW and offer them some examples and let them suggest activities. One of my eighth grade students suggested this teen-friendly activity—host a movie trivia contest where you use quotations from famous comedic movies (such as Napoleon Dynamite) and teens have to guess which movie they’re from a la "Jeopardy" game rules. Buy prizes with the money from the copy machine. For events, try backwards planning, in other words, know where you want to end up on TRW with teen events and then start planning in August. If you’re a public librarian, ask the principal or the school media specialist at your local middle/high school if you can visit during a work day and discuss TRW events coming up in October. Then, meet with the school media specialist and coordinate events. School librarians should contact their local public libraries and ask for the YA librarian or Teen Services director. According to Michele Gorman, Teen Services/Library Supervisor at Imaginon in Charlotte, NC, a “communicative partnership” is the first step for successful collaboration and involves sharing information about TRW for the benefit of both school and public libraries. Likewise, school librarians can promote literacy with TRW and highlight new genres with their students. TRW can even serve to enhance the school library’s mission of supporting school curriculum. The goal of Standard 5 from Information Power states, “The student who is an independent learner is information literate and appreciates literature and other creative expressions of information.” The tenants of TRW from YALSA highlight the same goal of promoting teen literacy, which intersects with many middle and high school English classes and their collaborations with the school library. Implementation/Activities: From the simple to the superb, these activities are suggestions to celebrate TRW in a school or public library. More ideas can be found on the Teen Read Week wiki and web site. Soundtracks: Ask students to select their favorite humorous book. Their assignment is to make up a soundtrack for the book. They can compile any type of music/songs/etc. Have them bring in their cds/ipods with their book soundtrack. Then, ask the group to compare them. While this activity can be used on a variety of books or on the same book, students should be able to explain why certain songs belong with certain chapters, plots and characters of the book. (www.encompassculture.com) Host a comedy movie festival with snacks. Cartooning: invite local artists and amateur cartoonists to submit their creations and hang them in the library. Host an open house and display their cartoons. Teach teens how to use animation software like Flash to create a short, animated cartoon. Then have a cartoon marathon, projecting them on a big screen. Invite a local improv group to teach kids how to act or ask the drama teacher from the local school to help instruct. Caricatures—or drawing on funny faces. Give kids print outs of celebrity comedians and let them draw on them. Go through an obstacle course with “x-ray glasses” on and try to beat the other teams. Game Night: Use board games like the Catchphrase game, Balderdash or Guesstures. Make up a series of “wacky Olympic” challenges, where you have to perform with your opposite arm/leg, etc. like the fling-shot chickens. Use other gag games and be creative! Contest: Invite teens to make a funny, short video like “Whose Line is it Anyway?”[A group acts out a scene, incorporating audience-suggested lines on pieces of paper given to them.] Then, the winner will be shown during TRW celebrations. Host an improv comedy sketch. You can use lots of games from “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” [For example, the Film Trailer—One person narrates a film trailer while the other people in the group act it out.] Have a dunk tank, pie-throwing contest, sumo wrestling, gladiator joust, bungee run or other carnival-type event. Most of these activities require a rental, but PTAs are a possible funding source or propose that the public library can partner with the school. Can you judge a book by its cover? Copy 20 book covers and the blurbs on the back/inside flap. Then create false blurbs for those same 20 books. Let the students decide which the true blurb is and which is false and why. Survey