A few tidbits from my Friday afternoon sessions…

From Raising Media-wise Kids:

Whoever tells the stories defines the culture –the presenter, David Walsh, from the National Institute on MEDIA and the FAMILY, repeated this phrase a lot. His point was that we need to look at what some of our digital habits will say about us. Something to think about…and although this presentation did not talk much about solutions or how libraries can affect the stories being told, it made me think about it. How can libraries do something about this?

A steady diet of violent images does not lead to violent behavior, it creates a culture of disrespect. What do you think about this? He also presented many scary statistics about our kids today and how much 'screen time' they get (TV and video games). It's big: 34 hours per week for the average child, compared to only 1/2 hour of alone time with dad or 1/2 hour reading for pleasure...I’d heard some version of this before, but it is still a huge societal issue. What can libraries do about this?

Since we did not discuss SOLUTIONS in this program, I am left feeling: "OK, what now? Let's do something!"

From The Need To Lead

This was a panel discussion on leadership. The panel members were all a part of the Urban Libraries Council, Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) program. The discussion focused also on leadership and how one can develop as a leader. Even though all the participants were a part of the ELI program and were leaders at the executive level, the discussion also focused on leadership in general and about different types of leadership and how one can grow as a leader.

One participant said there are 3 key attributes in one with leadership potential: Passion, Good Judgement and Courage.

Since this was a discussion, it is hard to summarize, especially 24 hours later. Looking at my notes right now they seem very general. The participants talked a lot about challenges they faced and how they grew from them. I'd heard some of what they said before, but it was the kind of thing where hearing it again at this particular place and time left me feeling energized!

Ready Set, READ!

I am happy to finally have something to share! My 8:30 session was excellent and I'll share more detailed notes with fellow Youth Services staff later, but here are some highlights...

This session was sorta like Ready to Read 2.0. The spotlight was on 5,6 and 7 year olds and the session focused on reading acquisition skills and the strategies kids have to learn in order to actually read. They have to use Meaning cues, Structure cues and Visual cues. More details on these later...

When a child knows and understands these 3 strategies and is able to use them quickly, cross checking one against the other, they are reading. We all do this, even as adults.

The second half focused on how they divided their readers into levels. They did this in order to help parents better help their children. Since there are so many levels used in education, the ones they settled on were:

• Pre-emergent,
• Emergent
• Early Fluent
• Fluent

They also then incorporated these levels into their library catalog!!! See more info here.

My final highlight deals with how we can help parents choose books that will support reading acquisition. She said it simply: Keep it easy for the child. Why? This builds fluency and confidence. She also said the five finger method leaves too many hard words. If a child struggles with more than 2 words the book is too hard.

Like I said, I'll have more info later. I am trying to keep this short and sweet and I see I have already rambled on for a good long while...