LIT has supported the school libraries at Belmont Academy, Passages Academy, and the school library collections at New York City’s juvenile justice centers and works with the Office of Children and Family Services at Brookwood residential facility in upstate New York. More recently, LIT helped fund magazine subscriptions for the School Program for Incarcerated Youth at the Nassau County Correctional Center on Long Island.

LIT gives these teens what they need and want—real and relevant programs and resources. What might have been boring becomes interesting and the teens become engaged in both learning and self-improvement.

LIT has funded two youth programs at Rikers Island—Drama Club and writing workshops facilitated by author, Robert Galinsky. In addition, recognizing the shift in alternatives to incarceration, LIT most recently supported Prison Writes, a writing program which supports literacy efforts working in the Closer to Home programs in New York City.

Many young adult authors have visited LIT sponsored programs over the years: Walter Dean Meyers, Tonya Bolden, Coe Booth, Matt De La Peña, Greg Neri, Lauren Oliver, Clay McLeod Chapman, and Torrey Maldonado. There is no substitute for meeting an author in person! So it was no surprise when the Empire Book Center and New York State Library Association presented the Empire State Book Award to LIT at its New York State Writers Hall of Fame Gala on June 7, 2016, in New York City.^[2] At the Award presentation, LIT was praised in its efforts “to improve the ability and desire of incarcerated youth to read, to offer encouragement, and motivation to seek a better future.”

Literacy for Incarcerated Teens continues to expand its efforts in providing much needed supplementary services and resources in the face of shrinking budgets and resources. LIT board members, former teachers, librarians, authors, social workers, and juvenile justice advocates all agree that literacy can lift incarcerated teens from their present lives to changed lives, and LIT wants to support that transformation. LIT knows change is possible and literacy can make it happen.

For more information, contact LIT4teens@gmail.com

References

[1] Neelum Arya, “State Trends: Legislative Victories from 2005 to 2010 Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System” (report, Washington, DC: Campaign for Youth Justice, 2011), 7.

[2] “Literacy for Incarcerated Teens to be Recognized,” Empire State Center for the Book, News, 2016.

The post Literacy For Incarcerated Teens first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

What is special about the award is that the winner is decided by the children themselves. Because many of the participants can’t even walk or talk yet, the voting process can get pretty interesting. “The voting process can be determined by each participating location,” explains Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book. “One library gave each child a large circle of construction paper. The books were laid out on the floor and the children each had to put their ‘dot’ on one of the books; their favorite. The librarian then just had to tally all the votes for books”[1] tells Walker. Those dots, along with lots of other votes from fifty-one counties across the state, made Won’s Hooray for Hat! the big winner. Hooray for Hat!, in addition to winning the Firefly Award, has also been named a NPR Best Book and Huffington Post’s Best Read-Aloud of 2014. Readers might also recognize Won’s work as the featured art on this year’s Children’s Book Week poster.

(L) Brian Won (R) Hooray for Hat!

With a young child of his own, Brian Won understands the challenges of creating a book that appeals to a young audience. “If the story doesn’t grab my six year old by the third spread, he’s ready to move to the next book. On the other hand, young readers can also be die-hard fans of a book. My wife and I have read Peggy Rathmann’s GOODNIGHT GORILLA so many times the visuals are etched in my brain. We are grateful that the book has only ten words.”[2]

Hooray for Hat! has a similar appeal of joyful simplicity. Walker says of Hooray for Hat!, “It’s fun and it showcases the idea that if you wake up grumpy, you don’t HAVE to stay grumpy all day. Also, the pictures and layout are clean, enjoyable, and well proportioned.”[3] In addition to being lots of silly fun, the story includes Every Child Ready to Read practices throughout, a requirement for nomination. Every Child Ready to Read emphasizes the important role parents play in helping their children the early literacy skills essential to reading success. Walker explains how Hooray for Hat! can make learning those skills a good time:

Talking: “Children can talk to their parents about ways to deal with feeling grumpy. They can talk about how the hats in the book affect each of the characters mood and what it’s like to get a surprise.”

Singing: “This book has some great repetition of the phrase ‘Hooray for Hat’ which can be chanted by the children, inviting them to play with language.”

Reading: “It’s a great story to read aloud with a group or one on one.”

Writing: “Writing with children as it relates to Every Child Ready to Read can also be thought of as practicing fine motor skills. As with any book, a child could practice turning pages, pointing to the animals, and it would be easy to make crafts based on this book, giving children even more opportunities to practice their fine motor skills.”

Playing: “Children are encouraged to play dress up or with their stuffed animals after reading this book. This would be a great book for a simple readers theatre [sic] as well.”

Even if you don’t live in Indiana, Hooray for Hat! would be a great addition to your library collection! Be sure to also look out for Brian Won’s new releases, including Secret Agent Man Goes Shopping for Shoes (Candlewick Press) written by Tim Wynne-Jones (to be released June 14) and Hooray for Today! (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), the sequel to Hooray for Hat!(to be released in September 2016).

Resources

Hooray for Today! Animated Trailer

Ladybug Award

Brian Won

Every Child Ready to Read

TeachingBooks.net

Indiana State Library

References

[1] Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book, in an e-mail interview with the author, May 23, 2016.

[2] Brian Won, children’s author, in an e-mail interview with the author, June 2, 2016.

[3] Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book, in an e-mail interview with the author, May 23, 2016.

The post And the Winner Is… first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

Working with government policymakers: Stiftung Lesen’s Lesestart, a program in Germany, supports libraries in educating parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children. A mix of non-profit and government partners provide book packs to families with young children, including pediatricians, libraries, and schools. In receiving the book packs from diverse groups, Lesestart teaches parents that reading affects many facets of their children’s life and development.

Creating a community of literacy: The Family Reading Partnership, located in Ithaca, NY, targets parents and children at different stages of development to support early literacy in children ages 0-5. Expectant mothers receive a children’s picture book as well as an adult book on the importance of literacy at prenatal visits, and children receive a higher level book when they register for kindergarten, marking the next stage of education.

Selecting appropriate language of instruction: Worldreader, located in Barcelona, Spain, serves fifty countries in Africa and Asia in providing access to over 27,000 e-books in forty-three languages. Books are distributed through e-readers and mobile phones in low- and middle-income countries served where phones are often more common than bathrooms or running water. Large international publishers donate licenses and small local publishers give large discounts to some of their best works.

Literacy in service of social goals: Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop serves youth who have been charged as adults in Washington, DC jails and federal prisons. The three-stage program motivates inmates to read with both reading and writing projects.

Providing access to readers with disabilities: Men with a Message Braille Program relies on eleven residents of the James T. Vaughn Correctional Facility in Delaware who create materials for visually-impaired residents of Delaware, and the American Printing House allows much of their work to reach the entire nation. Visually-impaired readers request translation of materials that range from worksheets and textbooks from K-12 classrooms, poetry and plays, and religious texts used for worship.

Click here to read more about these and other extraordinary literacy programs. See if any of the innovative techniques spark ideas you can use in your own organization.

Sources

http://www.read.gov/documents/BestPractices2015.pdf

http://www.read.gov/literacyawards/index.html

The post Library of Congress Literacy Awards 2015: Best Practices first appeared on Public Libraries Online.