Cover Your Assets

1
Cover Your Assets!

• Building resiliency and positive youth
  development through school library media programs

Shelley Mains LIS 431 Summer 2007
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Contents

• Workshop Introduction 1
• Table of Contents 2
• Audience 3
• Objectives 4
• Workshop Grid 5
• Activity 6-7
• Adolescent Development 101 8
• Buzz Groups 9
• Resiliency 10-13
• Building Resiliency through the School 14-23
• Library Media Center
• Activity Design A Program 24
• Final Words of Inspiration 25
• Sources 26
• Evaluation 27

3
Audience

• 5-15 school library media specialists, library
  staff and volunteers

4
Objectives

• Participants can identify the 5 Is of
  adolescent development
• Participants can define resilience and describe a
  strategy for building resiliency in a school
  library media setting

5
Workshop Grid
6
A Hand-y Activity

• Thinking back to adolescence.

Whats a word that describes adolescence?
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Think about itAre these wordspositive or
negative?
Researchers and youth-serving organizations are
starting to look at the assets of teens and
adolescents, rather than just the negatives,
risks, and challenges.
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But first,Adolescent Development 101

• Adolescents need to accomplish certain
• developmental tasks in order to become healthy,
• mature adults.

• These tasks can be defined as the Five Is of
  Adolescent Development
• Independence
• Integrity
• Intimacy
• Intellect
• Identity
• (Haffner, 2001)

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Many of the troubling behaviors of adolescence
can be understood in terms of these developmental
tasks.
Buzz, buzz In your group, go back to thinking
about that risk you took as an adolescent. Can
you tie it to any of the Five Is?
10
Flaunt your Assets!

• What enabled you survive your risk taking youth
  and make it to this point in your life?
• These are called developmental assets or
  protective factors and foster something called
  resiliency.

11
What is resiliency?

• the ability to bounce back successfully despite
  exposure to severe risks.
• (Benard, 1993)

12
Resiliency, continued

• In recent years, much research has been conducted
  to determine what factors promote resiliency.
• Example The 40 Developmental Assets, by the
  Search Institute in Minneapolis, MN (handout)

13
Resiliency and Youth Development

• Positive youth development is an approach
  toward youth that builds on their potential and
  helps counter the problems that may affect them.

Jones, 2002
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How can a school library media program foster
resiliency?

• How can school media specialists promote
  resiliency and develop assets? The answer is to
  base the media centers programs, services,
  goals, and objectives on the protective factors
  that have been proven to promote resilience and
  competence in youth.
• Jones, 2003

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Developmental Asset 1Mentoring and Making
Connections

• One of the most important protective factors for
  children and teens at risk is a caring
  relationship with at least one adult.
• Think back to the adult you noted in the hand
  exercise earlier. What did they do that was
  helpful to you? What qualities did that person
  have?

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Developmental Asset 1Mentoring and Making
Connections(continued)

• Media specialists have opportunities to connect
  with children and teens in ways that classroom
  teachers do not because we tend to work with
  students in a one-on-one supportive relationship,
  helping them find and use information on a
  variety of topics, both academic and personal.
  Jones 2003
• We need to recognize and take advantage of those
  opportunities to connect!

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Developmental Asset 2Reading

• Several studies have found that resilient young
  people are often readers.
• School library media specialists play a unique
  role in promoting reading for its own sake and
  connecting teens with books theyll love.

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Developmental Asset 2Reading (continued)

• Creative approaches to getting adolescents
  excited about reading
• Technology is our friend! Use web-based,
  multimedia author/book websites, audiobooks, etc.
  to excite kids who are plugged in.
• Involve students as collection development
  advisors give them catalogs to review for
  interesting titles, have them check out online
  booksellers, take them on trips to bookstores,
  and let them recommend books and periodicals for
  purchase. Make sure you take their input very
  seriously!

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Developmental Asset 2Reading (continued)

• Use students as reviewers/promoters of
  collection post brief reviews written by
  students around the library, start a blog or wiki
  of recommended books and book discussions.
• Make sure your collection includes the kinds of
  books kids want to read, even if adults dont
  consider them the most redeeming titles (e.g.
  graphic novels, romances, horror)
• Include periodicals in your collection! Many
  young people prefer to read magazines.
• Help organize and host book clubs for
  recreational, not just school-related reading

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Developmental Asset 3Problem-Solving Skills

• Teens who are able to research and use
  information and other resources to solve problems
  are more likely to be resilient. (Jones, 2003)
• Teaching information literacy prepares students
  to find and use information not only for school
  achievement, but to confidentially investigate
  personal issues.

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Developmental Asset 3Problem-Solving
Skills(continued)

• Young people also develop problem-solving skills
  by reading fiction about youth who deal with
  issues to which they can relate.

22
Developmental Asset 4Social Skills

• How does a school library promote social skills?
• Utilize cooperative learning strategies in the
  classroom
• Create extracurricular social opportunities
• Example The Lunch Bunch, created by librarian
  Nelle Martin at a Florida High School. She
  created a haven in the library for socially
  reticent students to hang out during lunch
  bought board games, created volunteer jobs for
  students, etc.
• Other examples after school library club,
  computer gaming club, book clubs, allowing
  library to be used for other social
  groupsknitting club, etc.

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Developmental Asset 5Hobbies and Interests

• Survey students about their hobbies and
  interests, and select books to encourage and
  support them.
• Help students research hobbies and interests
  online.

• Develop library displays on topics of
  interest
• Invite community members to give workshops and
  demonstrations.

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Activity

• In your small groups, develop one program for a
  school library media center that builds one of
  the developmental assets listed in your handout
  40 Developmental Assets.

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Some final words of inspiration

• Resilience research supports what school media
  specialists have known all along the media
  center is not only the heart, but also the soul
  of the school.
• Jones, 2003

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Sources

• Bernard, Bonnie. (1993). Fostering resiliency in
  kids. Educational Leadership, 51, 44-48.
• Haffner, D. (2001). The Five Is of Adolescent
  Development. In Beyond the Big Talk Every
  Parents Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy
  Teens, From Middle School to College (49-56). New
  York Newmarket.
• Jones, Jami L. (2003). I build reiliency. Library
  Media Connection, 21(4), 48-49.
• Jones, Jami L. (2003). I build resiliency The
  role of the school media specialist. School
  Libraries Worldwide, 9(2), 90-99.
• Jones, Patrick. (2002). New directions for
  serving young adults means building more than our
  collections. Journal of Youth Services in
  Libraries, 15(3), 21-23.

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Evaluation