Home » Posts tagged "scary stories" (Page 5)

New Educator Resources Page

One of the top drivers of traffic to MonsterLibrarian.com is a lesson plan on writing scary stories by Kellie Hayden. So I know many teachers visit our site, even if it’s just for a minute. In an effort to better serve the educators who visit us, I’ve started an Educator Resources page, with links to lesson plans, webquests, booklists, and activities related to Halloween, scary stories, and whatever else I think might be of interest to teachers and librarians looking for ideas or ways to integrate cool scary (or not so scary) stuff into what you’re doing. If you have additional resources to suggest you can send us suggestions at monsterlibrarian@monsterlibrarian.com. Just title your email “Educator Resources” , so it won’t get lost in the shuffle.

Posted on October 22, 2011 by , Reply

School Librarians, Children’s Librarians, and Teachers- What Will You Do For Halloween?

I know you already know what your lessons and programs will be- I had to plan months in advance when I worked in the public library and in the schools (why yes, I did work in both). For October, for the little ones, I had programs on bats and pumpkins and owls. For kids a little older, I made Jell-o brains and did programs on monsters… and for upper elementary, I told scary stories, with the lights out. Fourth and fifth graders like to think they are so cool, and they’ll tell you they are scare-proof, but High Beams scared them stiff and Tailypo mesmerized them. If they’d been a little older, I would have loved to do a reading of the Tell-Tale Heart.

So already this year I have gotten a call from my son’s school, where they were concerned because he kept asking for books about monsters and didn’t want the non-scary, age-appropriate suggestions he was given. And when they talked about school parties Halloween was not one they mentioned. Valentine’s Day, sure, but not Halloween. I hope they just overlooked it. It is such a great opportunity to get kids involved in art projects, practicing listening and speaking skills (I’ve taught storytelling to third graders), measurement (my son is obsessed with Halloween cookbooks, and you’ve got to be able to measure to cook).

One of the coolest places we get hits from here is a lesson plan from a education website, and that always brings us extra visitors at this time of year. And here’s a site that just linked to us as a good place to come to build literacy skills. There is a place for Halloween and for a good scary story in the classroom or library. How do you incorporate these into your lesson plans or library programming? If you send me your plans, I’ll post them on the site for other teachers and librarians to find.

Thanks!

Posted on August 27, 2011 by , Reply

Summer Reading Is Killing Me!

As the end of school nears (well, here it’s actually over) stories about summer reading loss and editorials in favor of a year round calendar start to make an appearance.  Politics aside, research really does show that kids who don’t read over summer break actually backslide in their reading ability and skills. Enter the required summer reading list.

Here are a couple of books that appear on the the local high school’s reading list for kids going into their sophomore year of high school.

  • Night by Elie Wiesel
  • How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
  • I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier

Are these really books teens should read on their own? I’m not saying that tenth graders are unable to read the words, but the content is pretty disturbing. To be fair, the list also includes Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and students are required to read only one of the books on the list (there are about 20), while they can choose the other. But still. Kelly Gallagher, author of Readicide, discusses the problem of assigning a book like Night in his book- it’s a powerful book, but not a book I’d call recreational reading. I might be wrong, but I don’t think it’s likely to inspire recreational reading, either.

But there ARE a lot of great resources for encouraging summer reading. Your local library probably has a summer reading program (ours does- in fact, it has separate programs for kids, YA’s and adults), and if you or your kids aren’t intrinsically motivated to pick up a book and read, go sign up and you’ll usually get prizes for reading- free food, books, and so on. Generally the library has lists of books for different age ranges that can get you started.Don’t be scared to ask the librarian (a surprising number of people are).

There are also some fun websites with reading recommendations for kids and teens. I’ll just mention a few.Believe me, there are many!

  • Jon Scieszka, author of many awesome books for kids, has a great program called Guys Read, aimed at, well, getting guys to read. I love the categories of books on the site! You can’t not, with topics like “At least one explosion” and “Mysterious Occurences” stored in their vault. As a bonus, right on the home page, if you scroll down and look under “Let’s Get To The Books”, there is a list of “scary stories”. Guys Read actually promotes scary stories for kids! Go there, check it out, and then check some of those books out of your library.
  • James Patterson also sponsors a website intended to promote reading called ReadKiddoRead. While some of the booklists are outdated, the current reviews are great, and the site is geared toward creating an online community supportive of getting all kinds of kids reading. I’d say this one is aimed much more at parents and educators than Guys Read is, but it’s another resource with suggestions for all kinds of reads.
  • Finally, some good lists for summer reading choices for teens can be found through YALSA, the American Library Association’s division for young adult library services, particularly their “Best of the Best”.

Oh my gosh, it’s a flood of books! Kelly Gallagher would be proud. Pick a couple and read them on your own, or together with your kids, your family, your friends…  Just do it.  And have a great summer.

Posted on June 7, 2011 by , Reply
First « 23456 » Last