BOOKS + TECHNOLOGY = 21 ST CENTRURY LEARNERS

1. ANITA TEEL KELLE MEEKER ANNA WILLIAMS BOOKS + TECHNOLOGY =21ST CENTRURY LEARNERS

2. ANITA TEEL SILOAM SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL MEDIA SPECIALIST HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARIES & URBAN FICTION

3. What is Urban Fiction? • This genre is often characterized by sex, drugs, violence, teen parents • Teens like the real life aspect • The characters often have “attitude” • Depicts inner city life • Multi-cultural characters

4. HISTORY OF THIS GENRE • Started in th ‘70s during the Black Power movement • Notable names: Robert Beck, Iceberg Slim, Donald Goins, Claude Brown • 80’s & 90’s • 1999, Sister Souljah’sThe Coldest Winter Ever

5. Controversial • High school, yes • Middle school, maybe • Look for teen friendly titles

6. Criticism • Libraries are promoting trashy books • Content influences teens, glamorized drug use, gangster culture • Promotes negative sterotypes

7. Positives • Cautionary tales • Need to promote urban fiction in conjunction with good writing • Distinguish between urban fiction for teens and that for adults • Huge appeal for reluctant readers • Teens like the genre therefore they read more

8. NEED TO KNOW • Know the genre • Develop the collection • Know your community • Develop a readers’ advisory list

9. POPULAR AUTHORS • Paul Volponi • Sapphire • Sharon Draper • Coe Booth

10. Popular titles Consider adding some of these to your collection.

11. Baby Girl by Lenora Adams • Booklist (March 1, 2007 (Vol. 103, No. 13)) • Young, angry, and pregnant, Sheree has run away. In a lengthy letter, she tells her mother why she left. The litany is long: her mother's smoking and sexual encounters with men, her father's absorption with his young son and wife, her friend Ange's abortion, and Damon, the 25-year-old drug dealer who has stolen her heart and self-respect. Even Austin, her high-school buddy who refuses to show romantic interest in her, gets a mention. Then Sheree's mother responds with a letter of her own, begging her daughter to return, start over, and raise her child at home. Sheree's story is an unfortunate, far-too-typical scenario of children raising children, absent fathers, and women using their bodies to gain money and power. The author worked in a homeless shelter for women, and in this powerful novel, the voices and situations ring with authenticity, and the ending is grim but honest.

12. Kendra by Coe Booth • Horn Book starred (January, 2009) • Kendra, fourteen, lives with her strict but loving grandmother. Hot guy Nashawn has Kendra doing things that shame as well as excite her. Does Nashawn love her? Does her recently returned mother? Kendra's present-tense narration is intelligent and honest, grounded by her basic common sense. Her parents, themselves teens when she was born, are especially believable as well-intentioned but flawed.

13. Tyrell by Coe Booth • Booklist starred (November 15, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 6)) • "You don't hardly get to have no kinda childhood in the hood."At 15, Tyrell is trying to keep his little brother in school and safe in their roach-infested shelter in the Bronx. He has dropped out of school, and Moms wants him to sell drugs to make money. But Tyrell is too smart. He doesn't want to end up in prison like his dad, so he tries to organize a neighborhood party to raise money. His girlfriend, Novisha, isn't happy that Tyrell has dropped out. She loves him, and they make out, but he respects her wish to remain a virgin. Booth, who was born and raised in the Bronx, is now a social worker there, and her first novel is heartbreakingly realistic. There are some plot contrivances--including Tyrell's stumbling upon Novisha's diary--but the immediate first-person narrative is pitch perfect: fast, funny, and anguished (there's also lots of use of then-word, though the term is employed in the colloquial sense, not as an insult). Unlike many books reflecting the contemporary street scene, this one is more than just a pat situation with a glib resolution; it's filled with surprising twists and turns that continue to the end.

14. UPSTATE BY KalishaBuckhanon Seventeen-year-old Antonio and his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Natasha, find their love tested when Antonio is wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.

15. Played by Dana Davidson Kylie Winship is overwhelmed by the attention she is getting from handsome Ian Striver; however, when the relationship begins to heat up, Kylie must decide whether to listen to her heart or her head.

16. Jason and Kyra by Dana Davidson Brainy, less-than-popular Kyra Evans and basketball captain Jason Vincent become Cross High's most unlikely couple, falling fast for each other while working on a class project, but their intense love is threatened by an unexpected betrayal.

17. Ball Don’t Lie by Matt De la Pena Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives to play basketball at school and at Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles and is headed for the pros, but he is unaware of the many dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream.

18. America by E. R. Frank America, a runaway boy who is being treated at Ridgeway, a New York hospital, finds himself opening up to one of the doctors on staff and revealing things about himself that he had always vowed to keep secret.

19. Monster by Walter Dean Myers While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script, as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

20. Life in Prison by Stanley (Tookie) Williams The author, imprisoned on Death Row since 1981, describes life in prison, warning young readers not to make the mistakes he made.

21. Drama High Series L. Divine Darkness Before Dawn Sharon Draper Romiette and Julio Sharon Draper Drive-by Lynn Ewing Party Girl Lynn Ewing Bang! Sharon Flake Money Hungry Sharon Flake Begging for Change Sharon Flake What am I Without Him? Sharon Flake Bronx Masquerade Nikki Grimes Imani in Never Can Say Goodbye Jackie Hardrick First Part Last Angela Johnson Bluford High Series Paul Langan, Ann Schraff, Peggy Kern Cut Patricia McCormick Chill Wind Janet McDonald Spellbound Janet McDonald Twists and Turns Janet McDonald Hotlanta Series Denene Miller Slam! Walter Dean Myers Street Love Walter Dean Myers Scorpions Walter Dean Myers

22. Down These Mean Streets Thomas Piri Imani All Mine Connie Porter Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA Luis J. Rodriquez Rose that Grew from Concrete TupacShakur Afterlife Gary Soto Street Pharm Allison Van Diepen Rucker Park Setup Paul Volponi Black and White Paul Volponi Brothers Torres Coert Voorhees Like Sisters on the Homefront Rita Williams-Garcia Emako Blue Brenda Woods After Tupac and D. Foster Jacqueline Woodson Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X Push Sapphire

23. What’s on your shelves? Many of you have some of these titles, or titles like these. Remember these are great for reluctant readers, but be careful in your selections.

24. Animoto, Wordle, and Glogs, oh my Kelle Meeker, Board Certified English teacher Siloam Springs High School

25. 21st Century Book Reports By using technology , students not only organize information, but also create a product that encourages others to read.

26. Benefits of 21st Century Book Reports • Student Engagement • Access at school and home • Presentation Component • Consideration and Synthesis of Content – text, visuals, and audio • Authentic Product used to encourage others to read

27. Animoto • Educator Account - http://animoto.com/education • May want to use a google, yahoo, or hotmail address to set up account • May want to set up a dummy e-mail account

28. Animoto • Download images and music • From Internet • From Computer Text space is limited – Students have to be thoughtful in choices.

29. Animoto • Student Samples • http://animoto.com/play/3yCwsQbwwmyq14hVU8M1eA?autostart=true • http://animoto.com/play/lzw1hTJe2yRQ1S2EfpMwmg?autostart=true • http://animoto.com/play/i6TMweKO1xL3vSmjpQiW0w?autostart=true

30. GLOGSTER • On-line “poster” • Includes visuals, audio, video, text • Paperless storage of student work • Can be printed for display

31. Glogster URL:http://edu.glogster.com/ • Add 200 students free • Secure, Private site for student work

32. Student Glogs • http://ssvu5fm.edu.glogster.com/the-holocaust/?from_alert=true • http://szcjgo4.edu.glogster.com/oliver-twist/?voucher=3cfac626c53c2453955f52b265d03135

33. Wordle • Word Clouds • Save as a Word Document and embed in Glog or Animoto • Free Access • http://www.wordle.net/

34. Welcome to the World of ClassTools, Gaggle, and LibraryThing Anna Williams, High School English teacher Siloam Springs High School

35. Benefits of Interactive Tools • Allow access wherever there is an Internet connection • Students can practice appropriate online communication • Provide means to a paperless classroom • Focus on student responsibility and accountability

36. ClassTools • www.classtools.net • Interactive, free flash templates for educators • Host them on your own blog, website or intranet! • No signup, no passwords, no charge • Tons of samples

37. Gaggle • www.gaggle.net • Safe, teacher-controlled email accounts for students. • Includes message boards, homework drop boxes, digital lockers, blogs, and chat rooms • Free (with advertising)

38. LibraryThing • www.librarything.com • “A home for your books.” • Catalog your books from Amazon, the Library of Congress and 690 other world libraries. Import from anywhere. • Find people with eerily similar tastes. • Find new books to read. • Free Early Reviewer books from publishers and authors • Enter 200 books for free, as many as you like for $10 (year) or $25 (life). From librarything.com

39. Thank You Anita.Teel@sssd.k12.ar.us Kelle.Meeker@sssd.k12.ar.us Anna.Williams@sssd.k12.ar.us Siloam Springs High School 1500 W. Jefferson Siloam Springs, AR 72761 479.524.5134 x 500030 This material is uploaded on the AAIM website and on the SSHS Library website. http://sssd.k12.ar.us/webcenter/?u=teela