Week 1
Serving Young Teens and ‘Tweens, ch. 1
Naked Reading, ch. 1
40 Developmental Assets for Adolescents
40 Developmental Assets for Middle Childhood
Being an emerging teenager—a ‘tween—is often not fun, as these readings confirm. It is a time of such uncertainty. Young people at this age often long for so much (acceptance, popularity, a great body, among other things) and yet often feel as though they come up short. These difficulties plague even the most well adjusted young person with the optimum support network. So for those unfortunate older children and young adolescents who do not have the benefits of support at home, some kind of social life, academic success, and any number of other deficits, these years of development can be misery.
When we as adults add to this misery by demanding that kids challenge themselves in terms of their reading, it can seem overwhelming. Kids today are luckier than their predecessors were in that educators make great efforts to try and find accessible materials for a wide range of young people. But the challenge of matching readers with books—of just getting young people to read and keep reading—is a major one. Lesesne makes several points that resonated with me. She points out that there is “no one template” for “aliterates.” I have worked with freshmen who read below grade level for the past three years, and there is no one profile that fits them all. Several come from a background of poverty, but not all do. Several have parents who did not finish high school, and others have parents with multiple degrees. Some are behavior problems, mostly because they have come to hate school since they have never been any “good” at it; others will do anything a teacher asks them to do quietly, quickly, and with no resistance.
While I agree with much of Lesesne’s chapter and I think she has some great insight about young people, I do take exception with one statistic that she names. She says that 75% of graduating high school seniors do not plan to ever read another book. But more than 25% of these same people will go on to college, and I just cannot fathom that a college-bound teenager thinks (let alone wants!) that he/she will not read a book again, even outside of the classroom.
Anderson’s chapter also had some interesting points, but her chapter seems more directed at readers who are not familiar with people in this age range. I think I know them pretty well as a classroom teacher, though I realize that there is always more to learn about these interesting folks.
Sources:
Anderson, S. B. (2007). Serving young teens and ‘tweens. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.
Lesesne, T. S. (2006). Naked reading: Uncovering what tweens need to become lifelong readers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
40 developmental assets for adolescents. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.search-institute.org/content/40-developmental-assets-adolescents-ages-12-18
40 developmental assets for middle childhood. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.search-institute.org/40-developmental-asset-middle-childhood-8-12
