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Do teachers read book reviews?
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From: WMMayes at aol.com <WMMayes>
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 12:48:19 EDT
Fellow review-junkies:
Last night in Cincinatti, my partner Valerie & I did a presentation for teachers at Joseph?th bookstore, part of their teacher appreciation night. We are out on tour for our book (see sig at end of this message) and are appearing in a variety of venues and speaking to a wide mixture of parents and educators.
In light of this discussion, what was interesting to me was the fact that the mix of attendees was very broad--public and private schools, Montessori pre-K through high school, librarians active and retired, and teachers who taught a host of subjects: art, a band director, a science specialist... though no PE teachers, as Robin Smith mentioned. When questioned about what they wanted from us and our book, which is a big, fat consumer reference guide to books for children of all ages, they agreed that they wanted a handy guide, something that would help them find lots of ideas and ways to use books in addition to the books themselves.
Because we are such fans of these publications, we asked if they use BookLinks, the Horn Book Guide, and other review publications. Very few of these dedicated teachers knew of the materials that are available to them and the few that did were die-hard devotees of most of the journals mentioned in this discussion.
I visit a lot of schools every year and have lunch in a lot of staff rooms. I rarely see any evidence of review journals being made available in these places and almost never hear conversation about books, even when they are talking to me, who comes to their school as an ambassador of books. When I inquire of the librarian (and remember that a lot of elementary schools no longer have librarians) as to the use of these publications, I rarely find a knowledge of review publications beyond the Follett catalog and SLJ. When I do encounter the book devotee who knows books, reviews, and all the ancillary things needed to be a good librarian, they often lament how hard it is to get the teachers as a whole to be excited about book selection. The safe, easy choices, the tried and true win out in a contest for time almost universally in these type of situations.
I am hopeful that through the efforts of those of us in the CCBC-net community we can help pass on our enthusiasm and tricks of the trade to those who want to know more but don't know how to find out. Certainly, that's why I spend so much time travelling.
Walter the Giant Storyteller Walter M. Mayes co-author of VALERIE AND WALTER'S BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN: A LIVELY, OPINIONATED GUIDE, published by Avon WMMayes at aol.com
"Love, Food, Shelter, Clothing...Books!"
Received on Mon 21 Sep 1998 11:48:19 AM CDT
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 12:48:19 EDT
Fellow review-junkies:
Last night in Cincinatti, my partner Valerie & I did a presentation for teachers at Joseph?th bookstore, part of their teacher appreciation night. We are out on tour for our book (see sig at end of this message) and are appearing in a variety of venues and speaking to a wide mixture of parents and educators.
In light of this discussion, what was interesting to me was the fact that the mix of attendees was very broad--public and private schools, Montessori pre-K through high school, librarians active and retired, and teachers who taught a host of subjects: art, a band director, a science specialist... though no PE teachers, as Robin Smith mentioned. When questioned about what they wanted from us and our book, which is a big, fat consumer reference guide to books for children of all ages, they agreed that they wanted a handy guide, something that would help them find lots of ideas and ways to use books in addition to the books themselves.
Because we are such fans of these publications, we asked if they use BookLinks, the Horn Book Guide, and other review publications. Very few of these dedicated teachers knew of the materials that are available to them and the few that did were die-hard devotees of most of the journals mentioned in this discussion.
I visit a lot of schools every year and have lunch in a lot of staff rooms. I rarely see any evidence of review journals being made available in these places and almost never hear conversation about books, even when they are talking to me, who comes to their school as an ambassador of books. When I inquire of the librarian (and remember that a lot of elementary schools no longer have librarians) as to the use of these publications, I rarely find a knowledge of review publications beyond the Follett catalog and SLJ. When I do encounter the book devotee who knows books, reviews, and all the ancillary things needed to be a good librarian, they often lament how hard it is to get the teachers as a whole to be excited about book selection. The safe, easy choices, the tried and true win out in a contest for time almost universally in these type of situations.
I am hopeful that through the efforts of those of us in the CCBC-net community we can help pass on our enthusiasm and tricks of the trade to those who want to know more but don't know how to find out. Certainly, that's why I spend so much time travelling.
Walter the Giant Storyteller Walter M. Mayes co-author of VALERIE AND WALTER'S BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN: A LIVELY, OPINIONATED GUIDE, published by Avon WMMayes at aol.com
"Love, Food, Shelter, Clothing...Books!"
Received on Mon 21 Sep 1998 11:48:19 AM CDT
