Paige Alfonzo

I have recently agreed to teach information literacy and writing skills to teens at a local juvenile detention center. As a librarian at an academic university, teaching teens is a totally new prospect to me. So to help tackle this challenging prospect I reached out to the education faculty at my university as well as the Information Literacy Instruction listserv. Listed below are the awesome suggestions and resources that were recommended to me:

Suggested Activities

• Debate
• Ebonics exercise- students volunteer slang terms to research in the OED, Academic Search Complete, etc

Resources for Finding Activities 

• MadLibs: 

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

• Story Starters:

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/

• Jeopardy (addressess antonyms, synonyms, prefixes, suffixes, etc.)

http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/ClassroomGames/Quizshow/Word%20Building%20Game%20Intermediate/index.html

• Spelling and voc. practice: (may be too easy):

http://www.spellingcity.com/

• Resources for literacy lesson plans and activities (Reading Rockets is a good source as well):

http://www.readwritethink.org/

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/

Associations

The Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies interest groups

• Library Services to Youth in Custody
• Library Service to Prisoners Forum

Articles

• Great article by Library Journal: Prison and Libraries: Public Service Inside and Out

This is just a start to the list of awesome recommendations that I have received. I will keep you updated on any additions. Also if you have any suggestions please comment below!