Week 2 Reflection
What developmental assets are best suited to tweens?
I think there are four external developmental assests that best suited to tweens. Family support is the foremost important asset because family life provides high levels of love and support. The relationship between children and their families is the foundation upon which children's lives depend. The care and support of the family is crucial to a child's overall successful development. Strong families and healthy children create thriving communities. Positive family communication happens when parents and child communicate effectively. The children feel comfortable to seek advice and counsel from parents. They could talk openly to their parents about what happens at school. It helps them to feel like they have their parents to talk to when they needed to. It is very important for parents to be available at all time to talk to their kids. Tweens are going through many transitions at this stage so they need to have their parents to guide them and provide support for them. Parent involvement in Schooling is another developmental asset best suited to tweens. Parents need to be actively involved in their kid’ school so they know how kids are doing at school. What need to be done to help their kids get the best academic achievements? Or how to help their kids improve in school if their kids are not up to speed? These are some few factors why parents need to communicate with their children’s school.
“Children as resources” is another important development asset. Child should be included in decisions at home and in the community. Parents need to ask their children’s opinion when making important decisions. This can help them think cognitively and develop early decision-making skill. They will learn when they watch you make the decision and later on in their life. In order for children to grow up healthy, they need to feel safe at home, school, and in the neighborhood. This helps them focus more on school then on the violence around them. Living in a violent household or neighborhood effect the children mind and body. They will be withdrawn and not want to go home or go out.
Week 3 Reflection
"Understanding Kids in the Middle." Principal (Reston, Va.) 86.4 (2007): 74-5.
After reading this article about middle school kids, I remember myself being a kid in middle school. I came to the U.S when I was in the middle of 7th grade. It was a very huge transition for me. Everything was different for me here in the U.S. I was so miserable and depressed because middle school here is the opposite of middle in Vietnam. In the article “Understanding Kids in the Middle”, Weiner stated that “due to musculoskeletal alterations, students have a difficult time sitting still for any length of time. No wonder they squirm and wiggle in their chairs and become distracted! Try addressing their physical needs by having them move around every 15 to 30 minutes with the creation of stations.” However, school system in my old country is totally different. Students would have to stay in one classroom throughout the day. Every period, teachers would come and leave, not the students. Therefore, when I came here, I had to pick up and stuff and run from classroom to classroom. I didn’t know the way around school and got lost easily. I became resistant to go to school. I hated it so much that I pretended to be sick just to stay home. My parents would have to drag me out of bed and put me on the bus. I still remember one of my friends in middle school used to laugh at me when she saw my dad at the bus station. It was the most horrific time of my life. However, once I got adjusted in school, I started to like it because I learned to be vocal and outgoing, not a timid girl any more. I was active in class and participated in my non-academic activities which I never thought I would be doing in Vietnam.
As we learn more about the emotional and physical changes that middle-schoolers are going through, we start to develop more curriculum that are suitable for their stages. It helps us to create the programs around their needs. Weiner mentioned in this article many strategies to “structure the class lessons to be relevant and filled with a variety of instructional strategies. For example, tiering assignments encourages teachers to identify students’ early and advanced readiness, and to structure the assignment requirements based on the identified levels. Another excellent strategy is to use learning menus. Students are given choices of tasks to complete in a unit of study—entrée (required), side-dish tasks (pick and choose), dessert tasks (for enrichment)—and students pick from this menu of options for each aspect of the assignment.”
Week 4 Reflection
Tweens 'R' Us. New York Times Magazine,6.31. Retrieved December 14, 2009
How do marketer's understanding of tweens impact our understanding of the age group?
Well, my reaction to this article is “shocked”. I couldn’t believe that this demographic is beign referred to as “sophisticated with wallets”. Ha ha ha…. They are not working yet they spent an estimated $15 billion a year and “heavily influence'' more than $30 billion in other spending by parents. No wonder why companies and marketers are too busy targeting this group. While and after reading “Tweens ‘R’ Us” by Ann Hulbert, I have to admit I was very shocked at first. The way that our youth is referred to felt so very cruel, almost if there was this formula to brain washing our future adults. But then I stopped and give it another thought, well, this was a consumer, marketing piece and not a public service lets-help-our- youth piece. After thinking about it in these terms I was surprised to see how easily I understood the point “tweens will do what society tells them they should do”.
Well, take this and apply it to public library. The role of the library is the same as that, only in a much more encouraging healthy manner. If our society is telling them through commercialize that tweens need to buy this type of clothing and watch that reality TV show and eat those toaster pastries I think libraries need to focus on what their inside is shaping into. What reasoning skills do they have? What is their literacy level? Do they have the tools to become productive and healthy adults? I think that this is what the public library is selling to tweens.
Public libraries need to target the tween popular just like the commercial industry does. WE need to start thinking like mainstream competitors, bookstores and amazon. We need to focus on what we can offer to the tween and how we can sell it so they will be willing to buy it, at no cost of course! Public libraries are always selling free information, entertainment, and resources but we need to do a better job at marketing our services.
Week 5 Reflection
What are the activities, issues, etc. that are popular with tweens?
The activities that the text books suggested are very interested and useful but I would like to mention those I work with at my local library. I work with a teen librarian to develop programs for tweens and teens at the main library in my city. We consulted many text books, online websites and other libraries to see what they offer their teens. And here are some of the programs that we created which attracted a lot of kids age 10-17. Game night is the program that pulled in the most kids. We have Wii, X-box and Play-Stations. They can play by themselves for battle with their friends on the Wii. Many of these kids are already playing video games at home but they love to come to the library to meet their friends to play with or battle against. Plus, some the game we have at the library but they don’t have at home. Therefore, they can try out different games and play against kids other than their friends.
“Great Teen Book Swap” is another popular program we have at the library. Here’s how it works: The Teen Librarian will bring out several books (new titles, old titles, and titles that have not been published yet) and allow teens the chance to browse through them for one that they’d like to keep. They will, in turn, swap the librarian a book mark review by the end of the month. Many kids are starting to like this program because they get to keep for the book for free.
The last program that I’d like to mention is the “Teen GN Reviewers Club”. This is a graphic novel/comics/manga club for teens to review new and upcoming titles that may or may not go on our library shelves. These books are very popular among the tweens/teens population at our library. The circulation rates for these books are very high compared to other books. And I think this holds true for all the tweens and teens out there. They love to read graphic novels. Therefore, our library used this as a way to get them together to form a club. They can come and talk about the ones that they are reading or just come check out what we have on our shelves.
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