Career Prep for Teens with Disabilities

Employment for teens with disabilities is notoriously low, with 16.6% of teens with disabilities ages 16-19 having jobs. On the other hand, 29.9% of teens with no disabilities are employed (“Youth Employment Rate”). Libraries can help local teens land jobs—for the summer or beyond—by hosting career preparation workshops. These workshops should be open to, and helpful for, teens with disabilities and without, but some of the advice is exclusively for teens with disabilities.

See the whole "debate" at YALSAblog.

STEM vs. STEAM

I just wrote a curriculum of STEM programs for a rural library to hold for special education high school students. I was initially intimidated by the concept because I am a liberal arts major, a creative writing fellow, a librarian for the love of books. Thankfully I found tons of research and ideas for STEM programs online, especially on the YALSA wiki. The program ideas I came up with on my own, on the other hand, seemed more…artsy. Given my background, that’s not a huge surprise, but I felt defeated when I’d come up with what I thought was a great idea just to realize it’s too artsy.

See the whole "debate" at YALSAblog.

Christmas Storytime

Today was the Christmas storytime for two classes from SRVS! I read Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry and Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Semibold and Vivian Walsh.

Mr. Willowy's Christmas Tree is a cute rhyming story about a too-tall tree that keeps getting trimmed down. The craft tied in with that book - we made Christmas ornaments to hang on our trees at home!

Clockwise from top left: Hard at work // The whole world // LaQuita's signature style is brightly colored stripes // I love how this one looks like a Christmas tree with a huge heart beside it!

We ended the session by reading Olive, the Other Reindeer. This is a really fun book about Olive, a puppy who is convinced she's a reindeer because the words to the famous Christmas carol tell her so: "Olive, the other reindeer!" This is a great book to read aloud because listeners can sing along with the well-known lyric. There was a lot of laughter when everyone realized how Olive had misheard the song! I think we can all relate to misunderstood lyrics...

I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

Thanksgiving Storytime

Last Thursday, I held a Thanksgiving storytime for a class from SRVS. I read Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano, illustrated by Lee Harper, followed by One is a Feast for Mouse by Judy Cox, illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler.

Turkey Trouble reminded me a lot of Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise, except instead of disguising himself to catch dinner like Owl, Turkey is disguising himself so he won't become dinner!

One is a Feast for Mouse reminded me of the song "The Green Grass Grew All Around" because Mouse makes a huge stack of food morsel upon food morsel, and the stack is repeated each time something new is added. It's extra fun to point at the illustrations and have everyone say the item along with you. Spoiler alert: you will be out of breath by the end!

After reading those two books, we made turkeys using toilet paper rolls and construction paper feathers. To save time, I pre-cut the feathers, so each individual got ten and glued them to the back of their toilet paper roll. Then they used crayons to draw eyes and a beak on their turkeys!

I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

Hoot Owl Storytime

A project for my LS5343 Youth Programs class was to design a storytime program. I picked one of my son's favorite books, Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise by Sean Taylor. Check out my program ideas on Glogster to see the song and craft, too!

Halloween Storytime

Yesterday I held a Halloween storytime for two classes from SRVS. I know, I know - it's only the beginning of October! But for now, this program is only held once a month, so I had to share these excellent books while I could!


See the setup in a better light here.
I read:
- Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex
- Little Shop of Monsters by R.L. Stine and Marc Brown
- a few poems from Your Skeleton is Showing: Rhymes of Blunder from Six Feet Under by Kurt
   Cyrus, illustrated by Crab Scrambly
- Monster Mash by David Catrow

I encouraged the group to speak/sing along as I read Monster Mash; we also listened to the song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and danced. Then I turned off all the lights and asked for volunteers to tell ghost stories.

It was a fun program, but several of the individuals asked if we were making monster crafts. I had substituted the ghost stories section for craft time, since we have a little less than an hour for the whole program, and I pay for supplies out of pocket. For future Halloween programs, I'll definitely have a fun monster craft planned. Lesson learned!


I reviewed the first three books on the read-aloud list as "Best Books for
Halloween" and made a short video, so check it out for more on those titles.
I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

The Day the Crayons Storytime

Today was my second time holding a library program for adults with disabilities! Two classes from SRVS came for a colorful storytime! I read The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.

I made the books a little more interactive by letting the individuals call out what color was writing the letter based on the illustrations. In the second book, they had fun trying to remember what color crayon had renamed himself "Esteban"!

For the craft, individuals colored their own bookmarks with an assortment of crayons, trying to use them all equally so none would get mad and quit! Check out these beautiful bookmarks!

I've also written about previous library programs for adults with disabilities.

My First Storytime with SRVS!

The backstory behind my library program for adults with disabilities is explained here.
Two weeks ago today, on August 13, 2015, I held my first library program for two classes of adults with disabilities from SRVS! I was pretty nervous because my experience of reading aloud is limited to my one-year-old. I picked two books I really loved because I knew I'd be comfortable reading them aloud. Bonus: both books are really funny, so I knew my audience would be laughing!

I started with The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers, then read Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Jean Jullien. The craft was to make Hoot Owl pencil toppers out of construction paper. I pre-cut all the pieces for the owl because we have a little less than an hour for this program. The individuals glued them together, then taped the owl to their pencil. A SRVS teacher and I took requests from the individuals and we made disguises for each owl! See the super cool spy glasses pictured above.

This program was so much fun to lead, and I'm excited to continue it every month. I can't wait to see how it grows and develops into more!

Adapted Books for Teens with Disabilities

Adapted books are texts that have been modified to make them more accessible for people with different abilities. Making books more physically accessible could mean using fluffers, which are foam stickers or Velcro squares added to the corners of stiff pages to make them easier to grab and turn. Any book can be adapted with these fluffers, but it’s important to make sure the books that are modified can also be independently read by patrons. Turning regular texts into adapted books will not only round out your library’s collection, but it can also be a great makerspace project!

Click to read the full article on YALSAblog.

Inclusive Summer Reading Programs - YALSAblog

I was recently accepted to write for YALSAblog, and I couldn't be more thrilled! Most of my posts will focus on providing services to teens with disabilities. The first one has tips on making your library's summer reading program inclusive.

Whether you know the teens that frequent your library or not, disabilities can be hard to see. If you’re lucky, teens and their parents may be open about disabilities and how you can help them get the most out of their library experience. And if you’re not lucky, well, sometimes you'll deal with behaviors or unsatisfying encounters that make you wonder if you helped the patron at all. Thankfully, making your summer reading activities seem inviting to teens with disabilities is easy to do. With just a few tweaks to what you already have in place, your program can be inclusive! This way, it doesn’t matter if you know what disabilities you’re dealing with, or if you’re just taking a wild guess.

Read the whole article here!