What Curriculum resources are available for homeschoolers?

Before seeking out curriculum resources, homeschoolers will want to familiarize themselves with laws and regulations governing homeschooling. Start out by taking a look at the Maryland State Department of Education’s Home Instruction Fact Sheet. The Baltimore County Public School system’s Homeschooling Guide is a particularly valuable guide for homeschoolers. Here, you will find sections on homeschooling procedures, frequently asked questions about homeschooling, and other useful resources. The Baltimore County Public School site also provides a convenient link to the Maryland State Department of Education’s Voluntary State Curriculum. Homeschoolers can view the objectives for each grade level for the subjects that the Maryland Home Schooling regulations require you to include in your curriculum.

Homeschoolers looking for ideas for a curriculum for their children should start at our Home Schooling How-to Guide. Go directly to the section on Curriculum and Lesson Plans and you will find links to a variety of free Web resources. You’ll find several print sources listed as well, which are available for borrowing through interlibrary loan. One of these, Cathy Duffy’s 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, covers a number of related issues for homeschoolers such as learning styles and age appropriate learning.

It is always helpful to consult with other homeschoolers to see what curriculum and lesson planning resources they have used. You might want to try a national, state, or local homeschooling association. For links to these, go to the section of our guide that asks the question, “Are there home schooling organizations/associations?”. There, you will find information on such organizations as the American Homeschool Association, National Black Home Educators, and Homeschool Connections – Central Maryland.

If you would like more information on homeschooling, e-mail us through our Ask A Librarian service or contact the Social Science and History Department.

SLRC Treasures: Fiction & Young Adult Department

What are some of the hidden treasures of SLRC in the Fiction and Young Adult Department?

With over 250,000 items, the Fiction Department has the largest collection of fiction in the state of Maryland and is one of the largest in the country. The retrospective collection has items dating back to the early 1900’s and is especially strong in American and English novels from the 1930’s on.

The Young Adult Collection spans young adult fiction from the 1940’s to the present. Many of these titles are long out of print and represent the history of young adult literature in the U.S.

Are there reading/interest levels for graphic novels when recommending them to patrons?

There are quite a few good resources in both print and online that can aid you in you in finding age/interest levels in your graphic novel readers’ advisory work. They use various rating systems, so you will want to check their explanatory remarks.

Here are some books that you might find on your shelves:

500 Essential Graphic Novels: The Ultimate Guide by Gene Kannenberg (2008)
Divided into by genre and designates age levels as All ages, 12+, 15+ and 18+.

Graphic Novels: A Genre Guide to Comic Books, Manga, and More by Michael Pawuk (2007)
More inclusive than Kannenberg, listing all titles within series. Age levels are All ages, 10 and above, 13-15, 16-17, 18 and older.

The Librarian's Guide to Graphic Novels For Children and Tweens by David S. Serchay (2008)
Targeted specifically towards younger readers, this book uses the following age categories: younger elementary, older elementary and junior high, tweens and early teens, all ages (but appealing more to younger readers).

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Graphic Novels by Francisca Goldsmith (2010)
While this book is the most current and has much useful information on readers’ advisory, its only special designations are “appropriate for younger readers (under sixteen in some communities, as young as under twelve in others)” and “crossover titles for readers unfamiliar with the format.”

Two good books devoted exclusively to manga are:

Manga: The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson (2007)
Includes age levels with film rating equivalents: All ages (G-PG), 13+ (PG-PG13), 16+ (PG13-R), 18+ (‘hard’ R- NC17).

Understanding Manga and Anime by Robin E. Brenner (2007)
Contains both the publishers’ age ratings and the recommendations of the author (grades 6-8, grades 7-9, grades 9-12, adult).

Web Resources

YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens
Lists for 12-18 year-olds beginning 2007; with a top ten list for each year.

No Flying No Tights
Includes three separate sections of reviews: the Main site for teens, Sidekicks for ages through 12, and the Lair for older teens and adults.

Graphic Novels: Resources for Teachers & Librarians
Lists of recommended titles (by genre) for all ages, younger teens (11-14), older teens (17 and older,) plus a list of titles recommended for girls and a list of “teen favorites not recommended for younger readers.” The site also includes lists by genre and publisher.

Checking publisher web pages can also give you information on age levels. One very good example is the Dark Horse Comics page for libraries. The backlist is even sorted by age level (8+, 10+, 12+, 14+, 16+, 18+, all ages).

You can keep up-to date by reading reviews in professional journals:

• VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)
• School Library Journal
• Library Journal
• Booklist
• Publisher’s Weekly

And, of course, knowing your collection and your readers is the best way of knowing what titles to recommend.

Review Thursday: Nonfiction

The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures: Internships, Summer Jobs, Seasonal Work, Volunteer Vacations, and Transitions Abroad by Michael Landes (2005)

Do you know a recent graduate looking for experience? Maybe there is a library customer who is trying to make a career change but needs to gain certain skills to improve his/her resume. The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures: Internships, Summer Jobs, Seasonal Work, Volunteer Vacations, and Transitions Abroad offers a number of possible venues as tools for their job search.

Michael Landes starts with a number of life-planning exercises and leads into a variety of sections, which include real-life stories, websites, and associations for further exploration. Each section outlines whether the experience offers a stipend or if it’s a volunteer opportunity. Some programs are geared specifically for college students or recent graduates, while others are open for anyone over eighteen. The reviews also offer contact information and how to apply for participation. Short-term work may be the tool you need to build the skills, experience, and connections with people to get to the next phase in the job search.

What resources do you suggest for someone trying to improve their math skills?

One very good set of books is the Barron’s E-Z series (which seems to have replaced the Easy Way series), for example Barron’s E-Z Math or Barron’s E-Z Algebra. The Teach Yourself Visually series has also started to publish books about math, including Teach Yourself Visually Algebra and Teach Yourself Visually Calculus. These book made their name by publishing easy-to-use computer books with full-color pictures showing each step in a process.

As far as web sites go, Maths Is Fun is one of the better ones. It’s a British site (hence “maths” instead of “math.”), and it has simple tutorials to teach people about all kinds of math problems. There are also worksheets and games to help you practice what you’ve learned. The site is geared toward children, but it works well for adults too.

One other great website is Purple Math, which was started by a former math teacher and has tutorials on algebra and word problems.

If you’re looking for more assistance on working with math problems for customers, check out SLRC’s Math for Librarians online course!

A customer is interested in graphic novels – where should I start?

Over the last decade or so, the interest in graphic novels has exploded, and there’s been an equal increase in the number of published titles. Graphic novels aren’t just for super heroes anymore; they have grown to cover as may genres as found in any literature. So, when you’re helping a customer look for graphic novels, or even someone just looking for a good read, remember the wide range of options. You can find science fiction, horror, westerns, war stories, as well as autobiographical and literary graphic novels that are as emotionally complex and satisfying as works in more traditional mediums. There are also many long running series of manga, the Japanese term for comics, that are very popular.

When doing reader’s advisory it’s also important to take into account the customer’s reading level. As more and more styles and subjects are covered, there's been an equal increase in works with mature themes and art. Getting to know the titles will help you give good recommendations.

There are a lot of great graphic novels beyond the familiar names published by Marvel (Spider-man, X Men, Fantastic Four), and DC (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman). ALA also has a yearly list of the best graphic novels for teens. Check out the list below to learn about some of the best works out there:

• 500 Essential Graphic Novels : The Ultimate Guide by Gene Kannenberg
  
• The 101 Best Graphic Novels by Stephen Weiner
• The Librarian's Guide to Graphic Novels for Children and Tweens by David S. Serchay
• Graphic Novels: A Genre Guide to Comic Books, Manga, and More by Michael Pawuk
• Manga : The Complete Guide by Jason Thompson

Thursday Reviews: Young Adult Sci-Fi Quick Picks

The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (2004)

Escaping from a cruel orphanage that uses children as test subjects, Cosmo Hill has a near-death experience during which he sees strange blue creatures which seem to feed on the life force of humans. He is then saved by a group of people who call themselves the Supernaturalists and have taken on the task of trying to eradicate the blue “parasites” to protect the city.

Escape from Memory by Margaret Peterson Haddix (2003)

Thinking she has nothing to hide, Kira lets her friends hypnotize her at a party and suddenly remembers herself fleeing a war-torn country with her mother, who is speaking a strange language. Now that these memories have been revealed, Kira and her mother are in serious danger.

Flip by David Lubar (2003)

Underachiever Ryan and his perfectionist twin sister Taylor find alien disks in the woods, which when used properly give them the power of famous people from the past. This results in a lot of fun but ends up getting them into more trouble than ever.



Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini (2004)

Considered a dweeb at school and ignored by the girl of his dreams, Jeremy Heere receives help from a “squip”, a supercomputer in pill form that gives him constant instructions on how to be cool. He quickly becomes popular but finds that having a computer bossing him around has a definite dark side.

Sailor Database Review: Discovering Collections

Discovering Collection is a Thompson Gale database aimed at middle and high school students. It is designed to introduce students to the strategies for conducting research and obtaining reliable information on a topic. The database provides aggregated links to full text sources on a broad variety of topics. The overwhelming majority of returns are articles generated specifically for this database or for other proprietary Gale resources.

Students can explore a subject either by following one of six “topic trees” (Cultures, Geography, Literature, Science, U.S. History, World History), or, alternatively, by performing basic or advanced searches. The basic search returns results using both keyword and subject searches, and the advanced search offers greater precision through the use of Boolean operators. Even basic returns can be limited by content level and content type. Articles in the database are available in written form or as audio MP3s. Discovering Collection would be useful for students who are required to do research on topics for which paper resources are limited and who are not permitted to use internet resources.

Sailor Database Review: Books and Authors

Gale’s Books and Authors electronic database replaced Ebsco’s Novelist for Maryland public libraries July 1st. This database is modeled on Gale’s long-standing readers’ advisory print product What Do I Read Next. Books and Authors has several unique features that should be of interest and benefit to customers as well as to library staff. Its “Read-a-Like” wizard enables the user to supply a title that the user has enjoyed, and based on subject, author, or genre criteria that the user specifies, the database will suggest books to read. Its “Who, What, Where, When” feature enables the user to browse books by character, subject, location, and time period. The “My Reading Room” feature lets the user save and modify reading lists, reviews that the user has written, and booklists that the user has created.

Users can search by author, title, keyword, series, or genre, and they can filter by age group (adult, young adult, or children). Non-fiction as well as fiction titles are included. Extensive lists or award winners are included, as well as expert picks, librarian picks, and community picks. There is also an advanced search feature as well as an extensive help feature.

A student approaches the reference desk needing to research a specific country. What are some good resources I can use to help them?

Let’s make sure we get off on the right track by using our model reference behaviors to determine the specific type of information our customer wants. Is our customer a young student looking for basic geographic and political information including a picture of the country’s flag? Is it an older student trying to find out about a country’s history, culture, and customs? Or is our customer someone planning a visit to a particular country?

The World Book Encyclopedia is a great place to start our research whether we’re using the print or electronic version. The articles are well-organized, clearly written, and offer maps and illustrations. The following websites are particularly useful for general information about specific countries:

• CIA World Factbook
• Country Studies – Federal Research Division, Library of Congress
• InfoPlease – Countries of the World
• Portals to the World from the Library of Congress
• U.S. Department of State Background Notes

Have you ever had a request from a student for an outline map of some area? Try Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Education Place: Outline Maps resource.

Sometimes students will come to the library searching for information on culture and customs. Greenwood Press publishes several series of books that are perfect for this type of question. Some examples of these series with titles on individual countries are Culture and Customs of Africa, Culture and Customs of Asia, Culture and Customs of Europe, and Culture and Customs of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Another useful source for this type of information is a set entitled Culturgrams: the Nations around Us. Some libraries may have access to the electronic version of this wonderful resource.

Interested in a Web source that explores the culture and etiquette of a specific country? Try Kwintessential’s Global Guide to Culture, Customs and Etiquette.

Older students may be searching for in-depth sources of statistics. Here are some Web possibilities:

• NationMaster
• University of Michigan Statistical Resources on the Web: Foreign Government Data Sources

Is your customer looking for material on foreign aid? Try our How to Find Information on Foreign Aid How-to Guide.

Customers interested in foreign travel will find a number of the above-named websites useful. They may also benefit from the following:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Travelers’ Health
• Travel.State.Gov – International Travel for U.S. Citizens

What are some suggestions for putting together a great teen program?

• Assess the interests and needs of the audience that you are attempting to reach, and determine who the audience is that you’d like to attend the program. (Are you targeting tweens or older young adults, for example. Are they interested in gaming? Arts and crafts? Anime and manga?)
  
  
• Poll the young adults that you’re attempting to reach. If you have a teen advisory council or teen volunteers, use them.
  
  
• Determine the time of day and the day of the week that will work best for increasing the number of participants, as well as the length of the program. What location will work best for the program you’re planning?
  
  
• Will you need to limit the number of participants by number and/or age? Will they have to register in advance?
  
  
• Young adult programs are of two types: informational (a program on helping teenagers find summer jobs, for example) and recreational (a gaming program). Are you attempting to inform or to entertain?
  
  
• Compose a checklist of activities that you’ll need to complete in order to successfully deliver the program. Save the checklist and use it as a template for future program planning.
  
  
• Is there a budget/funding? What supplies will you need?
  
  
• Will you use a staff presenter or bring in an outside presenter? In-house presenters are inexpensive; outside presenters bring expertise in a particular area.
  
  
• Is the program you’re planning a stand alone, one-time event, or can it be packaged and used again at another time or in another location?
  
  
• Provide effective publicity to your target audience, using both internal publicity (e.g., library newsletter or Web site) and well as external publicity (e.g., local newspaper).
  
  
• Food is a draw, so be sure to provide it if you can. Giveaways are also crowd pleasers.
  
  
• Incorporate library materials into the program to promote the use of the collection.
  
  
• Use teens as presenters, program aides, or promoters. The more teen involvement in planning and implementation, the better.
  
  
• Use evaluations, even if they’re informal, to get feedback from program participants about their reactions to the program.