The Horn Book for November/December 2008 has an article by a teacher about how he uses the Kindle in his middle school language arts classroom that I thought might be adaptable to the public library.
He downloaded sample chapters of twenty young adult novels he thought his students would like and then watched in delight as they browsed on the Kindle in their free time and then went to the library to check out the actual book.
Even the kids who don't usually read much loved trying out the new gadget which made him feel it had the potential to hook a reluctant reader.
It isn't difficult to master the Kindle, so when you have a group of kids waiting for the computers or waiting for the program to start at your library, you could share the Kindle that belongs to the library district for which you have spent some time choosing chapters to download.
At the present time Pamela Bagby has the Kindle and there is a signout sheet on the Z drive under AST. Let Pamela know you would like it sent to you and thenb try it out for a week or two. It is free, easy to do, motivating to kids who want to see the new gadget and who probably already know that digital reading is here to stay.
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2 comments:
I think this is a wonderful idea, especially since kids today are so into the newest and hottest technology. Maybe they would get more interested in reading this way, because it's a piece of technology and not a boring old book. This would be a GREAT tool for me to use at my book club to show kids samples of some good books. I could even read a few paragraphs aloud to promote interest, and it would be a lot easier to have all that in hand rather than drag 10 books in from the shelf.
I think using the Kindle this way is a great idea, and I want to borrow it for my teen movie night, just for fun.
Kara, I think it's important to drag 10 books into your book club meeting AS WELL AS having hte Kindle there--maybe you pull them out like prizes at the end of the meeting, after the kids are hooked, or maybe they just remind the teens that the Kindle is not the ONLY way to read. (Of course you should run your book club however you want to!)
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