Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Gifted learners and the library

For us our public library/school has a program called myON, a program that reads books aloud. DS is gifted but his reading hasn't yet caught up to his intellect. Plus he still loves pictures. So I use a lot of reserved award winner books from our county physical library system, but the myON reads books aloud and shows the pictures and it's been great. Not all the books are things I would choose or high literacy, but DS usually finds a lot he likes, and they do have some great resources, like Max Axiom (a science comic series).

The public library also has some audiobooks MP3, which we may start using for car rides for some chapter books.

School library... He goes once a week, and is guided to choose books of a certain reader. Very limiting I think. He can't read past his level, but I read SO many books aloud, why restrict him? And it's only one book. I personally think the school probably spends a lot of unnecessary time labeling books a certain AR reader level and coding when it should just be a LIBRARY. You know, fiction here, non fiction here, like the real world. Why should the students look for a certain coded book for their level? Rant over for now.

Wow, so disheartening to hear all the stories about difficult library experiences.

We have been lucky, our elementary k-4 librarian (actually I think her title is information technology specialist) was a favorite and had a huge influence on our kids. However, it sounds like our public school experience is an outlier among those here, so I don't know if any of this will be useful. Our kids are older now, but we have fond memories of the library at the elementary school.

Our library was staffed by a librarian and a full-time library aide, along with a large group of parent volunteers; I spent a lot of time there when our kids were young. The parents were responsible for checking out, renewing and returning books, reshelving stuff and helping kids find books, thus leaving the librarian free to teach and interact with the kids.

None of the experiences I remember were directed towards gifted kids, by the way; they were enriching overall and things my guys loved. One thing that sounds different from what others describe is that our school has library classes, at least once a week (it's considered a special along with computers, music, art, PE, etc). The class is run by the librarian and aide, sometimes team taught with a classroom teacher, particularly if they are working on research projects.

The librarian spent a lot of time each year introducing the library- making sure everyone knew where each type of books are kept, etc. (there are no limits here on reading choices). She also spent time every year reviewing the computer catalog and how to search for books, the Dewey decimal system, etc- they had little scavenger hunts to ensure kids could figure out how to find what they needed in various sections, particularly because they end up doing a lot of research on the library. She also introduced all the online databases the school subscribes to, and hands out bookmarks with all the passwords, etc on them.

She also did wonderful, creative projects with the kids. A favorite was having the kids do book reviews. This happened throughout the year, books of their choice, and they explored all sorts of ways to record them. They frequently learned to use fun software programs like Voki or Animoto to record their book reviews, and the librarian would post them to the school library website so they were searchable later when your kid was looking for a new book. The website, by the way was fantastic; always had up-to-date information, lots of reading lists from various sources and geared to all types of kids/groups, great links, etc.

She spent time teaching specifics (age-appropriate) about Internet use and particularly safety, as well as how to evaluate websites for research purposes (Wikipedia, for example, was discouraged here).

She also managed to have author visits once a year. The kids would spend some time learning about the author and reading their work before the visit, and then have a great time meeting the author in person, getting to ask questions and often hear a talk about their work.

Towards the end of the school year, she would host a visit from the local public children's librarian, who would talk about summer reading programs and other things the library was doing, and encourage the kids to come in over the summer.

And then there were wonderful classes where she just let them go, explore the library and read, sprawled on the floor or curled up in the squishy chairs. There was a lot of interaction with her about specific books, what they were reading, what was new, etc.

Again, it sounds like we were very lucky. Good luck to you- as a librarian, you have the opportunity to make a huge impact!

We love our public library! There seems to be no limit on checkouts nor renewals (as long as no one had requested the same book). I search online and request a ton of books. Free holds helps a lot. I search by juvenile. Seeing page numbers helps too. A link directly to like AR (so I could gage interest level, reading level etc) would be icing.

I agree about story times being open to kids by ability. We also had some librarians (at other branches) be too strict about what for DD's age should have been a process based art activity rather than product oriented, and DD was quite bothered by that. She also freaked out when librarians acted out a scary poem. Sometimes librarians seem clueless about what's scary or mean in stories. I'm always cringing at puppet shows as the animals call each other names. Maybe not every kid will cry or repeat it forever but mine will

There's a Shakespeare reading club at our local branch and it was open to all ages, so I took my 6yo Shakespeare obsessed daughter ( I checked what play they were doing first) and she loved it. We all just read the plays aloud. The other readers (almost all elderly or middle aged, with an occasional college kid) seemed happy and welcoming. That was a fantastic experience for DD.

I remember looking for Les Miserables in sixth grade and being told it was not an elementary book. No offer to get it etc. the first week of junior high I checked it out and read it! DD's school doesn't even have a library (just big classroom collections) so we haven't had school experiences. I make sure we use our public library a lot, and I'm always checking out a huge pile of books.

Our public library is fantastic-- we have a 100 book limit.

It's the school library that stinks.

Thank you for asking!

When DS began first grade at his small charter school, (this school moves children up or down depending upon their level as determined by parental recommendation and MAP testing) he had not yet taken the MAP test and so the librarian was not aware that he could read at a 5th grade level, as tested at his prior public school. When she sent him home with an easy reader, I went with him back to the school and told her that it was too easy because at his prior school he was tested at a 5th grade level.

She seemed to be unaware of that. She also, and perhaps this is just her personality, was reluctant to direct us to the correct level of books. I was a bit put off because I thought the charter's policy would have prepared her for such requests.

So, if I had a say in how the library is set up for kids like ours, I would appreciate having a "getting to know you" survey a parent can fill out. It would include a child's interests (to help with choosing subject matter), as well as past books the child has read on their own. I would love to see a "Comments" section to add any quirks a child may have, such as gravitating toward books that are years too easy for them.

I'm happy to say that since the librarian has learned DS is truly a high-level reader (I credit the MAP test and his teacher for this!), she doesn't blink an eye when he wants to check out a three inch book on the elements and asks to have it renewed again and again.