2012 – 2013 WrestleMania Reading Challenge Toolkit 50 E. Huron St. Chicago, IL 60611 1.800.545.2433 x4390 [email protected] Overview of YALSA’s WrestleMania Reading Challenge Background: Ever since Teen Read Week (TRW) was inaugurated in 1998, many librarians and educators have wanted to celebrate and encourage teen reading for more than just one week a year. In response to requests from librarians, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), with the support of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), now offers librarians and educators the opportunity to participate in YALSA’s WrestleMania Reading Challenge. Goal: To reach reluctant readers and get more tweens and teens reading by implementing a reading incentive program that provides prizes from WWE as a reward. YALSA’s WrestleMania Reading Challenge is a program designed to encourage tweens and teens to not only continue their reading beyond TRW, but to earn a reward for doing so by offering chances to win prizes donated by WWE. This is a win-win situation for librarians and educators because it provides you with a way to extend TRW, an opportunity to reach out to reluctant readers and the chance to win $2,000 for your library. Table of Contents I. Program Overview………………………………..….…….…3 II. Optional Ideas for Extending the Program a. Promotion Ideas………………………….……………...…4 b. Write a Letter Party………………………………………..6 c. Programming Ideas……………………………....………..7 d. Recommended Reading……………………………………9 e. Get Publicity……………………………….…..…….……14 f. Additional Resources………….………………………..…18 2 I. Program Overview 1. Promote the contest to your teens: World Wrestling Entertainment will send promotional posters to librarians and educators who registered by 7/31/12 in September. In Sept. registrants can also download completion certificates, pledge forms, and other collateral from YALSA and WWE at www.ala.org/wrestlemania 2. Help teens create their entries: tweens and teens will write a letter to their favorite WWE Superstar that convinces the Superstar to read the tween/teen's favorite book, and then submit it to you for judging. YALSA recommends holding a letter writing event during Teen Read Week, Oct. 14 – 20, to accomplish this. 3. Judge the entries: pick one winner for each grade category (5-6, 7-8, 9-12). 4. Submit the winning entries to YALSA: submit up to three winners (one from each grade category) via an online form at www.ala.org/wrestlemania between Oct. 14 and Nov. 15, 2012. Details • Eligibility: Participation by youth is open to legal residents of all 50 United States and the District of Columbia, as well as legal residents of Canada excluding Quebec. Participants must be in grades 5-12. Participants will compete in three grade categories: grades 5-6, grades 7-8 and grades 9-12. • Judging Local Entries: Each library or school will judge their projects and pick three First Prize Winners, one from each grade group, to advance to the WrestleMania Reading Challenge regional competition. Librarians and educators send their library/school’s winning entries to YALSA no later than November 15, 2012. According to the official WWE contest rules, letters will be judged on how persuasive an argument the tween/teen made when convincing the wrestler to read the book. • Librarians and educators should organize a panel of judges at each participating library/school. Why not use the opportunity to include the community in your library? The judging panel can be made up of teachers, PTA/PTO members, parents, local politicians and/or community members to choose the winners at each level. • Letters can be sent to judges ahead of time for scoring with a score sheet that you create. Judges may want to narrow down the entries in advance, and then meet to discuss their choices and select the winners. Choose judges from a wide range of backgrounds (parents, teachers, local politicians, Friends of the Library, etc.), provide them with refreshments and follow up with a thank you note. • Identifying Regional Winners: On or about Jan. 9, 2013, YALSA will award a Grand Prize to three students from each regional group who wrote the best letter from that geographic region for their grade category (one from grades 5-6, one from grades 7-8, 3 and one from grades 9-12). These eighteen Regional Winners will win transportation, hotel, tickets and spending money to attend WrestleMania 29 in East Rutherford on April 7, 2013 (a $5,000 value). Regional Winners will compete in the WrestleMania Reading Challenge Championships on April 6, where they can win ringside tickets to WrestleMania 29 and other prizes. Their sponsoring library will win $2,000, courtesy of WWE. • Competition to Indentify a Champion: In East Rutherford, NJ, the 18 Regional Winners will compete for the title of Tween World Champion (grades 5-6); Junior World Champion (grades 7-8); and Senior World Champion (grades 9-12), and ringside seats at WrestleMania on April 7. • Sponsorship & Rules: This event is sponsored by World Wrestling Entertainment and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The official contest rules can be found at www.ala.org/wrestlemania . There are changes to this year’s Reading Challenge, so if you participated last year, please be sure to read the new rules carefully. II. Optional Ideas for Extending the Program • Libraries and schools can opt to extend the Reading Challenge by downloading and using the reading pledge forms. Teens/tweens are challenged to pledge to read 5 items (chapter books, magazines, graphic novels, etc.), and keep track of what they pledge to read on a reading log (a sample is provided in the toolkit). • Help teens find reading materials that appeal to them by creating displays, providing readers’ advisory and/or conducting book talks. • Consider techniques that help teens to select books without consuming too much of your time. One trick is to put stickers on books. Address labels work fine for this. Type a teaser on the labels and put on appropriate books. Examples: o Someone dies , tear jerker , love story , murder most foul , banned book , lots of pictures , will creep you out , they live happily ever after , guaranteed to make you laugh, etc. • Consider holding a culminating event where the library or school announces and celebrates its 3 winners. Promotion Ideas 4 Work with your library Teen Advisory Group (TAG) to brainstorm, plan and implement a special launch of the Reading Challenge. Some ideas to consider: • Create or have teens create podcasts, video booktalks, or book trailers for YouTube (or TeacherTube/SchoolTube). Flip cams and cell phone cameras are very user friendly and can easily be used for videos. You can also easily create a “Google Search Story” video using a simple creation tool at http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories. • For systems that have multiple libraries or a sister library, host a Skype session to announce the launch, or have a chat room for your TAG to chat with their friends or send text messages to their friends about the program. • Hang a poster and offer the reading logs at local churches, cafes, recreation centers, coffee houses, schools, etc. Ask your teens where they hang out to reach the biggest teen audience. • Put a teaser on your school or library’s website, blog, Facebook page, newsletter, etc. that says “Win a Trip to WrestleMania! Visit the library on [fill in the date here] to find out how.” Choose an evening or weekend day to host a brief, fun informational session about the Reading Challenge. Provide refreshments and hand out the reading logs. • Ask your TAG members if they could use their social networking sites to promote the Reading Challenge. • Use Twitter to promote the launch and WrestleMania Reading Challenge. Tweet links to books in your catalog that would appeal to reluctant readers. • Conduct book talks to English classes and mention the WrestleMania Reading Challenge. Choose books for the talks that would appeal to reluctant readers, and make an effort to visit lower level and/or remedial English classes and ESL classes. Note that bilingual books and books in languages other than English can qualify for the reading log. • Conduct book talks and promote your WrestleMania Reading Challenge launch programs to local scouting troops and home school students. • Contact the wrestling coaches at your schools and tell them about the Reading Challenge. • Leading up to your launch, have a passive Wrestling Program that is some kind of quiz. When the teens turn in their answers, provide them with a piece of candy and a flyer for your launch. During the Challenge, you could provide them with reading logs upon turning in their answers. • Wear a button at work that says “Ask me how to win a trip to WrestleMania!” Write a Letter Party Provide your tweens and teens with the opportunity to make their submission! Work with your Teen Advisory Group (TAG) to host a letter party. This can become one of the ways you celebrate Teen Read Week, Oct. 14 – 20. Plan 5 • Reserve a room or some table space. Reserve a few computers for tweens and teens to type their letters. • Recruit volunteers to assist with the event o Recruit someone to take photos at the event o Invite individuals to serve as judges • Purchase refreshments or assign volunteers to make or bring refreshments • Create a display of reading materials that would appeal to reluctant readers. • Encourage your TAG to make wrestling related decorations. Provide some old copies of wrestling magazines Promote • Use your library’s newsletter, web site and social media tools to promote the event • Create fliers and distribute them to classes, at local youth centers, etc. • Slip fliers into books that tweens and teens check out at the library • Create table tents and spread them throughout the library • Tap your TAG to create a short video ad and post on YouTube • Make sure to state that the event is only for tweens and teens currently in grades 5-12.