Sharing great storytime ideas is inspirational and infectious

We love it when we find email messages like this in our inboxes: “I just used a great book in storytime, Snog the Frog by Tony Bonning, and it was a HUGE hit. We talked about vocabulary (majestic, pucker, and most definitely snog), print awareness (hoppity hoppity hoppity hop is noticeable in terms of space and font shape/size), phonological awareness (again with the hoppities), and rhyming sentences like 'Who? You? Moo! No! Now go!’ and my personal favorite, 'Oh, Hoggy Hog Hog, give this Froggy Frog Frog a snoggy snog snog.’ It’d be lovely in general, but might especially be of interest for anyone doing a program about princes and princesses. Plus, there’s nothing cuter than a bunch of kids under the age of five blowing tons of kisses!”

Because all of us are forever looking for creative ways to promote children’s literacy development, receiving tried-and-true ideas from each other is a most welcome gift. At Multnomah County Library we’ve always talked a lot about books, but now linking books to early literacy skills has become a frequent and delightful practice. It’s been just over five years since we were introduced to the research of Grover Whitehurst, then at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and Reid Lyon, then at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, at the Public Library Association’s spring symposium in 2001. The essence of their studies—that picture book reading in the first five years provides children with many of the skills necessary for school readiness—wasn’t new to us. But thinking about books in light of the six reading-readiness skills&mdmdash;print awareness, vocabulary, print motivation, narrative skills, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge—was new and useful. The research not only provided a framework for the knowledge we instinctively knew, but also gave us the language to explain it to parents.

Even better than talking about it, however, is being able to watch our fellow storytime presenters in action. Last year, our youth librarians each had an opportunity to visit a different location and observe a colleague doing storytime. Besides gaining a greater appreciation for the skills of others, we all learned a lot. Most of our colleagues report that while planning their storytimes they now purposefully question how a specific book will foster children’s literacy development.

We found, too, that one of the most challenging aspects of presenting these “early literacy-enhanced storytimes” is communicating to the accompanying adults the reasons for what we do. We all share a desire to include more tips for parents and caregivers—research-based comments that we call “parent messages.” Adults are as much our audience as children, since grown-ups play a significant role in supporting their children’s literacy development. But many librarians say that including snippets of research at appropriate moments during storytime sometimes can feel contrived.

Now we have another way to watch our peers demonstrate research-based practices and directly address the adults attending their storytimes. Last year our library applied for federal LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) funds to create a cost-effective way to teach new staff to incorporate evidence-based early literacy activities into their storytimes. We just completed a DVD, Storytime: Not Just for Kids Anymore, which shows portions of 10 early literacy-enhanced storytimes filmed here at Multnomah County Library during regularly scheduled programs. The video includes information about the six essential reading-readiness skills and what they look like in storytime, as well as many examples of librarians sharing “parent messages.” (Beginning in January 2008, the DVD may be purchased for $25 at www.multcolib.org/birthtosix.)

Enhancing our daily service and programming with evidence-based practices not only changed the way we do business, but increased our passion for doing it. The inspiration and enthusiasm we get from our peers is encouraging and infectious—especially as we incorporate early literacy research into our storytimes. Learning from each other, we’ve found, continues to be the key to helping us establish the public library as a prime community partner in the work of preparing young children for school success.