“A solid foundation in early literacy before kindergarten plays a critical role in ensuring that a child has a strong start in formal schooling, regardless of socioeconomic status, home language, or ethnicity” (Ghoting & Martin-Diaz, 2013, xii). This qoute summarizes the reason why Warren Newport Public Library has tried to provide such a terrific early literacy program for our community. Our programs really focus on the six skills using the five practices mentioned by Saroj Ghoting her book Storytimes for Everyone! These skills that are to be practiced within our programs are oral language, phonological awareness, print conventions and awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulry, and background knowledge. They will be practiced using the methods of talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing (the five practices).
Many of our programs strive to include all of these practices and skills in order to help the advancement of early literacy skills in the young children in our communities. One particular program that is an excellent example of this is the Toddler Drive-in Movie. The beginning of this program includes singing, and reading of various books pertaining to the subject of cars or trucks, with the songs providing repitive phrases referring to these objects that children experience on a daily basis. Then the children get to create a box with their parents. The parents are talking with the children explaining what the wheels and lights are and where they go, or maybe just describing the color of the objects and helping their child find the color needed for their cars. The cars are finished with a license plate that the children write on/draw on! Then the parent get to play with the children and “drive” them into the “movie” theater for a quick show (that is appropriate for that age group). One program, an hour long works on all of these aspects of early childhood literacy and its a fun program as well!
This leads me into the next portion of research that is extremely relevant to early childhood literacy and what our programs try to teach to the parents. One program that is an hour long is terrific to attend and help advance your child, but it is not nearly enough. “Through the early literacy model, Every Child Ready to Readdeveloped by the Public Library Association in collaboration with the Association for Library Services, librarians can provide important resources for parents. Through this, librarians can model the five basic skills: talk, sing, read, write, and play so parents can duplicate the activities at home” (Celano & Newman, 2015, p. 31). Duplicating these actions at home during their daily lives is where parents will see true advancement within their children. Our programs are meant to be supplementary education, and a chance to expand the knowledge of the parents, to help give ideas of how to approach early childhood learning outside of storytimes. The work done outside of our program using the tools and knowledge that we supply the parents will create a special relationship with their children to help their early childhood literacy/education advancement. This relationship is proven to be the source of rapid growth within young children. A quote that explains this comes from Maryanne Wolf: “A small child sits in rapt attention on the lap of a beloved adult, listening to words that move like water, words that tell of fairies, dragons, and giants in faraway places never before imagined. The young child’s brain prepares to read far earlier than one might suspect, and makes use of almost all the raw material of early childhood, every perception, concept and word. It does so by learning to use all the important structures that will make up the brain’s universal reading system…under the crook of an arm in the comfort of a loved ones lap” (John Hornstein, 2014). This qoute comes from the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, one of the leading organizations on early childhood education and how a young child learns and utilizes its brain.
Technology and early childhood literacy are intertwined as our world becomes more and more dependant on technology. Above our research indicated our libraries goal to help parents create a strong relationship with the child through the usage of early literacy skills outside of storytimes, however, a lot of times parents may find themselves in a busy week and try to shortcut this important one on one learning with techonology. Unfortunately many times that technology is their cell phone or tablet that is preloaded with a lot of “industry leading” early childhood videos and shows. A lot of these materials are overstimulating for the young, growing minds of children and this was backed by Fred Rogers, who not only created a show for young children (Mister Rogers Neighborhood) but also created The Fred Rogers Center in order to carry on his legacy. Now some people may interpret Mister Rogers incorrectly by assuming all technology is bad for young children, which is far from the truth. Technology and knowledge about technology is now necessary in order to keep up with other kids and the starting curriculum in elementary schools. The way we introduce that technology and in what amounts is key to our child’s success. That is where our Steam Storytime comes into play, as we use it to increase the childrens technological knowledge through various methods without necessarily putting them in front of a screen for hours at a time. We also use it in order to help teach the parent good screen time habits and how to help increase the content knowledge involving technology without over stimulating and overwhelming the child.
At the end of the day research shows that early school success depends on the readiness of the child. Our aim is to help support parents and children of our community in order to provide them the best chance to get ahead of the curve and succeed off of the get go in school. We strive to make our programs educational but also fun and engaging at the same time. Hopefully we reach people from all walks of life in order to help create an even playing field for the next generation of children that grow up using Warren Newport Public Library.
References:
Celano, D. C., & Neuman, S. B. (2015). Libraries emerging as leaders in parent engagement. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(7), 30-35
Colwell, Janet, (2018) In person interviews. Personal notes from previously taught classes and speeches.
Fred Rogers Center. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.fredrogerscenter.org/
Ghoting, S. N., & Martin-Díaz, P. (2013). Storytimes for everyone!: Developing young childrens language and literacy. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.
Hornstein, John (2014). Foundations of Early Childhood Development: It’s All about Relationships. Info people. Brazelton Touchpoints Center.
Institute of Museum and Library Services (Washington, DC). (2013). Growing young minds: How museums and libraries create lifelong learners. Inst. of Museum and Library Services.
STEAM Storytime Activities for Preschool – Preschool STEAM -. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://preschoolsteam.com/steam-storytime-activities-for-preschool/
Rogan, C. (2013, May 29). The impact of technology on the developing child. Huffington Post. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/technology-children-negative-impact_b_3343245
NAEYC. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2018, from https://www.naeyc.org/
Warren Newport Public Library (June 2018). Programming Budget Report
W. (n.d.). STEM IN LIBRARIES We’re Scientists… Library Scientists. Retrieved December 3, 2018, from https://steminlibraries.com/tag/storytime/
Librarianship 