Howard_Samantha_Free Choice_ Blog #3

 

Interactive Storytime has been and continues to be a highly engaging and fun method to read to children. As a teacher, I am always thinking about a content lesson that can go along with a book I read out loud even if it is just in the form of informal questions. I know that I need to keep my students’ interest and interactive storytelling is the perfect way to keep children involved and engaged. Jessica Pyrek writes in her article “Participation Palooza!” that “Although your audience might be captive, what you really want is to captivate them” (2014, p.1) This introduction deeply resonated with me because I know what it feels like to have a large group of children in front of me who are watching me and listening, but maybe not really engaged or involved in the activity.

As I began planning for my interactive story time video this week, my first thought was a book that was already designed to engage children such as Don’t Push the Button by Bill Cotter or There’s a Dragon in Your Book by Tom Fletcher. Both of these books are my toddler’s favorites because they require lots of energy, movement, and interaction with the paper. However, I wanted to challenge myself to take a story that is not designed to be interactive and design a program around it that would be more engaging. This thought process led me to Cookie’s Week by Cindy Ward, which is a personal favorite of mine. I remember my own grandmother reading this book to me over and over again to help me learn the days of the week, and I now do the same with my daughter.

As I started planning the interactive elements of my activity, I knew I wanted a call and response portion of the book since it is very repetitive in word choice. Ideally, I would read the simple sentences and then the audience would recite them back to me. However, my daughter knows this story so well that she chose to finish the sentences for me which was also very fun and interactive. Then, I started planning what other ways I wanted to make the story interactive, and I landed on using manipulatives so my audience could physically put the character’s actions on the correct days of the week. Heather McNeil explains, “It is essential that you structure your story time to fit your abilities, knowledge, and comfort” and I completely agree that librarians should play to their strengths (2014, p. 13). For me, this was designing my activity like a teacher.

When it came time to record the actual story time video, it took me multiple attempts because my daughter wanted to play around on camera, which is honestly the perfect example of what story time goes like with young children.  I also had to remember to stay patient and continue the activity even when I felt like my daughter was not doing the ‘perfect’ thing I wanted her to. For example, she was not remembering what day of the week comes next even though she knows them by heart. In this situation, I had to quickly think of how I would help her stay engaged and learn instead of simply giving her the answer. Overall, I felt the experience went well and was a good example of an interactive story time, even when it was continuously interrupted by our cat Nero!

As I continue to reflect on my story time experience from this week, I absolutely love how I was able to complete the activity with my own daughter. One of Heather McNeil’s story time tips states “The more you encourage interaction between child and parent or care provider, the more you are role modeling its importance in brain development, bonding, and growth of prereading skills” (2014, p. 15). My interaction with my daughter definitely hit all of her positives, and I can see how it would be a good model for parents who attend story time with their young children in a public library setting. As I teacher, I am confident in my abilities to prepare and present a book with reading skills, but not all parents are and that is where librarians can step in. By modeling a fun, easy and engaging story time to parents at the library, they can then take those ideas home to try with other books while reading to their child.

In addition to parents attending local Storytime events with their children, I strongly recommend they seek out other examples. For example, YouTube has tons of great videos showing how parents can read a story to their child using different voices. My favorite videos are when the adult uses the child’s own toys to act out the story. Story times are only as interactive as the adult makes them and choosing to incorporate toys, songs, dances, and movement are a great way to get children involved and excited. Plus, they come with the added benefit of sharing time with your children that they will remember for a lifetime!

References:

Ellin Greene, & Janice Del Negro. (2010). Storytelling: art and technique. Libraries Unlimited.

McNeil. (2014). Jump Start Storytime! Using Tradition and Change Effectively. Children & Libraries, 12(1), 13–36.

Pyrek. (2014). Participation Palooza: Creating a Festive Storytime Atmosphere Interactive Books. Children & Libraries, 12(1), 10–12. https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.12n1.10

Reading Log for Week 3:

Reading Log for Week 3:
Myth	The Fall of Icarus	William Carlos Williams
Myth	King Midas and The Golden Touch	Charlotte Craft
Myth	The Wooden Horse of Troy	Paul Perro
Myth	The Golden Touch	Nathaniel Hawthorne
Myth	Romulus and Remus	Anne Rockwell (Originally Virgil)
Myth	Pandora’s Box	Originally Hesiod
Myth	The Lambton Worm	Philip Atkinson’s version
Parable	The Parable of the Lost Sheep	Jesus
Parable	The Parable of the Lost Coin	Jesus
Parable	The Parable of the Lost Son	Jesus
Parable	The House on the Rock	Jesus
Parable	The Good Samaritan	Jesus
Tall Tale	Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett	Steven Kellogg
Tall Tale	New York’s Bravest	Mary Pope Osborn
Tall Tale	The Story of John Appleseed	Aliki
Tall Tale	Star Maiden	Robert D. San Souci
Tall Tale	Old Sally Cato	Robert D. San Souci
Tall Tale	Davy Crockett Saves the World	Rosalyn Schanzer
Tall Tale	Master Man: A Tall Tale of Nigeria	Aaron Shephard