Introduction
The purpose of this site is to offer and to exchange ideas regarding storytimes that ARTICULATE early literacy information to adults. See Submit an Idea to submit your ideas and/or documents of handouts and/or whole storytime plans. You can search, or browse by category or date.
In any one storytime it is recommended that you concentrate on highlighting only one skill so as not to overwhelm the participants.
There would be three or at most four asides to the adults regarding the skill:
1. The Introduction—At the beginning of your storytime, a bit of information concerning the early literacy skill that is being highlighted. See the Introduction section under Storytime Components for some examples of introductory remarks about each skill.
2. Once or at most twice point out something you are doing in the storytime that relates to the skill you have chosen. Because you have explained the skill in the Introduction, you do not need to say a lot during the storytime examples.
3. Closing aside to give an idea of something to do or repeat at home and relate it to the chosen skill.
According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and the Every Child Ready to Read @ your library initiative from the American Library Association, the six early literacy skills are
Print Motivation: a child’s interest in and enjoyment of books and reading
Phonological Awareness: the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words
Vocabulary: knowing the names of things
Narrative Skills: expressive part of language, ability to describe things, to recount events, to tell and retell stories
Print Awareness: knowing that print has meaning, how to handle a book, direction of print, environmental print
Letter Knowledge: knowing that the same letter can look different, that letters have names and are related to specific sounds
Early Literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they can actually read or write.
For further information on these skills, visit www.ala.org/ala/alsc/ecrr/workshopsab/workshopmaterials/scripts/scripts.cfm
For further information on developing storytimes, start here:
www.earlylit.net/storytimes/index.html
and for the book Early Literacy Storytimes @ your library from ALA Editions:
www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog2&_pn=product_detail&_op=1852