Exposure to a variety of stories can support many early literacy skills for young children. Using video recordings from a previous study that examined early literacy in public library storytimes, this study investigated the use of genre and story variety in storytimes for young children (birth to 60 months). Findings showed that attendees were primarily exposed to stories from the storybook/narrative genre with limited use of both non-narrative and narrative informational genres in number of stories and time spent reading each genre. Story variety and the use of current titles can be improved to better support early literacy development in public library storytimes.
Many US-based public libraries experience an influx of semi or unsupervised children and teens in their spaces afterschool. Though some public libraries have adopted after school homework centers and invested in other library-staff led programming, little is known about how school-aged children are collaborating together to shape shared public spaces under looser adult supervision and direction, using their various social and cultural identities to define the space they are in. This proposed study utilizes Placemaking theory and will be bounded by one recurring, unstructured, drop-in afterschool public library program for children. Insights from this study could potentially point to how, if at all, children are creating community, learning from each other, and engaging with the world in loosely supervised public spaces away from family and school, potentially informing better design of the library as a public space for children. Findings could also illuminate ways for informal learning practitioners to create more meaningful connections with children in afterschool spaces, support positive peer culture formation, and facilitate opportunities in a way that supports children’s autonomy free of the more neoliberal constraints of a formal school setting. This works-in-progress poster is specifically soliciting feedback regarding issues of consent and assent for research with latchkey children in public library spaces.
Research in early childhood development widely supports play as a vital learning mechanism for young children. Consequently, many libraries are beginning to embrace play as an intentional strategy for meeting targeted early learning outcomes. However, sufficient research on how play can be incorporated into storytimes to support children’s early development has yet to be conducted. This study begins to address this need by exploring how two other informal learning environments—a museum and a zoo—use educator-led dramatic play experiences in storytimes with the goal of understanding how libraries might be able to incorporate dramatic play experiences in their storytimes to create a more in-depth playful learning experience. To elucidate the nature of the museum and zoo’s educator-led dramatic play experiences, this study explored (1) characteristics of their educator-led dramatic play experiences, and (2) the learning behaviors that children were exhibiting while participating in the dramatic play. The results revealed that the educator-led dramatic play episodes in both environments consisted of one long, immersive oral story with other types of play interspersed within the larger story structure. The data also revealed that the children were exhibiting many different types of learning behaviors while participating in the dramatic play experiences. Based on these findings, implications, and recommendations are provided for libraries around designing and using dramatic play in their storytimes to help transform the traditional library storytime structure into a more in-depth playful learning experience.
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