Sunday, November 26, 2023

Blogshare #2

Introduction

The blog I’m sharing this week is called The Library Voice. The author of the blog is Shannon McClintock Miller. She is a district teacher librarian from Iowa. In addition to being a librarian, she is a speaker, consultant, and author. She has received multiple awards for her work including awards from ISTE, AASL, and SLJ. Miller also works for Capstone and regularly promotes their products on her blog and Instagram. Along with her blog, Miller has an Instagram account where she shares about her personal life as well as making posts pertaining to libraries. She recently created a new website where readers can learn about her and find resources that she created and makes available. One of the big features of her blogposts is choice boards. She shares choice boards multiple times a month to help students and teachers with finding information.

Blog 1

The first post that I want to highlight is from October 15, 2023 and highlights digital citizenship week. This post seemed especially relevant considering the rise in technology use in elementary students and the need for education about digital citizenship. Miller shares choice boards with readers that are broken down into K-2 and 3-6. It was nice to have them broken down because the needs of 1^st graders are very different than the needs of 5^th graders. The choice boards shared websites, videos, and activities for different grades all related to digital citizenship. The highlighted resources include Commonsense Media, Peeble Go, PeebleGo Next, and Capstone. This is definitely a post that I have bookmarked for future use as a teacher and librarian.

Blog 2

The second post I have chosen to highlight is from October 9, 2023 focuses on forming partnerships between the school library and the public library. In this blog Miller shares how her school library and public library partner together. She also discusses creating logos and marketing materials to promote the partnership and how she uses those materials. She provides instruction and guidance on using Canva to create stickers, bookmarks, posters, and other marketing materials that she uses in the promotion of the partnership. This was very informative because these instructions and information could be used in other aspects of the library not just in promoting partnerships with the public library.

Blog 3

January 19, 2023 Miller wrote a blog that centered on 2^nd graders sharing their stories and research on Martin Luther King Jr. She started by sharing the choice board that she made for Martin Luther King Jr. research. It contained videos, books, and websites students can use for their research. This ensures that students are visiting sites that are reputable, age appropriate, and contain valuable information. Miller then shared about her visits with various 2^nd grade classrooms and how they were using the choice boards in their research. She also shared how they used the information they collected to create their own stories using PeebleGo Create. Finally she shared some pages from the students created books for readers to view. I teach elementary school currently and hope to be an elementary librarian, and this is an activity I could definitely see myself using in the future.

Blog 4

The final post I am going to share is from December 23, 2022. This post is day 23 of 25 days of digital tools and apps. During each of the days of this series, a guest librarian shares a digital tool. The guest librarian gives a description, uses for librarians and uses for students about the tool they are sharing.

This particular day they are highlighting Buncee/ PeelbleGo Create. They share a short video and some information about the uses of the tool. Near the end of the post is also a choice board with the numbers 1-25. Readers can click on a number be taken to the digital tool that was shared on that day of December. This post was very helpful in sharing many digital tools that I had no experience with.

What I’m Reading

This week I’ve been reading a variety of comedy books. I love reading funny books for several reasons. One of course is because who doesn’t love a good laugh. The other reason is kids LOVE books with humor. Books with humor always keep children engaged and listening to the story (not to mention the sweet sound of kids laughing!). I chose the books I wanted to read by looking at a few online lists of humor books published in the last 3 years and searching Destiny. When I searched I chose humor as one of the criteria and also narrowed the date range to the last three years. As you can imagine I got a lot of results. I chose about 10 to grab from our school’s library shelves and also grabbed a few from the lists I had viewed online. I chose 7 of my favorites from the ones I read to share with you.

***All book images from www.amazon.com and all other images from https://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/***

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Sensory Storytime

What is sensory storytime?

As you read the title of this blogpost you may be wondering, what is sensory storytime? Sensory storytime is a special storytime designed for children with autism. It was a way to make storytime accessible to a population of children and families who may not otherwise feel comfortable coming to storytime. It fills a need in many libraries across the country. According to Cottrell (2016) in 2015 1 in 45 kids was diagnosed with autism. Sensory storytime allows the parents of those children to feel comfortable bringing their children to storytime and allows the children to experience storytime in a setting designed just for them.

What does sensory storytime look like?

Sensory storytime means meeting families where they are rather than expecting them to fit into the mold of traditional storytimes. These children often have a hard time being quiet, sitting still, handling crowds, and may be sensitive to noise so sensory storytime is designed with this in mind. Sensory storytimes need to be responsive to the needs of the children and feedback from parents is vital in making that happen. That means they may change from week to week or month to month depending on the audience. According to library personnel with the Akron Summit Library (2014) sensory storytimes have to be extremely flexible. The needs of the children that day may warrant the need for the storyteller to pivot: if something isn’t going well end it early or if the children are really enjoying something else then extend it or do it again.

According to personnel at the Akron Summit Library (2014) sensory storytime should have a very simple setup with minimal distractions. She usually just has a simple table up front with a simple toybox containing her materials for the storytelling. It is also suggested by Frick (2018) that you turn down the lights and noise since many children with autism are sensitive to these things. Other helpful tips include providing a visual schedule displayed and go over it at the beginning of storytime. This is helpful because children on the autism spectrum need to know what’s coming and have a way to transition from one activity to the next. Workers at Akron Summit Library (2014) also suggest having some sensory tools in the space such as a sensory balance beam or something similar. Overall the space and setup are very underwhelming so that children are not overstimulated by their surroundings.

Those with experience in sensory storytimes such as Akron Summit Library (2014) and Frick (2018) suggest including several elements in your sensory storytimes. Including simple, repetitive songs is one element. They recommend keeping the songs simple and using the same song repeatedly so the children become familiar with it. Making it interactive and using props helps to maintain the interest of the children. Provide fidgets to the parents if their children need them. They also recommend a social time where children and adults get to interact with one another. Allowing time on the sensory tools such as a sensory balance beam is also a great addition to a sensory storytime. Don’t be afraid to try new things. If they don’t work, cut them short, and try something different the next time. Sensory storytimes are an ever evolving program.

What are the benefits of a sensory storytime?

According to Taylor (2023), children with autism have improved language skills, improved listening skills, increased attention spans, develop curiosity and creativity, and gain a better understanding of nonverbal communication when participating in storytelling activities. Improved vocabulary and comprehension are two language skills that are increased by hearing stories told. Listening to stories builds a cognitive framework for understanding, and this becomes even richer through dynamic storytelling (Taylor, 2023). Incorporating a social time into sensory storytelling also gives children with ASD an opportunity to build their social skills in a structured and safe setting. Not only is the social time beneficial to the children, it also provide their caregivers an opportunity to relax knowing their children are safe and engaged. Caregivers also have an opportunity to talk and socialize other caregivers. Sensory storytime has a multitude of benefits for patrons with autism and makes the library more accessible to everyone.

What are some good resources?

· This is a website that gives helpful tips and activities to include https://www.theyouthdesk.org/sensory-storytime
· This link is to a informative PowerPoint about sensory storytimes. https://libcoop.net/slc/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SensoryStorytimeSlides.pdf
· A sample outline of a sensory storytime
https://www.flls.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Handout-2-Sample-Outline.pdf

What am I reading this week?

This week I read a variety of classic children’s literature. By classic children’s literature I am referring to those classic stories that are a part of most libraries and that seem like “must haves” for students to be exposed to. I was very excited about this assignment because there are so many books that I LOVE either from my own childhood or from the childhoods of my children. I had a very difficult time narrowing down my list of classic literature to just six titles because there are so many on my personal list. I’ll highlight a few of my favorites. I first picked Curious George and Little House in the Big Woods because these classics were such a large part of my childhood. I can still picture my elementary librarian walking me over to the Curious George section and encouraging me to try one out. I was hooked! Little House in the Big Woods was a chapter book that I read over and over (along with the other books in the series). I was fascinated because I was such a big fan of the tv show Little House on the Prairie. I chose Rainbow Fish as one of my books because it was a favorite of my daughters growing up. One of my daughters checked it out over and over from the public library for about 3 months. We finally bought her own copy so someone else would have a chance with the library copy! I’ll hope you’ll enjoy looking at my list and rereading some of the titles or maybe reading them for the first time.

References

Frick, K. (2018, October 5). Sensory storytime: Tips and tricks for a successful program. ALSC Blog. https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2018/08/sensory-storytime-tips-and-tricks-for-a-successful-program/

Taylor, S. (2023, October 12). Important ways storytelling can benefit kids with autism. Autism Parenting Magazine. https://www.autismparentingmagazine.com/ways-storytelling-can-benefit-autism-kids/

Cottrell, M. (2016, June 1). Storytime for the spectrum. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2016/03/01/sensory-storytime-spectrum-libraries-add-services-for-children-with-autism/

AkronSummitLibrary.(2014, April 14). Sensory storytime: A program designed for families of children with autism [Video}. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwAT88XQsK4&ab_channel=AkronSummitLibrary

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Free Choice Storytelling Reflection

Before Reading

I will admit I am probably one of the most indecisive people on the planet! That being said, I had a super difficult time choosing a book to read for this storytelling experience since there were no parameters on the assignment. It was very overwhelming to think about what to choose because there are so many amazing books out there, and the longer I’m in this course the more books I add to my list because people are constantly sharing great books in their read alouds and blogs! I decided a good place to start was to look through the books I had considered but hadn’t chosen for previous assignments. I also had to think about what type of storytelling experience I wanted to choose: with a book, without a book, with props, interactive, etc. After a lot of thought, I decided I would do an interactive storytelling experience because it was so much fun to do on an earlier assignment. Once I narrowed down the type of storytelling I wanted to do, it wasn’t too difficult to choose a book. I had two books I had put on my interactive read aloud list: More Bears! By Kenn Nesbitt and Kiwi Cannot Reach by Jason Tharp. After rereading the books, I decided on More Bears! because I thought the audience I would be reading to would enjoy that book more since.

As I began planning my storytelling experience I thought I would read to my group of second graders. They are generally a fun audience and LOVE read alouds. However, as things often do in elementary school, the week turned hectic, schedules were shifted, interruptions happen, and it didn’t work out for me to read to my second graders. Now I had to come up with a new audience. I knew I could always read to someone at home and make them pretend to be children, but it is definitely more fun to read to real children (and sometimes children are more cooperative than grownups J ). After a little juggling of my lesson plans and schedule, I decided I would try reading to a group of my upper elementary students. They are a little older than the audience I originally thought would enjoy the book, but I was down to the wire if I wanted a live audience so decided to go for it.

Preparing for the storytelling had two main parts: preparing the reading of the story and preparing the physical environment. I read through the book multiple times and also did a little research on the author to give background. I read the book multiple times to myself and practice using expression and getting the flow of the book. Setting up the space was not difficult because I was using a space I had used multiple times before. I just had to position my rolling desk in the right spot so that those watching the video would clearly be able to see the book and me, but no students could be seen in the video. It took a little adjusting because there were more students in this group than I had used in the past. I also needed to check the lighting. I made sure all the lights were on in the room and looked at the image on the screen. There was a little glare where the blinds were cracked so I closed the blinds, and we were ready to go. I use my laptop for videoing because I have found it to be the easiest method. After videoing I can edit if needed and save it to the laptop to easily upload to Youtube. The last thing that needed to be done before reading the book was choose someone to start the camera.

Kenn Nesbitt's website for kids

The Storytelling

Reading the story was tons of fun. I had practiced multiple times so I felt very confident as I sat down to read. I shared some information about the author to give the students a little background and also explained how I needed them to help me tell the story by reading the words in the speech bubbles. As I read the story the students interacted beautifully. There was one moment when someone came to the door (I forgot to hang my do not disturb sign up), and one of the students had to quietly slip out and answer the door. Luckily we have glass doors so I could see who was there, and she was able to tell them to come back in a few minutes. After that brief interruption, we finished up the story without incident.

More Bears! Read aloud

After Reading Reflections

Although I had a little difficulty deciding on a story to tell and my audience didn’t work out as I had planned, overall it ended up being an excellent storytelling experience. The book I ended up choosing was a lot of fun to tell because it was a silly story. Although I intended to read it to a younger audience, the older audience I read it to really liked it. They laughed and giggled through the whole experience and did an amazing job with reading the speech bubbles on the different pages. It was nice to see them engaged in the story throughout- even with the surprise ending. After this storytelling experience I think I could definitely read this book to an older elementary audience like I did, and it would be suitable for a first or second grade audience as well.

After completing the storytelling experience I thought of a few ways I could extend the experience. We could talk about what animals they think there should be more of in books and why. I could also have students write about what animals they would pick and depending on the age have them give reasons. In fact, on a different day, I read the book to a group of first graders and had them write a sentence about what animal they would want more of in the book and why. Then they were allowed to illustrate. With older students I could have them write a paragraph with 3 reasons and still allow them to illustrate. I considered that in a library setting I would do things a little differently. I could have a list of animals along with a fairly simple craft to create those animals (such as using a paper plate or paper bag). The students could choose which of the animals on my list they would like to see more and then complete the craft to create that animal. Overall, this was a great experience and one that I plan to add to my toolbox for when I have my own library.