Supporting School Readiness Through Librarian-Child Interactions in Public Library Storytimes: An Analysis of Assessment
- PDF / 669,353 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 48 Downloads / 186 Views
Supporting School Readiness Through Librarian‑Child Interactions in Public Library Storytimes: An Analysis of Assessment Scores and Influential Factors Maria Cahill1 · Hayley Hoffman1 · Erin Ingram1 · Soohyung Joo1 Accepted: 10 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract A recent trend in public libraries′ children’s services emphasizes the role of promoting school readiness. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the school readiness efforts present in storytime programs, this study observed and scored 68 public library preschool storytime sessions presented by 35 storytime providers across three states using the CLASS (Classroom Assessment Scoring System) measure. The CLASS evaluates adult-child interactions in learning environments within three domains related to positive outcomes in children’s school readiness: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Additionally, the study examined whether differences among CLASS scores were influenced by the population density of the library community, the storytime provider’s degree status and educational level, the provider’s prior teaching experience, the provider’s years of experience in children’s services, and the number of children participating in the storytime session. Results revealed that storytime providers score well in the CLASS’s emotional support and classroom organization dimensions but have room for improvement in the content-focused instructional support domain. Of the factors examined, only years of experience in children’s services was found to influence a provider’s CLASS score. These findings suggest that professional development programs should focus on preparing librarians to teach and model school readiness skills during storytime. Keywords School readiness · Adult-child interactions · Public libraries · Storytimes
Introduction Experiences and interactions in early childhood have profound effects on physical and cognitive development and serve as building blocks for future success. Language and literacy skills impact overall academic success (NICHD 2005), and skills, such as paying attention, getting along with others, and persistence also serve as important indicators of school readiness (Arnold et al. 2012). Yet, there is * Maria Cahill [email protected] Hayley Hoffman [email protected] Erin Ingram [email protected] Soohyung Joo [email protected] 1
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
great variation in school readiness, with only one-third of children in the US able to recognize letters upon school entry (Child Trends 2015). This discrepancy in abilities and readiness is particularly concerning given that differences tend to persist across the school years (Dickinson and Porche 2011). Public libraries provide rich learning opportunities for young children and their caregivers (Hill et al. 2015), and library services are particularly important for children aged 3-5 years, fewer than half of whom in the United States are enrolled in preschool programs (Hussar et al. 2020). St
Data Loading...
