Public Libraries Help Children Start School Ready to Read
by Kristine Tardiff, Retired Youth Services Specialist, Library of Michigan
Many librarians have been promoting emergent literacy in their story times for years and just didn’t know it. They didn’t have a name for what researchers are now saying is vital to a child’s later success in school. Library story times for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers promote the very activities that will help children be successful readers and writers throughout their school careers.
Singing, talking, and reading to babies introduces them to oral language. As they become toddlers, children experiment with words, ask to be read to, and begin to express themselves through drawing and painting. Preschoolers begin to repeat songs and rhymes heard from adults, they may tell their own renditions of stories they’ve heard, and they begin to understand the nature of written language and concepts about print. Preschoolers become able to grasp the sound-symbol relationship—that symbols on a page have sounds—and they begin to understand patterns and context in books. Librarians promote the emerging literacy of children each time they read a story, sing a song, or share a rhyme.
Researchers believe there are general patterns of developmental growth across the preschool years that signal when particular literacy-related learning is likely to emerge. They can also describe the environmental interactions that fit those emerging behaviors and help move
a child forward in literacy learning. Researchers agree—storybook reading is the single most important literacy experience children can have during their preschool years to prepare them for school and continued school achievement.
To learn more about emergent literacy and what libraries can do to plan programs for children
and parents, check out the Preschool Literacy Initiative of the Public Library Associations (PLA)
and Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) at http://archive.pla.org/projects/preschool/preschool.html. Raising a Reader, offered by West Bloomfield Township Public Library,
also offers valuable information and resources at www.raisingareader.info.
Library of Michigan Offers New Programs to Promote Emergent Literacy
by Kristine Tardiff, Retired Youth Services Specialist, Library of Michigan
The Library of Michigan understands the important role librarians play in emergent literacy. Its recent Mahoney Children’s Workshops on Emergent Literacy provided library staff the opportunity to assist teachers and parents in stimulating early brain development and helping ensure that children become successful readers and writers. The workshops, held in Southfield, Cadillac, and Marquette, featured keynote speaker Lena Montgomery, Manager of Early Intervention Services for the Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency. Montgomery spoke about the importance of understanding how children acquire early literacy skills. She addressed the theories behind emergent literacy and provided useful, practical information for the audience of public library staff, school library staff, and early child care educators.
Workshop presenters Meaghan Battle, youth service coordinator at Farmington Community Library, and Wendy Wilcox, youth service coordinator at West Bloomfield Township Public Library, demonstrated useful ways to promote emergent literacy in the public library, highlighting, in particular, the programs in which they are involved.
In April 2004, the Library of Michigan launched Michigan Reads!, a program to promote public library awareness and use, model successful reading and literacy skills, and encourage families to read together. Michigan Reads! features a “one state, one book program” geared to children from birth to five years of age and the adults who care and work with them. This year’s book was Barnyard Song by Rhonda Gowler Greene, illustrated by Robert Bender. The goal of the program is to spread the word about the role public libraries play in emergent literacy. Schools and early child care organizations are invited to take an active role in partnering with libraries to help ensure that Michigan’s children are ready to succeed in school. More information about Michigan Reads! can be found at www.michigan.gov/hal.
For more information about the workshops, contact: Lena Montgomery, Manager of Early Intervention Services, Wayne Regional Educational Service Agency, 33500 Van Born Rd., Wayne, MI 48184-2497, (734) 334-1300; Meaghan Battle, Youth Service Coordinator, Farmington Community Library, 32737 West Twelve Mile Rd., Farmington Hills, MI 48334, (248) 553-0300; or Wendy Wilcox, Youth Service Coordinator, West Bloomfield Township Public Library, 4600 Walnut Lake Rd., West Bloomfield, MI 48323, (248) 682-2120.
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