Scaffolding for Story Time Success

Library story times are serious work in early childhood literacy. They're challenging enough to do well when they're for kids of a single age, since kids at the same age will be at different developmental levels. How do you help children who are at different levels?

One technique is to use scaffolding. You build a scaffold by adding one level at a time. You can use scaffolding in story time the same way, introducing basic ideas before discussing more advanced ideas. Starting with basic ideas helps advanced learners by reinforcing core ideas. Building toward advanced ideas helps basic learners by exposing them to new ideas their caregivers can continue to teach.

But what happens when your story time is attended by children of different ages--some 1 year-olds who can't speak and some 4 year-olds who are just learning their letters, for example? How do you teach to such a wide range of audiences? Saroj Ghoting is bringing her Criss Cross Applesauce class to Ohio to address this very situation.

In this day-long session, Saroj will teach the developmental stages of children of different ages. You can assess the stages of children in your audience and adapt your story time to fit them. Saroj will discuss frameworks for these multi-age story times, and she'll also offer complete models that you can use and adapt to meet your needs.

Multi-age story times are a reality for libraries, from multi-branch metro systems to rural libraries. Learn how to make your story times successful teaching times for children ages zero to five. Click here to read the complete details.

(Image © Bill Bertram 2006, CC-BY-2.5)