Observation and Analysis Paper

“Spooktacular Stories” at the Public Library

Casandria Crane

San Jose State University

LIBR 263

Dr. Susan Higgins

October 31, 2012

OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS 6

OBSERVATION AND ANALYSIS PAPER2

Observation and Analysis Paper

Name of Literacy Activity: “Spooktacular Stories”

Date and Time of Activity: October 23, 2010, at 7 p.m.

Age Group: 0-6

Setting:

The Children’s Program Room at the Sheppard Memorial Library, next to the children’s section. The Sheppard Memorial Library system is a public library system that serves Pitt County, North Carolina. The main library is located in downtown Greenville, North Carolina. This particular meeting room serves for story time and other programs for children.

The meeting room was full of well over 100 small children and parents. The advertisements for the activity invited children to participate by wearing their Halloween costumes, and most of them dressed up. The ad also recommended that children bring a treat bag or basket, so the children were clearly looking forward to the annual “trick or treat” through the children’s section of the library.

Since this was a special occasion (Halloween), and the event was held at night rather than in the morning, as it usually is, there were many more attendees than at the typical story time. The number of people in the large room made it a very noisy activity. The atmosphere was cheerful and informal. People came and went in the back, but stayed for the most part.

Developmental Goals:

· To engage

· To relate to the pictures

· To become self-aware by viewing pictures

· To learn words based on the story

· To color a related story page (fine motor development)

· To practice writing about the story

· To practice writing vocabulary words from the story

· Play acting parts of the story

· To read

Many of these goals were addressed, as I will mention in the learning objectives. However, most of them had to be adapted for a large group of excited children. The librarians who created this special story time clearly focused mostly on the fun of the experience. The children’s librarians found some entertaining ways to teach emergent literacy behaviors.

The Story Time:

Two children’s librarians conducted the story time, each helping the other. Miss Carrie and Miss Phyllis clearly both have a lot of experience working with young children and they catered the story time to their audience.

Miss Carrie, dressed in a sweater and dark pant suit, began the story time. Before Miss Carrie began, she dimmed the lights. The children and parents, who had been talking together, were hushed when the lights darkened. Miss Carrie had their attention as she clearly and softly read the poem by Jack Prelutsky called “Pumpkin” (found in It’s Halloween, 1977). While she read, she picked up an electronically lit jack-o-lantern. This helped the children visualize the way that a pumpkin changes on Halloween night.

The lights came back on, and Miss Carrie introduced a special guest: Humbug Witch. The other children’s librarian, Miss Phyllis, had dressed like the character in a classic Halloween story about a witch who couldn’t cast a spell, no matter how hard she tried. Miss Carrie read Humbug Witch, and the character acted out the story. The book begins with a description of the witch, and Miss Phyllis pointed out the ways she was dressed just like the character in the book. Then, Miss Carrie read about Humbug Witch’s misadventures in casting spells. She eventually used props such as a stuffed cat and a plastic cauldron. At the end of the story, Humbug Witch took off her costume, and Miss Phyllis followed suit.

The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity. They participated by yelling, “Ew!” when Humbug Witch threw a disgusting (and imaginary) ingredient into the cauldron. When she finally took off her outfit, they were especially interested in seeing who had dressed up as Humbug Witch. This activity represents a great example of the developmental goals of engaging children and acting out a story.

The next two activities were movement-oriented. The children (and most of the parents) stood up, while Miss Carrie taught them an easy poem, “I’m Not Afraid.” They chanted along with her, “I’m not afraid of the clapping monster, I’m not afraid at all!” while clapping. Then they moved on to the stomping, shrinking, and freezing monsters.

Then Miss Carrie played a song called “Freeze Dance” over the sound system. The children and most of the adults as well danced along to the music, freezing at the appropriate moments. Miss Carrie and Miss Phyllis led them from the front. The group appeared to be very familiar with this song and enjoyed participating. Their enthusiasm waned a bit afterward as Miss Phyllis walked through the group and asked 6 children to come up to the front to help act out the next part of the night’s program.

By the time the children were lined up and ready to help present the next story, the audience was very rambunctious. Miss Carrie started to read from a book called The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams. In the story, a little old lady is followed home by disembodied shoes, pants, a shirt, etc. When the various items appear, they each make a noise. For example, the shoes stomp, the pants wiggle, etc. The child volunteers in the front each held laminated pictures of these objects, which they used to demonstrate the actions in the story. The audience was invited to participate by stomping, wiggling, etc.

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything worked well with older children, but the very young ones in this group got very antsy. At the beginning, they had a difficult time following the story, and did not appear interested. The librarians persisted however, and when all of the pieces of clothing and other items came together to form a scarecrow, most of the children were paying attention.

The final activity involved a finger play. The two librarians each raised one hand up high, with 5 tiny pumpkin finger puppets on their hands. They recited the poem “5 Little Pumpkins” together, acting out the motions as they went. The audience enjoyed the poem and the finger play. They also seemed to respond well since they knew it was the last part of the story time. After “5 Little Pumpkins”, the children lined up with their parents to go trick-or-treating through the children’s section of the library.

Learning objectives (outcome):

Since the Spooktacular Stories activity involved children from birth through 6 years old, the librarians focused on the reading level of the younger children. Miss Carrie and Miss Phyllis did not hold up any printed words or letters whatsoever. However, they found ways to address the following developmental goals in working with these young children. The audience, as a result, participated in emerging literacy.

Here are the developmental goals the librarians used in this activity:

· To engage. More than any other goal, the librarians sought to work on engaging their audience. Miss Carrie and Miss Phyllis planned a night of storytelling that was varied and interesting. Sometimes their stories and songs required audience participation. They played music, turned out the lights, danced, and sought to entertain the children even while teaching them about literacy.

· To relate to the pictures. With such a large group, the librarians had a challenge in bringing the illustrations of their chosen books to life for the children. Instead of trying to show the pages of books, they created life-sized adaptations. Humbug Witch, for example, was a walking, moving, life-size model of the book’s illustrations. She performed the same tasks that were included in the pictures of the story. Even the children in the back of the room could see what was happening. As Miss Carrie read, Humbug Witch interpreted her performance based on the pictures, and the children responded by putting the words to the scene they were watching.

· Play acting parts of the story. Clearly, play acting the stories and poems proved to be one of the strengths of this story time. The librarians invited the children to participate as much as possible. The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, especially, involved the children in telling the story as they performed out the actions of the items chasing the little old lady. They audience likewise acted out the scene, connecting their words and hand movements to the words on the page. The librarians themselves modeled how to act out the stories (Humbug Witch), and used activities that involved everyone doing the same (“I’m Not Afraid” poem).

Guiding Principles of the California Department of Education:

Although the library where I observed this story time is located in North Carolina, I used the Guiding Principles of the California Department of Education in evaluating how well Spooktacular Stories served the educational needs of these children. While many of the principles could be applied, I chose the 4 that best represent the children’s experience at this particular story time.

“3. Development proceeds at varying rates from child to child as well as unevenly within different areas of each child's functioning.” The librarians at Sheppard Memorial Library created a program that took into account the unique children who would attend that night. They kept the activities interesting on several different levels, and varied what types of activities they used. Children from babies through first graders felt welcome to participate.

“7. Children are active learners, drawing on direct physical and social experience as well as on culturally transmitted knowledge to construct their own understandings of the world around them.” Story hour at the library gave the children the wonderful opportunity to learn in a highly social and active environment. They acted out stories and poems by standing up and moving around, by yelling out the next part of the story, and by playing freeze dance together. Not only did they enjoy physically applying these activities, they had the added delight of being part of a group.

“9. Play is an important vehicle for the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children, and a reflection of their development.” The children who participated in story time played as they absorbed knowledge. They learned new songs and heard stories they had never heard before. They saw the librarians and other children acting out stories. The environment invited the audience to play together as they internalized new experiences and literacy skills.

“12. Children develop and learn best in the context of a community where they are safe and valued, their physical needs are met, and they feel psychologically secure.”   Clearly, story hour provided a safe, positive environment for children to develop and learn. Their parents were with them, encouraging them to enjoy story time. The librarians made everyone feel welcome and respected. Even the youngest attendees were able to experience the joy of being part of a learning community.

Marketing:

The library marketed this event on several different fronts. The Sheppard Memorial Library’s Facebook page had this announcement:

The October Calendar, printed and left for anyone to bring home, featured this evening’s story time in the last two weeks of the month:

A few days before the Spooktacular Stories event, every visitor to the library who walked by the children’s section saw the following portable poster:

The library’s online newsletter, The Bookmark, featured a written announcement. I overheard librarians, in both the children’s section and the adult circulation desk, promoting the story time to anyone who brought a child to the library. The Sheppard Memorial Library successfully marketed this activity to the appropriate audience. The packed Children’s Program Room offers further evidence that the message about the event circulated well.

Conclusion—Possible Improvements and Success:

The main improvement I would suggest is minor. The librarians should have chosen a shorter story for the next-to-last book. Miss Carrie and Miss Phyllis took a break from engaging the whole audience to search around for a group of 6 volunteers. This 5-8 minutes of down time took some of the momentum out of the night’s activities. By that point, the younger children found it difficult to pay attention, especially since they were wondering why other children had been chosen to go to the front, but not them. Eventually, most of the group seemed to settle down and participate, if sporadically.

For an audience that included over a hundred participants, ranging in ages from 0 to adults, the librarians did an excellent job of making the activity fun. The children were engaged for most of the time, and participated when asked. The librarians succeeded in providing an environment where learning and play could fit together in a social context.

References

Balain, L. (1965). Humbug witch. New York: Star Bright Books.

California Department of Education. (2012). Guiding principles. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/frstclsprinciples.asp

Prelutsky, J. (1977). It’s halloween (M. Hafner, Illustrator). New York: Greenwillow Books.

Sheppard Memorial Library. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://sheppardlibrary.org/home

Williams, L. (1986). The little old lady who was not afraid of anything (M. Lloyd, Illustrator). New York: HarperCollins.

Observation and Analysis Paper

“

Spooktacular Stories

”

at the Public Library

Casandria Crane

San Jose State University

LIBR 263

Dr. Susan Higgins

October 31, 2012

Observation and Analysis Paper

“Spooktacular Stories” at the Public Library

Casandria Crane

San Jose State University

LIBR 263

Dr. Susan Higgins

October 31, 2012