Vermont Early Literacy Initiative

Spring, 2012 Early Literacy Initiative Newsletter (PDF) - Created by Deborah Gadwah-Lambert, Alice Ward Memorial, Canaan, and Beth Reynolds, Norwich Public Library

Winter, 2012 Early Literacy Initiative Newsletter (PDF) - Created by Deborah Gadwah-Lambert, Alice Ward Memorial, Canaan, and Beth Reynolds, Norwich Public Library

Fall, 2011 Early Literacy Initiative Newsletter (PDF) - Created by Deborah Gadwah-Lambert, Alice Ward Memorial Library, Canaan, and Beth Reynolds, Norwich Public Library

Beginning in 2010, the Department of Libraries (DOL) and the Vermont Center for the Book (VCB) have been partnering on a statewide early literacy initiative for babies and toddlers called the Vermont Early Literacy Initiative (VELI). In the first year, 2010-2011, thirty Vermont public libraries participated, and in the second year we added twenty-three more. These libraries are bringing early literacy experiences to children, parents and childcare providers. The training, based on research on how babies and toddlers learn, improves storytimes and helps the librarians introduce concepts of early literacy to parents and caregivers. We have combined the Vermont Center for the Book’s Beginning with Mother Goose (BWMG) Program with the American Library Association’s Every Child Ready to Read program and customized the whole for Vermont.

For each cohort we began with a two-day training session the first day of which featured Saroj Ghoting, one of the librarians who began ALA’s program, Every Child Ready to Read, and who wrote a great book on the topic: Early Literacy Storytimes at Your Library. On the second day we focused on making connections between Beginning With Mother Goose and Every Child Ready to Read.

Funding for this initiative is provided by the Winnie Belle Learned Fund of the Vermont Public Library Foundation through the generosity of Dr. Burnett Rawson with the assistance of Henderson grants through the Vermont Center for the Book.

Participants in this program were required to do the following things:

Attend 3 trainings over a one year period (a total of 4 days).
Submit a plan for holding family BWMG programs to VCB
Hold and report on six early literacy storytimes between the first training and the second one.
Keep statistics and participate in assessment and evaluation.
Pay $90 as a match to the funding provided ($90 per library)

All of the participating libraries got:

Training as outlined above. This included an overnight at Lake Morey Resort, and all meals during the conference.
15 sets of Beginning with Mother Goose Books to give to families.
A five-in-one easel that can be used as a magnetic board, flannel board, chalkboard, or holder for big books as well as a set of magnetic letters.
Handouts for parents on how to incorporate early literacy activities into their lives.

Librarians from the first thirty VELI libraries have incorporated the six early literacy skills defined below into their storytimes and each wrote up one sample storytime for each skill. Their favorite programs are available below.

Six Pre-reading Skills Children Can Start Learning from Birth

Print Motivation - an interest and enjoyment of books
Children who enjoy books and being read to will want to learn how to read.
Storytimes highlighting this skill developed by the libraries indicated:

Vocabulary - Knowing the names of things
Research shows that children who have larger vocabularies are better readers. Knowing many words helps children recognize written words and understand what they read. Even infants benefit; by the time children are two years old, they understand 300-500 words. The more words children know, the better able they are to recognize words and understand what they read.
Storytimes highlighting this skill developed by the libraries indicated:

Print Awareness - noticing print, knowing how to handle a book and knowing how to follow the words on a page
Being familiar with printed language helps children feel comfortable with book and understand that print is useful.
Storytimes highlighting this skill developed by the libraries indicated:

Narrative Skills - being able to describe things and events and tell stories
Being able to tell or retell a story helps children understand what they read. Ask open-ended questions about the books you read like, "what do you think will happen next?"
Storytimes highlighting this skill developed by the libraries indicated:

Letter Knowledge - Knowing letters are different from each other, knowing their names and sounds and recognizing letters everywhere
Help children see and feel different shapes and the shapes of letters; help them see that the same letter can look different. Knowing the names and sounds of letters helps children figure out how to say written words.
Storytimes highlighting this skill developed by the libraries indicated:

Phonological Awareness - Being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words
Say rhymes, sing songs and play word games with children. Being aware of the smaller sounds that make up words helps children sound out written words as they begin to read.
Storytimes highlighting this skill developed by the libraries indicated: