From the Virginia
Educational Media Association handbook, Awesome School Library
Media Day by Gladys Pannell and Barbara Booker.
1. To promote sharing and cooperative planning between students, media
coordinators, media specialists and teachers at various instructional
levels.
2. To encourage enjoyment of literature through dramatic experiences,
storytelling and puppetry
3. To establish a network for sharing experiences, instructional styles,
facilities, and resources in school library media programs.
Materials
Students, books, storytelling paraphernalia and enthusiasm.
Procedures
Select most feasible plan for your group depending on physical location,
size of group interested, and audience with whom you will be working.
Approach a media specialist at another school with your plan, and have her
check for faculty support. Be sure to clear the activity with both
administrators. Adult personnel should meet and work out arrangements for
visiting, program to be shared, dates and times, expectations, and
students to be involved. Each school should advertise and prepare
students for the program. This is an ideal activity for newspaper
coverage, but be sure to make those arrangements early, and confirm them
as the performance date approaches. When the visit and sharing have taken
place, try to include some evaluation of the experience. Also, have
pictures taken and keep a brief outline of the procedures for use in the
future.
Storytelling
Plan a simple program on storytelling/booktalks for your club or library
workers. If possible, work with Child Devlopment or your Family Life
classes. Include stories for high school listeners as well as younger
audiences, and demonstrate several styles such as read-aloud, puppets,
flannelboard, participation stories, and booktalks. Provide various kinds
of stories and recommend specific titles and resources. If this is not
your forte, try others on the faculty. The public library can usually
offer a storytelling workshop. Invite another school librarian to
demonstrate his/her skills. Select a few interested students, give them
some basic information on ways to share literature, and round up a variety
of media for them to investigate and study. Afternoon trips to the public
library and to other school libraries with these students are steps toward
increasing awareness of other resources, and in establishing a network for
sharing. Students should be given a choice of age levels if this fits in
with other plans. (Some students may choose to do booktalks with their
peers, others indicate a preference for primary children, while some want
to work with intermediate students.) Arrange a short meeting between
these students and the staff from the school you intend to visit.
This planning meeting will help students select stories and approaches to
meet the needs of the intended audience. Students should then make a
timeline including the date for selecting stories and books, for learning
the stories or reading the titles, for practicing on each other, and then
for their final deadlines or making puppets, flannel characters, etc. As
part of the process, it is helpful for students to record their
performance on cassette or video if available. Remind them to prepare
more material than needed in case extra time is availble, or for other
unexpected occurrences. Depending on the audience level, participatory
games, songs, finger plays, rhymes and riddles are appropriate.
On the scheduled date, take students to the nearby school. At your
destination the media specialist should confirm earlier arrangements, and
students can go to the classroom to perform. Evaluation can be made as
simple as discussion of the experience, while the teachers may want tomake
changes in plans for next time. Some students may choose to pursue their
storytelling activities.
Variations
High school library clubs can encourage future members by hosting middle
school workders in a visit to the high school library. Also invite
intermediate level library workers to district library clubs meetings if
you are involved in this activity. Many high school students enjoy the
opportunity to visit their "old" libraries. This is especially nice if
the media center has been remodeled.
Return to:
School Libray Media Day
Libraries
