How Do You Hold Your Picture Book for Virtual Storytime?

In an August post to the alsc-l listserv , Saroj Ghoting, Early Literacy consultant and storytime advocate shared an interesting perspective. Please read on:

"I would like to share with you 2 excerpts (both in the video I link to, I edited them together) of a way of holding a book in an online storytime. This is done in Toledo Public Library. Jan Connell who is my contact there, and she is copied on this email. I am grateful to the Toledo Public Library staff for giving me permission to share these clips. https://youtu.be/vc6eace4Wao

The first clip of Planes Fly is read by Katherine Heebsh and the second It’s a Book is read by Colleen McBride.

 

I thought that viewing this video might make for some good discussion.

In almost all the online storytime videos I have seen, the storytime providers are doing the storytime as if children are sitting in front of them in a storytime, or that they are facing the children. However, to my way of thinking, when children are sitting at home, we have an opportunity to “think cozy.” Most of the time, they are sitting with an adult on a couch or on the floor, and they are on the same side of the book as the adult. We can make the reading experience feel a bit more one-on-one, while also modeling for parents/caregivers ways to read WITH their children. This approach could be used in online/virtual storytimes or in videos you may offer directed at parents on ways to share books. For example, with children of all ages at home, you might offer tips and demonstrate how to ask questions at different levels of understanding with the same book, so they can all enjoy reading the book together.

In these video clips I liked how the storytime provider then came back to talking with the children face to face.

This library system has a person who videos the storytimes, and they obviously have editing software.

 

What are your thoughts on sharing a book this way in an online storytime? Please share any other ideas you have as well! For example, I often wonder what techniques we can use to make the storytime feel interactive, how to handle asking questions—they make the storytime interactive, but we cannot hear their responses or even if they did respond, or are participating. I wonder what kinds of comments and questions work well in an online storytime. Looking forward to hearing your comments!"  Saroj Ghoting sghoting@gmail.com