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Planning and evaluation

Planning effective early literacy sessions

Planning

When you are planning your overall storytime program you need to think about:

  • the early learning opportunities of storytime sessions and the age of the audience, and
  • the space you will use and how it will be set up to minimise distractions for the children.

Templates and further reading

When planning your storytime, remember to always keep the big picture goals in mind:

  • sharing the enjoyment of books and reading with the children
  • exposing them to a wide variety of high quality books
  • and sharing ways to support children’s early literacy with adults.

These are the overarching goals of all storytime programs. In addition, during storytime, presenters model the behaviours that may directly promote the language and literacy development of young children.

Evaluation

Self-reflection and feedback from others can help to improve storytimes. Ask yourself:

  • What worked well?
  • What did the children relate well to? 
  • How would you do it differently next time?  

Sharing experiences with other library colleagues can also help to improve the effectiveness of the design and delivery of the learning experiences they provide. 

Go to FAQs for more detail about planning your session