Bilingual Storytimes in the Community

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Bilingual Storytimes in the Community Anna Boland
Community Literacy and Engagement Officer Hume
City Council Learning Community Department
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• Key Points
• Background and context
• Overview of the Bilingual Storytimes in the
  Community
• Project Partnerships evaluation findings

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Learning Together 2 Strategy Objective 3.1 To
ensure a sound base for literacy, numeracy and
IT. Objective 3.3 To develop social, language
and communication skills. Objective 3.4 To
support and educate parents as their childs
first teacher
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• Bilingual Storytimes in the Community
• Songs stories and rhymes (preschool storytimes)
  in community languages-Arabic, Turkish,
  Vietnamese, Assyrian, Sinhalese.
• Storytimes held in community settings-playgroups,
  preschools, schools, child care centres.
• Parents/carers and children 0-5
• Library storytimes in Arabic, Turkish and Assyrian

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• Background
• The Age Library Broadmeadows opened 2003
• Program commenced 2005
• Communities for Children funding 2006
• Employment of Bilingual storytellers in Arabic,
  Turkish and Vietnamese
• Library storytimes in Arabic Turkish and Assyrian

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• Nezaket Kilicaslan
• Turkish Bilingual Storytime Officer
• Muna Yazdin
• Assyrian Bilingual Storytime Officer
• Amal Swairjo
• Arabic Bilingual Storytime Officer
• Van Bach Nguyen
• Vietnamese Bilingual Storytime Officer
• Srinath Muddumage
• Sinhalese Bilingual Storytime Officer

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Arabic Storytime at Roxburgh Park Homestead Centre
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Program rationale- Relevant research

• Importance of the home environment and parental
  behaviours such as reading, sharing songs and
  rhymes for a childs acquisition of literacy
  skills.
• Reading aloud to children from an early age
  supports language development and emergent
  literacy skills in preschool children.
• Importance of reading style and interactive
  reading.
• The better the bilingual childs home language
  skills the better his/her grasp of English.
• An effective way of increasing access to programs
  by hard to reach families is by outreaching to
  settings that families are familiar with.

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• Objectives
• To support the development of emerging literacy
  and numeracy in the early years.
• To support cultural inclusion and maintenance of
  first language for young children.
• To increase parent skills and confidence to share
  songs, rhymes and books with their children.
• Increase awareness of library service and
  learning opportunities and increase library
  membership.

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• Program Evaluation
• November/December 2007
• Project Partnerships contracted
• Interviews conducted with parents/carers at
  playgroups, preschools and library storytimes.
• Focus group with storytellers and project manager
  and interviews and discussions with preschool
  teachers.

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• Childrens response to the Bilingual Storytime
  Program
• Storytellers, preschool teachers and parents of
  children who participated in the Bilingual
  Storytime Program reported that participating in
  the Program had made a significant difference for
  all children in terms of skill and language
  development.
• 96 reported that participation had encouraged an
  increased interest in reading childrens books
• 93 reported that participation had encouraged an
  increased interest in listening to stories
• 82 reported that participation had encouraged an
  increased interest in retelling stories
• 93 reported that participation had encouraged an
  increased interest in singing songs and reciting
  rhymes.

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• Parents, preschool teachers and Storytellers
  reported that as a result of attendance at
  sessions they observed
• An increased interest in children learning first
  language knowledge and skills.
• Increased vocabulary and ability to use first
  language
• A positive impact on children with disabilities,
  children who have no English and children with
  other first language skills including English.
• Increased interactive play
• Children were happier at home as they had more
  resources to play alone or to ask someone to join
  them in play.

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• Learnings for children with other first languages
  including English
• Increased concentration and listening skills
• Enjoying songs similar across cultures-Old
  Macdonald, Ali Baba
• Being able to recognise another language
• Joy and delight in being able to count in another
  language or put a simple sentence together.

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He will tell a story to anyone who visits at
home, sometimes this is from something that has
happened at story-time, other times it might be
something from a book we have read or a DVD we
have watched. He can be very animated and
excited especially when they respond Parent
Assyrian Playgroup Bi-lingual story-time My
daughter and I have learnt lots of Turkish songs
that we sing together. This has really helped
her to listen, she never used to be able to sit
and listen or just sit and look at a book by
herself, you can see she now gets enjoyment from
this as she is happy to be by herself and look at
a book or pretend to read it to her brother. He
is still a little small to do this but he is
happy to play along and sit and listen to
her Parent Turkish Playgroup Bi-lingual
story-time
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Skills that assist school readiness 96
indicated that participating in Bilingual
Storytime sessions had helped their
child/children to become more confident and
sociable around other children and 89
reported that attending the sessions had helped
to increase their child/childrens interest and
concentration in completing tasks.
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• Skills that assist school readiness
• Improved response to instruction
• A developing understanding about the behaviours
  that are expected in a group,
• Improved understanding about how to share
  resources

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• Parents responses to the Program
• 85 indicated that participation in the sessions
  had helped them to learn about child development
• 100 of respondents indicated that participating
  in the sessions had given them new skills about
  how to play and teach their child.
• Overall 78 of the women indicated that coming
  along to the session had helped them to find out
  about other services that could help their child
  or their family
• 96 indicated that the Bilingual Storytime
  sessions had helped them to find support by
  talking to other parents.

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• Time to meet other women and talk to them. I
  don't have any family here and this is where I
  have met people who have become my friends. It
  is a bit like a family gathering.
• Parent Assyrian Playgroup Bilingual Storytime
• I hear other parents experiences of their
  children, share stories and advice. I even
  found the right godmother. I now have new ideas
  about parenting have learned songs to sing with
  my child.
• Parent Arabic Storytime The Age Library

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• I feel I learn something new each session. This
  has included the special way that Roula reads,
  she is like an actress, so I feel it is Ok to be
  more happy, more sad or whatever when I read a
  book. The kids really respond well, they are
  always expecting something to happen - before
  they would be bored.
• Parent Arabic Bi-lingual story-time in The Age
  Library

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• Conclusions and recommendations
• Recurrent funding for the Bilingual Storytime
  Program
• Development of Bilingual storytelling Training
  Package
• Provide program in accordance with needs
• Theme kits for cultural celebrations to reflect
  cultures represented in preschools.
• Reference group
• Regular program evaluation
• Longitudinal evaluation

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Turkish Storytime in the Age Library Broadmeadows