New Session of Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca!

Hi all!  Sorry for the self-promotion but many folks were interested in but unable to participate in the last session of Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca and asked to be notified when it was being offered again. Well, that time is now!  A new session is being offered by Library Juice Academy during November.  The class won't get into full swing until November 4, so there is still plenty of time to register.  All the relevant details are below.  Please send a message or leave a comment if you have any questions.  You can also check out what past students have had to say about the class on the feedback page.

Bilingual Storytime at Your Biblioteca

Instructor: Katie Scherrer
Dates: November 1-28, 2013
Credits: 1.5 CEUs
Price: $175

Description: This 4-week, online course teaches participants how to present bilingual storytimes (English/Spanish) for various ages, regardless of their own language skills. Video demonstrations, articles, online resources and course discussions direct students as they learn how to successfully deliver the various elements of bilingual storytimes, either on their own or with a bilingual community partner. Participants will discover new books, rhymes, songs, plans and resources that they can immediately put to use in their bilingual storytime programs.

Learning Objectives:

• Students will learn how to select and use the following components in bilingual storytime: books, songs, rhymes, fingerplays, and stories for telling aloud.
• Students will experiment with incorporating bilingual materials into their existing storytime programs.
• Students will select books and other materials they can use to increase inclusion of Latino culture and the Spanish language in their English storytime programs.
• Students will develop strategies for working with bilingual community partners to present and market bilingual storytime.
• Students will gain an increased understanding of the early literacy and school readiness needs of Latino children.
• Students will articulate how bilingual storytime supports the early literacy and school readiness needs of Latino children, and identify online resources for sharing early literacy and school readiness information with Spanish-speaking parents.
• Students will each develop two bilingual storytime plans.

Katie Scherrer is a library consultant and training specialist whose work focuses on improving library services to Latino and Spanish-speaking children and families. She previously worked as the first Spanish Program Specialist for the Columbus Metropolitan Library and as a Children’s Librarian at the uniquely bilingual Village Branch of the Lexington Public Library. Katie has presented many workshops on bilingual storytime and library services to Latino families for librarians across the country, including at the 2010 Virginia Hamilton Conference on Multicultural Literature for Youth, and the 2013 ALA Annual Conference. For more information, check out this Interview with Katie.

Course structure:  This is an online class that is taught asynchronously, meaning that participants do the work on their own time as their schedules allow. The class does not meet together at any particular times, although the instructor may set up optional sychronous chat sessions. Instruction includes readings and assignments in one-week segments. Class participation is in an online forum environment.