Experience the magic of storytime in the January/February issue of Knowledge Quest! The theme of this issue is “Storytime for Learning in a Digital World,” a very relevant topic in the era of Common Core State Standards. Some educators and librarians think 21st-century learning standards leave no room for traditional storytime programming because informational reading has taken center stage. This issue presents alternative arguments for the importance of storytime in the digital age through engaging articles that offer a number of strategies for capturing students’ imaginations and weaving interactive storytime activities into the English/language arts curriculum.

Regenerate your storytime programming with six articles from talented school librarians, award-winning children’s book authors, celebrated storytellers, and university faculty. This thematic issue explores different facets of storytime in a digital age, including:

• Interactive storytime library programming ideas ranging from using myths from other cultures to using stories to involve children in multimedia technology production
• Recapturing children’s engagement in storytime programming by integrating media technology and computer apps like Garage Band into student-created digital storytelling activities
• Ideas for thinking “outside the book” with digital storytime, computer coding, and interactive storytelling technology
• Revisiting the social, cultural, and educational impact of storytelling on children’s emotional memory, social development, motivation to read, comprehension, and vocabulary

Contributors to this issue also address important questions raised about the purpose and relevance of storytime in the 21st-century school library. Most significantly, they assert that storytime is a relevant school library activity in the era of STEM and CCSS. In sum, there can be a laptop and a lap in the school library for storytime activities. Read this issue of Knowledge Quest to move your story time into the digital age!

About the Guest Editor

Cynthia Houston is a professor of library media education at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She is a member of AASL and is serving as a program reviewer for AASL national recognition. She is also serving on the Kentucky Association of School Librarians Board of Directors and is the vice-chair for the Kentucky Textbook Commission. She is a two-time winner of the Kentucky Libraries Association Best Feature Article Award. With Marty Boman, she coauthored the article “Hear Our Voices: Stories from the Autism Nation” in the 2015 winter issue of Kentucky Libraries. She also authored Organization Information in School Libraries: Basic Principles and New Rules (Libraries Unlimited 2015).

Read the Guest Editor column “Storytime for Learning.”

Knowledge Quest, Volume 44, No. 3 – Storytime for Learning in a Digital World

Features

Storytime in a Digital World: Making a Case for Thinking Outside the Book
Andrea Paganelli

Expanding Horizons and Encouraging New Perspectives through Myths: Experiments in Interactive Storytelling in an Elementary School Library
Sue Giffard

Why Story Circle Matters
George Ella Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate

Student Storytellers–One School Librarian’s Digital Journey
Sally Smollar

What Can Librarians Learn from Elmo, Sid, and Dora? Applying the Principles of Educational Television to Storytime
Maria Cahill and Jennifer Bigheart

The Baby and the Bathwater: A Tale of Standards and Storytelling
Pamela Petty

Article

Building Your Professional Learning Network (PLN): 21st-Century School Librarians Seek Self-Regulated Professional Development Online
Judi Moreillon

Column

CBC Column
The Art of Storytime
Ellen Fischer

Departments

President’s Column
Storytime for Learning in a Digital World
Leslie Preddy

Guest Editor Column
Storytime for Learning
Cynthia Houston

Author: Cynthia Houston

Categories: KQ Content