1.3: What We Learned

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The 35 librarians whose 68 storytime sessions were observed in our study earned CLASS scores in the middle range for emotional support and organization of the environment. This is encouraging! In the emotional support domain, the librarians delivered storytimes with positive atmospheres and almost no negativity in the climate, an important achievement given that caregivers rate a child’s enjoyment as a primary reason they attend storytime (Cahill et al., 2020). Librarians also demonstrated sensitivity and regard for the children’s perspectives as they talked with and responded to children. In the organization of the environment domain, librarians encouraged efficient levels of productivity, minimized distractions and disruptions by setting clear expectations for children and caregivers, and included a variety of instructional learning formats. They engaged the children with many kinds of fun learning opportunities such as shared book reading, gross motor movement, singing, and interactions with props.

CLASS scores were in the low range in the domain of instructional support for the storytime sessions we observed. Librarians may be reluctant to see themselves as providing instruction out of the fear that doing so will make storytimes formal and rigid – “too much like school” in bad ways. However, there are ways to engage children’s natural curiosity and to create robust learning opportunities that children and their caregivers also find fun.