BCLA Professional Development Institute

Value-added programming for new parents/caregivers. When a parent manages to get the baby packed into the car, drives around looking for a parking spot and get settled in the library as the good bye songs begin, there is little reward for the effort.
If we can layer and expand the program to offer a more fulfilling experience, while at the same time allowing families to practice self-care, we just might bring a little extra joy into the community as a whole. 
my teenagers would roll their eyes and say "hippie dippy babytime" when I talk about my job at home and I loved this and decided to use it as the title for my presentation. I like to think of libraries as holistic literacy co-ops!!

This presentation outlined some of Greater Victoria Public Library's Tween program.  Notably is the Story Buddies program where Tween Volunteers are paired with younger children to create a picture book which is then shared with the larger group.
Staff Instructions and program outline are included.

Some additional resources recommended by Rachel and Vicki include:
Authentic First Peoples Resources – First Nations Education Steering Committee
http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PUBLICATION-61460-FNESC-Authentic-Resources-Guide-2016-08-26.pdf
BC Books for BC Schools – Association of Book Publishers of BC
http://books.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/BCBooks_2016_forWeb.pdf
Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools – Association of Book Publishers of BC
http://books.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/AbCat_2016_Final_forWeb.pdf

This PowerPoint is from the Youth Services Institute 2017.

This PowerPoint is from the Youth Services Institute 2017.

This PowerPoint is from the Youth Services Institute 2017.

Prendergast, T. (2015). Inclusive early literacy. In C. Rankin & A. Brock (Eds.), Library services from birth to five: Delivering the best start (pp. 183-197). London, UK: Facet.
This chapter is from a book- it's our hope that you'll read this chapter and then go read the whole book.

In this essay, Christopher Kliewer, Douglas Biklen, and Amy J. Petersen unravel the construct of intellectual disability that has dominated both policy and practice in schools and communities. The authors synthesize data from first-person narratives, family accounts, and participatory inquiry to propose a theory of human connectedness in which intellectual competence is constructed through social action and interaction. The authors trace the isolating, brutalizing, and dehumanizing consequences of the presumed “nothingness” associated with those labeled as having an intellectual disability and, by way of contrast, integrate written and video data that offer counterpoints to the notion of intellect as immutable and individual. The authors discuss the development of supports in valued arenas where the right to belong and to participate is realized without question; the provision of resources and materials based on affirmation, actualization, and empowerment; and the fostering of surrounding communities comprised of committed individuals who have stepped apart from deficit ideology and who are open to self-critique, surprise, and learning. The authors propose that in these contexts is found the end of intellectual disability.

This article is both an ethnographic and an action-based description of how excellent early childhood teachers in seven inclusive preschool and kindergarten classrooms fostered the developing literacy profiles of young children with significant developmental disabilities alongside their typically developing peers through active, engaging, social means. I have developed four broad themes, described here as currents, that support the meaning-based literacylearning of children still commonly cast as intrinsically incapable of literate citizenship, using participant observation; in-depth interviews with teachers, therapists, and parents; the implementation of increasingly responsive, systematic literacy-based themes, opportunities, and activities into certain inclusive classrooms; and the development of process-oriented portfolio documentation. Important findings irtclude the following: (a) children with significant developmental disabilities can join the early childhood literacy flow; (b) they do so through interactive mearts; and (c) spoken language need not serve as the foundation of written language learning.

Through a critical interpretivist frame, the authors use ethnography and archives to examine themes associated with society’s ongoing denial of literate citizenship for people with perceived intellectual disabilities. They link this denial to the experiences of other devalued and marginalized groups to challenge the common perception that citizenship in the literate community is an organic impossibility for people defined as intellectually disabled. The authors present four themes of literate disconnection and, in the conclusion, ponder the moral shift necessary to craft a science of literacy for all.