What is the Story Choices project?
All Early Years settings know about the value of storybooks to their day-to-day practice, and most already use some of the principles of interactive book reading. This project will investigate how much planning these storybook activities makes a difference to outcomes.
We want to compare two different approaches to planning interactive storybook reading:
a) Responsive or Child-led Approach: Educators ask children to select the book for the daily group reading session or actively involve them in the book selection process. While reading, the questions and discussion points occur spontaneously.
b) Planned Storybook and Discussion Points Approach: Educators not only select the storybook ahead of time, but they also plan the specific discussion points they will use while engaging children in conversations about the story.
We will randomly allocate settings to deliver one of the approaches and ask you to stick to that approach for your main storybook sessions for fifteen weeks. Other aspects of your storybook reading routine can remain the same (for example, whether you read in key worker groups or with the whole class).
What will settings have to do?
We will ask settings to commit to doing the following:
- Pass on information sheets to parents/carers
- Provide researchers with background demographic data on the children (date of birth, whether they have English as an additional language, eligibility for early years pupil premium, any special educational needs and disabilities, normal hours of attendance).
- Allow researchers to work with the children individually to assess their vocabulary level before the intervention and their language, vocabulary and interest in books after the intervention. This will take around 15 minutes per child in November 2024 and 30 minutes per child in May 2025.
- Ask the staff in their setting to complete the educator survey prior to the intervention – this takes around 20 minutes and asks about their background experience, and asks them to rate two videos showing examples of oral language teaching
- Follow the guidelines for storybook reading according to the condition you have been allocated to.
- Record which book was read and which children attended for each session on a monitoring form.
- Carry out storybook reading sessions according to the guidelines at least three times a week for fifteen weeks.
- Ask the staff in their setting to complete the feedback survey after the intervention to give their views of the guidance and the approach
- Consider taking part as a ‘case study setting’. We will ask eight settings to provide more detailed information on how the approaches were implemented in their classes. This would involve researchers visiting the setting, observing some storybook reading sessions, and interviewing the staff members about their experiences.
How do you find out more information?
For more information please view the Story choices information sheet for settings
If you have any further questions about the project please email the Story Choices Team at Coventry University via their Story Choices inbox at StoryChoices@coventry.ac.uk.
How do you take part?
If you would like to register your interest in taking part, please complete the expression of interest form.
We will ask eligible settings to complete a Memorandum of Understanding.
Which settings are eligible to take part?
We are interested in schools and early years settings that cater for children in the year before they start reception (ages 3 to 4). We are keen to recruit settings from the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector as well as state-maintained settings. We want to work in settings that have at least 8 children attending at least 3 days per week.
If you are taking part in another research trial but would also like to take part in this project, please contact us to discuss it.
Key Dates and Activities
| Date | Activity | Time required |
|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | Settings will send an information sheet to parents | None |
| October 2024 | Individual educators complete an online survey about their background and knowledge of how to support language | 20 minutes |
| November 2024 | Settings provide background information about individual children in their setting | 1 hour |
| November 2024 | Assessment of vocabulary of individual children, administered by a researcher | We will visit the setting for one or two days, working individually with children for 15 minutes each |
| December 2024 | We will inform settings which approach they should follow and provide guidance on the approach | None |
| January 2025-April 2025 | Settings carry out the storybook reading approach 3 times a week for 15 weeks. Monitoring sheet to be completed after each session | Approx. 20 minutes storybook reading and 5 minutes completing the form per session |
| May 2025 | Individual vocabulary, language and attitudes to books testing, administered by a researcher | We will visit the setting for two or three days, working individually with children for two sessions of 15 minutes each |
| June 2025 | Individual educators complete an online survey about their views of the approach | 15 minutes |
| June 2025 | Some settings agree to take part in interviews about how the approach worked in their setting | 2 hours |