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| November/December 2007 Issue
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 PRIME TIME is pleased to announce the twenty Spring 2008 host sites sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. The host sites include seven public libraries, nine schools, and two community centers located across fourteen Louisiana parishes, and the syllabi offerings will include thirteen English-only programs, four bilingual (Spanish-English) programs, and the second pilot of the Middle School syllabus featuring the chapter book Seedfolks, by award-winning author Paul Fleischman. Several programs are made possible through the generous support and collaboration of community partners such as the Lincoln Parish District Attorney’s Office in Ruston, the City of Thibodaux Recreation Department and the Thibodaux Rotary Club, and Volunteers of America-LA PROMISE in Shreveport.
PRIME TIME is hosting a training workshop for the new team members who will be working with the Spring 2008 sites in Louisiana. The training workshop is scheduled for December 1 - 2, 2007, and it will be hosted at Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities state-of-the-art Education Center at Turners’ Hall. The two-day intensive workshop will educate and prepare team members in their respective roles. “The PRIME TIME staff and training workshop presenters look forward to meeting and working with all new team members,” said PRIME TIME Director Faye Flanagan. For more information on this and future PRIME TIME training workshops, interested individuals should contact Assistant Director, Shantrell Adams at adams@leh.org.
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|  It is no wonder PRIME TIME is the perfect fit at the Moore Public Library, a branch of the Pioneer Library System (PLS). The mission of the organization is to connect the customer with the joy of reading and discussing for lifelong learning, which resonates with PRIME TIME’s purpose. The Pioneer Library System is a multi-county library system in Central Oklahoma with nine branches. The Moore Library is the second largest library in the system and since 2005 has implemented PRIME TIME with great success and community support. Aiden Street, Children’s Services Manager for the Moore Public Library and PRIME TIME program coordinator, shares the details of the latest successful program and offers advice to libraries considering offering the award- winning program.
Read “Oklahoma Community Rallies Around PRIME TIME” by Aiden Street.
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 Seventeen teachers from Bethune Middle Academy in Shreveport, Louisiana, attended the Saturday teacher workshop, which was designed to train educators in using the PRIME TIME methodology in their classrooms. PRIME TIME scholar Helen Taylor, Ph.D.; PRIME TIME Associate Director Olivia Pass, Ph.D.; and PRIME TIME storyteller Janine Demerath led the one-day intensive workshop that focused on Socratic learning and discovery through discussion. Although the workshop was originally planned for only the humanities teachers, math teachers and others outside the humanities learned to create open-ended questions in order to raise the critical thinking skills of their students. Among the comments collected from teacher evaluations were the following: “Excellent presenters and collaboration!” and “The presenters demonstrated excellent application skills and strategies that will enhance our faculty preparation, application, and interactive skills within the classrooms.”
Schools or school systems interested in learning more about the PRIME TIME Teacher Workshops should contact Associate Director Olivia Pass, Ph.D. at pass@leh.org.
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 “The Small Town of DeQuincy, Louisiana loves PRIME TIME in a Big Way,” said Janet Jordy, Branch Manager of DeQuincy Branch Library in Calcasieu Parish. DeQuincy Branch Library hosted a six-week PRIME TIME series this fall, and the excitement generated for the event reached all levels of this community. The Literacy Council of Southwest Louisiana provided food and prizes, DeQuincy High School FFA students volunteered by serving meals, library staff made sure everything ran smoothly, and DeQuincy Mayor Lawrence Henagan, handed out certificates of completion to all participating families on the final night. Also, Lynn Treme, City Council member, attended to witness the excitement over PRIME TIME. The PRIME TIME team included Janet Jordy, program coordinator, Amber Rippy, community organizer, Teresa Groove, preschool coordinator, and Keegan LeJeune, Ph.D., and Kay Stephens as the discussion leaders.
Read “PRIME TIME Success in DeQuincy” by Janet Jordy.
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 Louisiana Fall Administrative Conference, October 24, 2007, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Michael Sartisky, Ph.D., President and Executive Director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Miranda Restovic, Assistant Director of PRIME TIME presented a current overview of the LEH and PRIME TIME for approximately sixty of Louisiana’s library administrators.
On Saturday, November 3, Faye Flanagan, PRIME TIME Project Director, moderated a panel entitled “Models of Engagement: Outreach to Bilingual Groups” at the National Humanities Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. Other panelists included Jenny Ingram, Grants and Programs Development Coordinator, Wyoming Humanities Council and Greg Kimura, President/CEO, Alaska Humanities Forum.
On Saturday, November 17, PRIME TIME team members, Olivia Pass, Associate Director, and Faye Flanagan will present a program entitled "The More Things Change...:Using the Socratic Dialogue in the 21st Century" at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in New York City. Joining them at the podium will be Amy Whipple, Assistant Director of Terrebonne Parish Library System. The group will provide an overview of all aspects Prime Time and present a sample reading and discussion segment based on The True Story of the Three Pigs.
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 In Spring and Summer, 2007, PRIME TIME was implemented at 57 sites in Louisiana and out-of state, with 24 sites occurring in Louisiana and 33 in 10 other states (CA, GA, KY, MI, NE, NM, OK, OR, PA, and VA).
- Total attendance for all sessions—13,000* participants
- Total actual individuals served—2,150* individuals
- Average overall weekly attendance per site—38 individuals
- Library cards issued to the participants—600* library cards
In the fall, PRIME TIME has 26 additional programs scheduled in Louisiana, and an additional 35 affiliate programs scheduled out-of state.
*Approximate numbers based upon final reports received. |
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 A newly trained scholar recently submitted questions that she had prepared for discussion to Dr. Olivia Pass, PRIME TIME Associate Director and experienced scholar, who responded by encouragingthe development of more open-ended questions. Below, Pass also explains the difference between yes-no questions and open-ended ones.
 In asking questions, the scholar hopes to throw a wide net, allowing both the children and the parents to think broadly, searching through their knowledge and experiences and bringing to the PRIME TIME discussion far-reaching, thoughtful answers. Yes-no questions are restrictive, keeping the audience’s thoughts in a narrow range. A scholar may use the “yes-no” questions from time to time with an immediate “why,” but an open-ended question generally allows an audience a means by which to explore humanities themes more deeply.
Questions for discussing The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling:
Yes-No Question: Was it okay for grown-ups to spank the Elephant’s child?
Open-Ended Question: What do you think about all the grown-ups’ spanking the Elephant’s child?
Yes-No Question: Why did the python help the Elephant’s child? Snakes are usually mean, right?
Open-Ended Question: How are snakes generally portrayed in stories? Can you give us an example?
Read more examples of building open-ended questions! |
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