Featured Playlists
Motivation for Literacy
Motivation for Literacy refers to activities that promote enjoyment of books and appreciation for the usefulness of reading and writing. Providing explicit motivation for literacy is especially important in the early stages of literacy development, when it may not be obvious to new readers and writers why they should care about literacy. However, at every grade level it is important for teachers to strive to make ALL literacy activities engaging for students! Videos in this playlist present a variety of highly motivating approaches teachers use to engage their students in reading and writing.
Oral Language & ELL
All students benefit from having opportunities to express themselves in oral language, but for English Language Learners (irrespective of the richness of their first language environment) or for students who come from language-impoverished environments, opportunities provided in school that stimulate discussion may serve as an essential foundation for growth in literacy. Videos in this playlist show effective ways of teaching, modeling, and encouraging students' use of spoken language content and structures in English that are more elaborate and varied than they may encounter outside of the classroom.
Knowledge Building
Students' knowledge and understanding -- their schemas -- provide the foundation for their learning in all areas. Extending students' experience and their exposure to new concepts, and encouraging inquiry and exploration all enhance their thinking skills and their development of knowledge. Videos in this playlist show how teachers can encourage their students to reflect on ideas, experiences, and information and, in the process, expand their schemas, their store of information and their repertoire of problem solving strategies. Higher level processes in reading and writing are dependent on such knowledge building.
Concepts of Print
Explicitly showing students the features of written language, including what books are, how text is organized, and how letters and words work is especially important in the early years of literacy development. Concepts of print include book handling skills, text directionality, spacing, function of letters, and punctuation. Videos in this playlist show how teachers provide opportunities for their students to explore how books are organized, where to start reading, what the symbols on the page mean, and how to tell what is a word and what is not.
Writing Conventions
Providing explicit instruction and practice in various aspects of writing mechanics, such as when and how to use punctuation or capitalization is an important literacy concept for students at all grade levels. Teaching handwriting and appropriate letter-formation as well as providing opportunities to practice these skills is essential for students to effectively communicate their ideas in writing. Videos in this playlist show how teachers incorporate a variety of strategies and techniques into their literacy program in order to help their students effectively communicate their ideas through written expression.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic Awareness is a sub-skill of phonological awareness, which refers to students' sensitivity to the sound structure of spoken words at different levels (like rhymes, syllables, and sounds). Phonemic awareness specifically refers to students' ability to identify and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. Phonemic awareness skills such as blending and segmenting are essential to spelling, reading and writing. Videos in this playlist show teachers engaging students in various activities that play with sounds in spoken words, helping students to lead up to and build their Phonemic Awareness. Such activities include comparing words to see if the first sound matches, breaking words into their individual sounds for spelling, and blending sounds to make words.
Letter-Sounds & Phonics
Understanding the relationships between spoken sounds and written letters is essential for the development of skills in reading and writing, particularly in the early elementary years. Students learn these relationships most effectively through the systematic and explicit teaching of the approximately 42 letter-sound correspondences in English.
These letter-sound correspondences can be one-to-one (like "b") or may involve multiple letters for a single sound (like "ch"). Videos in this playlist show teachers explicitly modeling and teaching engaging letter-sound activities. The integration of music, drama, and actions make these activities especially motivating for students!
Spelling & Word Study
Spelling and word knowledge are building blocks for effective written communication. Students benefit from being systematically taught word analysis and spelling strategies for regular words. Helping students to commit irregularly spelled high frequency words to memory also contributes to spelling success. Videos in this playlist include a variety of engaging teaching activities, such as the teaching of common spelling patterns and word families, memory tricks for difficult words and how to provide repeated opportunities to practice spelling irregular high frequency words.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary instruction involves teaching word meaning and providing students with opportunities to hear and use of a variety of new and interesting words. Studying topics or undertaking experiences that generate opportunities to learn new words is a powerful and motivating teaching approach. Students become engaged in learning vocabulary when they are exposed to activities that create purposes for a range of words to be used. Videos in this playlist show teachers explicitly teaching word meanings using a variety of integrated strategies and techniques.
Reading Fluency & Expression
Fluent readers recognize words quickly and read with good pacing and expression. Extensive appropriate practice with reading aloud helps students to improve their fluency and provides opportunities for students to receive guidance and feedback. Videos in this playlist show how teachers promote speed, accuracy, and proper expression using techniques that help students consolidate sight vocabulary, link text to the spoken word, and read with expression and enthusiasm.
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Teaching, modeling and promoting students' use of a variety of effective strategies to improve their understanding of what they read is essential for students to become successful readers. Videos in this playlist include a variety of comprehension strategies, such as making predictions, connecting to personal knowledge, and using graphic organizers. Teachers model ways to improve comprehension at all stages of the reading process (before, during, and after reading).
Writing Processes & Strategies
Teaching strategies to help students develop their ideas and choose words to best convey their message helps them understand and navigate through the various interacting stages of the writing process. Providing engaging opportunities for planning, organizing, editing and revising writing promotes writing fluency and makes the process of composing enjoyable. Videos in this playlist show teachers providing their students with strategies to organize and guide their writing, such as graphic organizers, 4-step revision process and using transition phrases. Teachers show their students how to edit their writing to make it longer, more interesting, and better organized.
Classroom Tips
Creating an organized, positive, and productive classroom environment is a skill that teachers continue to build on throughout their teaching careers. Along with classroom preparation it is essential to establish routines and create an engaging learning community. These aspects of classroom management all contribute to success in student learning and are best initiated early in the school year. Videos in this playlist provide teachers with classroom tips and management strategies and include ideas to help establish regular classroom routines and positive student behaviors.
Text Structures & Genres
Exploring the genres and structures of both fiction and non-fiction texts, develops students' understanding of the importance of purpose, audience, and message. At all grade levels students should be encouraged to write for an authentic purpose and taught structures and genres to support those purposes. Videos in this playlist show how students become engaged in reading and writing a variety of texts, including reports, poetry, newspaper articles and narratives. Teaching ways to structure and organize text to achieve a particular goal (for example, compare and contrast) is essential to effectively communicating and understanding ideas in both reading and writing.
Assessment
Assessing student understanding and providing students with formative feedback on a regular basis is essential to the promotion of student growth and learning. Providing students with accurate feedback also enables them to take responsibility and be accountable for their learning. Videos in this playlist present a variety of ways to incorporate assessment for learning into your literacy program and include teacher conferences, effective recording strategies and assessment techniques.
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