Effective Literacy #4

 

Anderson Ponapart

IRA Newsletter Project: Effective Literacy Website #4

               

                My fourth effective literacy is between the lions (https://guam.pbslearningmedia.org).   It is an effective reading site to help kids get wild about reading.  This program provides collection of materials for early reading and language arts resources.  All the materials are organized by early elementary and pre-school literacy skills.  The program also provided videos on fluency skills, phonemic awareness, phonics, text comprehension skills and many more.  This program was design for pre K to high school.   The program provided activities for different ages and grades. 

            “BETWEEN THE LIONS” is a new PBS television series for children ages 4 - 7.   It is named after the four families of lion.  The names were Theo, Cleo, Lionel, and Leona.   The doors “between the lions” opened to reveal a magical place where characters pop off the pages, vowels sing, and words take on a life of their own. The series combines state-of-the-art puppetry; animation, live action, and music to achieve its mission of helping young children learn to read.

            BETWEEN THE LIONS uses a comprehensive literacy curriculum kit to beginning readers. It was developed with reading and literacy experts from across the country, emphasizes the pleasures and value of reading as well as the skills needed for learning how to read. With this approach, it combed the whole language and phonics, helps confusing readers into an entertaining adventure for children and their families.

            Get Wild about Reading created to help teachers integrate BETWEEN THE LIONS and its curriculum into your current classroom strategies. Topics are integrated into the classroom curriculum are Reading Aloud, The Sounds of Words, Print All around Us, Writing, and Using Technology.  The guide models the series of new approach. In addition to activities for the classroom, you’ll find suggestions for BETWEEN THE LIONS episodes or segments to watch, separate take-home activities for families. The home-school connection was the crucial one in reinforcing the series goal of teaching skills while conveying the joy of reading.

            The take-home page in the guide offers fun, simple ways for families to engage in literacy activities together with the child.  Teacher must not assign these pages as homework.   Teacher may want to encourage children to bring the completed pages back to share with the class.  You can also adapt the classroom activities for take-home use.  All activities can be modified to suit your student and family population. The book lists for each section are also ideal for sending home to encourage parents and caregivers to read to their children. So get ready to get wild about reading!