Hi, Everyone. Hope you are staying well and managing to turn the negatives of sheltering-in-place into positives for your family. Often, when we think of literacy skills, we forget that viewing is one of them. In this time of isolation, no doubt there is no dearth of viewing going on. I’d like to offer some suggestions for how you can elevate some of your children’s viewing experiences and enable them to enhance their literacy skills.
Encourage discussion Predicting, inferencing, making connections and summarizing are all vital reading skills that easily translate to viewing. Use that pause button once in a while and throw out some questions to generate discussion and get them thinking more deeply…
– Can you predict what will happen? Why?
– Who do you think is the villain? the guilty one? the good guy? Encourage kids to support their thinking. (Inferencing)
– Tell your sister (brother, dad, etc.) what’s happened so far. This is an easy way to practice summarizing in a natural manner and eliminates the need to rewind when latecomers join the group
– Encourage your kids to voice their connections to themselves, to the text (or film), to the world around them. Model this…
“That reminds me of the time when…”
“That reminds me of our vacation to…”
“That reminds me of what’s going on in…”
This morning I saw a news clip about how tough it is for parents forced into the role of teachers in their kids lives. I’m hoping little hints like these can boost confidence and show you some easy ways to embed skills into your kids regular activities. Today, in lieu of book suggestions, here’s some sites and blog posts that might be helpful during this unusual time. Stay well, Everyone, and please share any questions or ideas that might help others.
Online Resources
Video about how children learn language. Great for parents of young children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrTK9wCFYSo&list=PLvrD8tiHIX1K0OjT4MZxwWGfC9-r4OWOA&index=1
A challenge from Donna Lynn Miller (the Book Whisperer):https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/1008183/posts/2634509933
A poetry project for you and your kids: https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/1008183/posts/2633177590
Visit the San Diego Zoo, Mars, or the Georgia Aquarium with the click of your mouse. A shout out to Karen Lawler for suggesting these virtual tours. Google “virtual museum tours to find more:
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtours.htm
https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/
Nurturing Literacy 
I think parents will be very excited to receive these ideas. Helping parents know how to have real discussions about books with their children is so important Reading without understanding is NOT reading. Thanks for the slice.
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