April 2020 Newsletter

Supporting Reading at Home | Building Background Knowledge | Tips to Go! | Learning at Home for Teachers | News & Events

Reading, Writing, and Exploring While We Learn at Home

What You Can Do at Home to Support Young Readers

Our one-pagers offer easy activities to help your kids strengthen their reading and writing muscles at home, now and throughout the summer. The emphasis is on simple and fun — we know you have so much going on at home right now. If you'd like to try more learning activities like these, visit our Growing Readers library. All tip sheets are available in English and Spanish.

Emergent Readers: Preschool and Kindergarten

• Simple Yet Powerful Things to Do While Reading Aloud
   
• Interactive Read Alouds
   
• Environmental Print
   
• Emergent Readers: Look! That's My Letter!
   
• Playing with Word Sounds: Stretch and Shorten
   
• Teaching Your Child About Letter-Sound Connections
   
• Developing Writing and Spelling at Home
   

Beginning Readers: First and Second Grade

• Fluency Matters
   
• Build Your Child’s Vocabulary
   
• Use Words to Teach Words
   
• Think Alouds to Build Comprehension
   
• Developing Writing and Spelling at Home

Related:

The ABCs of Teaching Reading at Home
For each stage of reading development, you’ll find a brief instructional plan with easy suggestions for targeting the main components of reading. (From Right to Read)

3 Things Parents Can Do at Home to Help Their Kids with Reading
Research shows parents really can help their children to learn to read and that they often will ... if asked, if encouraged, if supported. Here are three activities that literacy expert Tim Shanahan recommends. (From Shanahan on Literacy)

Fluency Practice: Reading Passages for Grades 2-3
For independent fluency practice, kids can choose from 40 passages that include links to recorded readings that model fluent reading. (From Achieve the Core)

Learn about Lindamood Bell’s online PD >

Building Background Knowledge

As we transition into summer, we’re thinking about how to use unstructured time to help children fill their “knowledge bank” about the world – through books, podcasts, hands-on activities, virtual field trips, and kid-friendly websites. Follow your children's interests – some will dive deeply into science while others may be more interested in the creative arts or history or cultures of the world. Here are some resources to explore!

Start with a Book

On our companion summer learning site, kids choose topics they want to explore (from bugs to music to weather …), find great kids’ books for each topic, and then try some of the hands-on activities, writing ideas, educational apps, and websites for inquisitive kids. You’ll also find our DIY summer science camps, River Rangers and Space Rangers here.

Virtual Field Trips

Explore the world through these online, interactive virtual tours of zoos, aquariums, museums, historic sites, and international landmarks. Dreaming of experiencing the Taj Mahal or swimming with sharks? Visit these websites to start your armchair adventures!

Zoos and Aquariums

• The San Diego Zoo: Watch penguins, tigers, koalas, and giraffes. The zoo also has a website just for kids with videos, stories, activities, and games.
   
• Monterey Bay Aquarium: Feel like you’re swimming with the sharks, birdwatch in the aviary, get mesmerized by the jellycam, and spy what’s going on in the open sea.
   
• Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden: Every weekday at 3 PM ET, the zoo hosts a Home Safari Facebook Live event featuring different animals. Archived videos and related safari activities can be found on the zoo’s website.
   
• Georgia Aquarium Ocean Voyager: Wait for the whale shark!
   
• Panda Cam Zoo Atlanta: Pandas are a lot of fun to watch. This live stream lets kids peek in on Ya Lun and Xi Lun, the only panda twins in the U.S.

Museums and Cultural Sites

• National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)
   
• 10 Museums from Around the World
   
• Machu Picchu (Peru)
   
• Buckingham Palace (England)
   
• Pyramids of Egypt
   
• Taj Mahal (India)

Planets and the Night Sky

• Take a trip to Mars! (explore the surface of Mars on the Curiosity Rover)
   
• NASA: Earth’s Moon (explore the landing sites and geography of the Moon)
   
• Stellarium (stargaze from your own location any night of the year – check out the constellations and “night mode”)
   

Collections

• Google Arts and Culture (explore art museums from around the world … and so much more)
   
• Wide Open School Field Trips (tour an M&M’s factory, find out how toilet paper is made, gawk at dinosaurs and much more)
   
• Nature Conservancy: Nature Lab Field Trips
   
• National Geographic Explorer Classroom
   
• Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips
   
• National Park Foundation Virtual Visits
   
• Yellowstone National Park

Listen Up! Podcasts for Kids (and Their Parents)

Podcasts are a wonderful shared listening experience for kids and parents, where you can learn about how the world works, find out about music, or just hear a great adventure story, together. Here’s a fresh list of fun, fascinating (and family-friendly) podcasts.

• Brains On! (Science)
   
• Wow in the World (Science)
   
• Tumble (Science)
   
• Aaron’s World (Science and stories)
   
• Earth Rangers (Nature)
   
• Animal Sound Safari (Nature)
   
• Story Pirates (Stories)
   
• Classical Kids Storytime (Stories and music)
•  
• Noodle Loaf (Music)
   
• The Music Box (Music)

Learning at Home for Teachers

Shanahan on Literacy: A Gallimaufry of Literacy Questions and Answers

I’ve been traveling less but spending more time on Zoom and other telecommunications outlets. Talking to teachers I can’t see. Those online talks spawned a basket of questions, and much of my time was then devoted to trying to answer some of them. Accordingly, this week, instead of addressing a single literacy teaching topic, I’m providing an assortment of questions and answers dealing with amount of instruction, complex text, readability motivation, misbehavior, and so on. Hope you find something useful in here and, please, be safe.

Looking at Reading Interventions  

In this special Reading Rockets video series, reading expert Linda Farrell works one-on-one with students in grades K-3 to help ensure that they master the skills they need to become proficient readers.

The video series shows what it really takes to teach critical skills such as naming letters accurately, blending and manipulating the sounds in words, mastering the connection between letters and sounds, recognizing spelling patterns, and reading multisyllable words. We show how teachers can help children develop their skills, overcome difficulties, and become proficient readers.

We hope that every K–3 teacher will watch!

Research, News & Events

Webinar: The COVID-19 Slide and the Future of Summer Learning (National Summer Learning Association)
May 5, 2020 | 3:00 pm ET

This coming summer will be more important than ever in helping kids recover from the current crisis. Featuring Beth Tarasawa and Megan Kuhfeld, authors of the new report The COVID-19 slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement. Other presenters include Matthew Boulay and Karl Alexander, for a discussion on how we might address the needs of the most vulnerable youth and what may be needed for next school year and summer 2021. Register now >

Webinar: Engaging Parents and Students from Diverse Populations in the Context of Distance Learning (REL West)
May 11, 2020 | 1:00 pm PT

Join this free webinar on state, district, and school-based strategies to support student and family engagement, particularly among vulnerable populations, in the context of distance learning. Register Now >

Virtual Conference: Spotlight on Dyslexia (Learning Ally)
June 5, 2020 | 9:00am – 4:00pm ET

K12 principals and educators: join the Spotlight on Dyslexia virtual conference for a full day of professional learning. Keynote speakers: education expert Dr. Anita Archer and American Public Media journalist Emily Hanford. Earn up to 16 CE certificates. Register now >

Is learning to read a constitutional right?
American Public Media

Students with dyslexia need structured reading instruction
Smart Brief

Autism Amid Uncertainty: Expert Advice for Parents and Teachers
Education Week

The challenge of distance learning for parents of children with special needs
PBS NewsHour

An Unexpected Tool for Remote-Learning During Coronavirus: Public TV Stations
Education Week

Twenty Years After the National Reading Panel, It’s Time for a Reading Rights Movement
The 74

Researchers’ Urgent Message for Schools: Start Planning Now for a Precipitous ‘COVID Slide’ Next Year
The 74

It’s time to stop debating how to teach kids to read and follow the evidence
Science News

An Easy Way To Help Kids Learn At Home: Turn On The Captions
Forbes

Why Kids Know Even Less About History Now—And Why It Matters
Forbes

With Schools Closed, Bringing Books to Students in Need
The New York Times

Engaging with the Ambassador: Write.Right.Rite. with Jason Reynolds
School Library Journal

Kids Prefer Books That Tell Them Why Things Happen
Forbes

11 Books That Embrace Disabilities and Differences
Brightly

Story Seeds Podcast Brings Author, Reader Collaborations to Listeners
School Library Journal