The Electric Company Becomes a Daily Show on PBS Kids
Press Release from Sesame Workshop(NEW YORK, New York -- July 13, 2009) Get out your circuit breakers as THE ELECTRIC COMPANY turns into a power strip! Starting September 7th, Sesame Workshop's hit program THE ELECTRIC COMPANY, will be charging up PBS KIDS GO! with a daily dose of literacy superheroes and wily pranksters.
Six-to-nine year olds will be able to tune in every day to see Hector, Jessica, Lisa and Keith outwit their scheming neighborhood prankster-counterparts in a way that reinforces strong literacy skills and teaches kids that reading isn't just for school -- reading is cool.
"Reading and writing are critical developmental areas for children and children who are struggling with literacy skills by second grade are often at risk for never being able to catch up," said Linda Simensky, VP, Children's Programming, PBS. "By offering THE ELECTRIC COMPANY every weekday on PBS KIDS GO!, we are opening the doors for more children to explore reading and just how much fun it can be."Kids are plugged into THE ELECTRIC COMPANY making it the #1 show on PBS KIDS GO! in its block -- and the current doesn't stop there. The show's hit website, pbskidsgo.org/electriccompany, has had nearly four million site visits and over 11 million Electric Company video clips played since its launch in mid- January 2009.
Also this fall, THE ELECTRIC COMPANY will be partnering with local PBS stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as well as after-school organizations to bring a "Shock" to twenty cities nationwide with THE ELECTRIC COMPANY 2009 Circuit Tour. Starting August 8th, THE ELECTRIC COMPANY's star beat boxer, Shock, will host a 90 minute experience in each city beginning with a 25-minute multimedia, interactive show. The Circuit Tour will also include hands-on pre- and post-show activities that will engage kids with interactive content, games and demonstrations in an effort to give today's 2nd grader the literacy tools necessary to succeed in 3rd grade and beyond.
"We are thrilled to bring this critical piece of THE ELECTRIC COMPANY directly into communities around the country," says Randell Bynum, Director of Educational Outreach for THE ELECTRIC COMPANY. "We look forward to sharing a live, interactive Electric Company experience that will turn kids on to the power of reading."THE ELECTRIC COMPANY is part of PBS KIDS Raising Readers, a national literacy initiative focused on using public media to improve the reading skills for children ages two-to-eight, with an emphasis on children from low-income families. The effort is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and a Ready To Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education, part of a cooperative agreement with CPB- and PBS.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
We Should Teach Handwriting
In response to many on the internet who say that handwriting is becoming obsolete, I would like to say. No, No, No - It is as important as it always was. Please see the article below from the career and job site 'Highere' on 12th March 2009
Should you complete applications for employment in capital letters?
Capital Letters will draw attention and also irritate people. Most of the companies ask you to complete applicatoin for employment in Handwriting, as they want to either look at how you write, and or do a basic handwriting analysis to check on your profile. A few basic pointers in Handwriting analysis, that the companies watch out for:
Should you complete applications for employment in capital letters?
Capital Letters will draw attention and also irritate people. Most of the companies ask you to complete applicatoin for employment in Handwriting, as they want to either look at how you write, and or do a basic handwriting analysis to check on your profile. A few basic pointers in Handwriting analysis, that the companies watch out for:
1. Are you writing in a straight line (stable personality), dropping lines - lines going downwards (not confident), lines going upwards (over confident)
2. Do you punctuate properly, spell properly, to judge your language skills
3. Do you put the dots on your i’s or the dashes in your t’s, the dot missing means, you are casual about your approach, the dot preceeding the i, means that you think ahead, and the dot after the i means that you are running too fast.
This is just a guideline, and by no means a teaching of handwriting analysis. I am no expert of Handwriting analysis, but I personally accept applications in writing for people who join my company, to make sure they can write cleanly and have the right spellings. Pressing Spell check in a word file and or an online editor is a kid’s job, and a kid can write a classic document, but writing the proper way, with proper spelling by hand is a bit difficult.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Importance (and Simplicity) of Play
Hi Everyone,
I've found a great blog called "Literacy, Families and Learning" I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's got some great ideas on creativity and learning with young children. The blog is written by Trevor Cairney. I'll print the first part of the blog and you can click on the link if you're interested in reading more.
The Importance (and Simplicity) of Play by Trevor Cairney
I've written a number of posts about play and argued that it is important for many reasons. Broadly, it stimulates children's creativity while assisting their development cognitively, emotionally and socially.
It also encourages their imagination, fine and gross motor skills, decision-making, problem solving and risk taking. As well, it helps children to learn about themselves through success and failure and to build relationships with parents, their siblings and friends.
However, in this post I want to make just one key point - that simple play is best. Simple opportunities for play will always (well, almost always) capture their attention, that's why the box so often wins out over the expensive and complex toy.
Stimulating play does not require expensive equipment or toys, multimedia excitement or body numbing entertainment (though that stuff can be fun too!). In fact, I want to argue that children if given some control over their play will often choose the simple. What do I mean by this? I mean that they will often enjoy:
the repetitive and the predictable- the unexpected and surprising (yes, that's the opposite of the above - they can love both);
- the silly over the serious;
- activities that stimulate their senses (not necessarily all at once);
- play that involves other people, both actively and passively (this is especially true of parents).
It is important as parents and caregivers to be on the lookout for opportunities to structure situations during the day that permit and encourage stimulating play. While its hard to do fancy stuff when faced by the demands of 2-3 children (or even more in the case of some readers of this blog), if children are engaged in stimulating activities they are less likely to be driving you nuts. And the simple stuff is the easy stuff.
One final thing, as I indicated in a previous post it's also important to allow your children to take lots of initiative - play is when they can take the lead and show you how to do things. Click here for the restWednesday, July 16, 2008
Handwriting Readiness Pt.2 - What are Fine Motor Skills?
We take well developed fine motor skills for granted, but they are required for successfully completing simple tasks such as using a knife and fork, punching a phone number or texting on those tiny mobile phones. threading a needle or sewing, playing most musical instruments, playing computer games, gardening, using tweezers, putting on makeup and even tying your sneakers.
These fine motor skills are basic prerequisites for students to succeed academically. That's why helping children develop finger strength and tactile dexterity is so very important. Of course you can do this after they've tried to write well and failed, but it's much harder to turn a failure in any area into a success, than to put in the preliminary work necessary and go straight to success. The trauma of failure in front of all their peers, is not really something to which we want to introduce our children, in their first year of school.
If you take your child to a play group or preschool they will get some of the activities there, that are needed to develop fine motor skills. Don't, however, count on that!
Boys, especially, would in general, much rather be outside playing cars in the sandpit or climbing on the gym equipment, than sitting inside threading wool through a card or playing with the play dough. The preschool teacher will try to make sure that each child has an equal opportunity to develop both gross and fine motor skills, but don't just rely on that.
As a parent, keep an eye on your child's development. How skillfully does she use her knife and fork, can she tie her shoelaces properly - that doesn't mean eventually. If she need a few tries before she succeeds that's fine, but if she's up to number five or six and she's still not been successful, it may be a sign that she needs to further develop those fine motor skills. Another way to check is by doing some craft with her, where she needs to work with small items and note how nimble her fingers are.
There are so many fantastic activities you can do with your children at home, to help them develop great fine motor control. Some of them are messy, but aren't your kids worth that? If you're worried about the carpet, pick a fine day and take a card table or plastic table cloth outside. Maybe you'll have to move the daily grind around to make time for the activities, but just think of all the time you'll save later on in their lives, when you're trying to explain their homework to them and you're hitting a brick wall because failure has become ingrained in their minds.
These fine motor skills are basic prerequisites for students to succeed academically. That's why helping children develop finger strength and tactile dexterity is so very important. Of course you can do this after they've tried to write well and failed, but it's much harder to turn a failure in any area into a success, than to put in the preliminary work necessary and go straight to success. The trauma of failure in front of all their peers, is not really something to which we want to introduce our children, in their first year of school.
If you take your child to a play group or preschool they will get some of the activities there, that are needed to develop fine motor skills. Don't, however, count on that!
Boys, especially, would in general, much rather be outside playing cars in the sandpit or climbing on the gym equipment, than sitting inside threading wool through a card or playing with the play dough. The preschool teacher will try to make sure that each child has an equal opportunity to develop both gross and fine motor skills, but don't just rely on that.
As a parent, keep an eye on your child's development. How skillfully does she use her knife and fork, can she tie her shoelaces properly - that doesn't mean eventually. If she need a few tries before she succeeds that's fine, but if she's up to number five or six and she's still not been successful, it may be a sign that she needs to further develop those fine motor skills. Another way to check is by doing some craft with her, where she needs to work with small items and note how nimble her fingers are.
There are so many fantastic activities you can do with your children at home, to help them develop great fine motor control. Some of them are messy, but aren't your kids worth that? If you're worried about the carpet, pick a fine day and take a card table or plastic table cloth outside. Maybe you'll have to move the daily grind around to make time for the activities, but just think of all the time you'll save later on in their lives, when you're trying to explain their homework to them and you're hitting a brick wall because failure has become ingrained in their minds.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Teaching Handwriting - Choose the Style
PENCIL GRIP
This pencil grip is recommended because it puts the least stress on the fingers and enables the writer to continue writing for a longer period without the hand getting tired.
Images from Draw Your World
HANDWRITING WITHOUT TEARS
MODERN MANUSCRIPT
MANUSCRIPTThe Importance of Teaching Handwriting
Handwriting is really brainwriting. Hand(brain)writing reflects an individual's personality. The brain is the source of your personality, and it is actually your brain that writes. This means that each person's writing will be unique, because that person is unique. However, the basis of this individual handwriting needs to be taught. We need to start teaching children the right starting point, the right direction, the right position. We need to supervise and give them practice, practice, practice, so that their writing becomes fluent. From there they can change their handwriting to reflect their personality.
All this matters, educators say, because evidence is growing that handwriting fluency is a fundamental building block of learning. Emily Knapton, director of program development at Handwriting Without Tears, believes that "when kids struggle with handwriting, it filters into all their academics. Spelling becomes a problem; math becomes a problem because they reverse their numbers. All of these subjects would be much easier for these kids to learn, if handwriting was an automatic process."
The trend towards illegible handwriting is not likely to slow, proponents of penmanship say, as computers become even more common and school systems place less importance on teaching handwriting. Interest in teaching penmanship in America has reached such a low point, that the National Cursive Handwriting Contest for elementary school students will not be held during the coming year for the first time in its century-old history. This attitude towards handwriting is also becoming prevalent in Australia.
More and more, our schools are producing students who have severe problems with handwriting and spelling. It is of the utmost importance to make sure that your children can write legibly and fluently. If the schools are not teaching them, then for their sakes, you need to give them your help. For help to do this check out the links at the top of this blog. They are free resources.
All this matters, educators say, because evidence is growing that handwriting fluency is a fundamental building block of learning. Emily Knapton, director of program development at Handwriting Without Tears, believes that "when kids struggle with handwriting, it filters into all their academics. Spelling becomes a problem; math becomes a problem because they reverse their numbers. All of these subjects would be much easier for these kids to learn, if handwriting was an automatic process."
The trend towards illegible handwriting is not likely to slow, proponents of penmanship say, as computers become even more common and school systems place less importance on teaching handwriting. Interest in teaching penmanship in America has reached such a low point, that the National Cursive Handwriting Contest for elementary school students will not be held during the coming year for the first time in its century-old history. This attitude towards handwriting is also becoming prevalent in Australia.
More and more, our schools are producing students who have severe problems with handwriting and spelling. It is of the utmost importance to make sure that your children can write legibly and fluently. If the schools are not teaching them, then for their sakes, you need to give them your help. For help to do this check out the links at the top of this blog. They are free resources.
Putting Thoughts into Words.
I'm sorry I haven't posted for some days. I've been away, with no computer access. I want to talk about 'thoughts' today. Putting them into words can be hard and writing them down can be even harder.
I've just spent an hour with a student. He was supposed to bring with him, something he'd written, so that we could work on his sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, grammar and so on. He hadn't and his lament was as old as written thought, 'I can't think of anything to write'.
You'll hear this from your children many times when they're asked to write something creative for homework or when you're homeschooling.
I asked my student to think of a word. Being a fourteen year old, he decided to be clever and give me the word 'word'. He laughed and started to try to think of another one, but I decided to run with what he'd given me. You should have seen his face. He thought that he'd joked himself into having to do something that was really hard.
We sat and talked about the word 'word'. What it is, what it's used for, what he likes about words, what he objects to when using words. As we talked, he became quite interested and took some notes. Below is what he came up with. It's not finished yet. The last part is still in point form. We'll finish it next week.
A word is a combination of letters arranged to describe things, objects, people, places, movement, thoughts, etc.
We join them together into sentences to communicate with each other. They can be as short as one letter eg: 'a' or even as long as 'antidisestablishmentarianism' (which is a real word). It has ... if you want the answer, count it yourself.
As well as talking, words are used for writing stories, songs, poetry, plays and even random things like this!
We do not just use words for communicating with people. We also use words such as 'no' and 'hello' when we are talking to our animals. If you say this enough times, they will learn the meaning.
People feel differently about words. Personally I don't like swear words, because I think that most people use them just because they can. People that use swear words in every sentence do not show that they are smart or clever, whereas people who use more creative words prove that they are different. Instead of being sheep and following everyone else, they show they are individuals.
I like words that are:
Random
The word random
Funny words
And unique words
So the points here, in using the 'think of a word' method for writing are:
Don't expect the student to come up with things by himself. Talk about it with him. It's called brain-storming and all writers do it. Help him think outside the box.
Encourage him to take notes as you talk. If he's having trouble, help him to put his thoughts down on paper. Note taking is a skill that needs to be learned.
The endeavour doesn't need to be finished at one sitting. Keep the notes and add any ideas that occur during this time. If he has a good idea and hasn't time to get it down, encourage him to write it in point form so that he remembers it for the next time.
If he can't think how to continue, suggest a few different thoughts such as 'What is it? How d0 you feel about it?' Do you like/dislike it? Why?' The last question here is an important one, because it really makes the student think about the points he's making.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Teaching Reading and Writing when Concepts have not Developed
Teach the basics. That's the really important thing. If your child hasn't developed the concept of sounds linking together to form words and can't even seem to hear the sounds within a word, you concentrate on giving her the basic tools that she can use when the concept does develop.
Teach the single sounds of the alphabet (please teach her to write Q as 'qu'). This means teaching the sounds themselves not the names of the sounds. If she watches Sesame Street, she'll hear the names of the sounds. It's important for her to realise that each sound has both a name and a sound, but it's the sounds that we use when sounding out words. The vowels a,e,i,o,u are the exception. It's fine at this time to teach her that the sounds are formed into two groups - consonants and vowels. To remember the vowels I often use this sentence - A E IOU $5 (Ay E I Owe You $5).
As you're teaching her the sounds, begin to teach her simple words on flash cards. As you teach each one, sound it out for her. It's great if she can learn the sounds eg. run = r-u-n. When the concept clicks in, she'll have all this great information behind her to use the concept immediately and she'll feel so CLEVER.
At the same time, teach her to write each sound. Please make sure that she is forming her letters in the right way. When she's forming the letters, it's important that she start at the right point and finish at the right point. Firstly, it will be clearer to read. Secondly, if she doesn't do this, she will have to relearn the correct method of forming the letter, before she can progress to cursive writing. Letters join together in only one way and if she's not beginning and ending them at the right point, she won't be able to join the letters together properly later on.
In learning to write the sounds, repetition through supervised practice is the key. Immediate feedback for the child is essential to correct any errors, even little ones, before they become habit. Many children will want to write their letters in the way that is easiest for them. They don't see the value of doing it in a particular way. As long as it looks right in the end, they don't see any problem.
The intervention must be as she's writing the sound. If she's not watched carefully during her practice, she may revert to what's easiest for her. If the correction is done later, three problems will be encountered. There will often be no way to tell which way the letters have been formed. Every time the student forms the letters the wrong way, that habit becomes stronger and harder to break. The student will feel that she is being punished unfairly when she has to rewrite the lesson.
Once that's done, progress to teaching the sounds made up of more than one letter, such as the 'oa' of boat, the 'ay' of day, the 'ai' of mail, etc. As you teach these, introduce three or four letter words that have these sounds. On flash cards, write the word and underline the diagraph (sounds of more than one letter), so that she learns to see the diagraph as one sound. She'll get used to the look of the sound and it will help later with spelling.
Lastly, when you read books to her, make sure she can see the page and, as you read, follow the words with your finger. It will help her to realise that stories are made by puting words together. That's another concept that needs to develop.
I hope this isn't too much information at once. Just take it one step at a time. It's important that both your student and you are relaxed. If you're uptight, she will be as well and it will severely limit her ability to take in information. If the atmosphere becomes tense, take a break. Go and get the mail together, have a snack, play with the dog for five minutes - anything that will relax the situation.
Don't push on if she get's really upset because she's not understanding - all parents know the signs with their own child. Go on to something else and come back to that particular thing, when you sense that she's able to cope with it again. Put it off till the next day or the day after, if that's necessary. There's no rush.
One last point. Make jokes, say outrageous things, have a good laugh. Laughter is a wonderful relaxer and when your student is relaxed, her mind is more open to learning. It also helps her to look forward to the times. Try to put aside the time to give her your whole attention. Make it your special time together and in between teaching certain things have little chats with her about her day. Tell her something that happened to you. It's a great opportunity to bond.
Teach the single sounds of the alphabet (please teach her to write Q as 'qu'). This means teaching the sounds themselves not the names of the sounds. If she watches Sesame Street, she'll hear the names of the sounds. It's important for her to realise that each sound has both a name and a sound, but it's the sounds that we use when sounding out words. The vowels a,e,i,o,u are the exception. It's fine at this time to teach her that the sounds are formed into two groups - consonants and vowels. To remember the vowels I often use this sentence - A E IOU $5 (Ay E I Owe You $5).
As you're teaching her the sounds, begin to teach her simple words on flash cards. As you teach each one, sound it out for her. It's great if she can learn the sounds eg. run = r-u-n. When the concept clicks in, she'll have all this great information behind her to use the concept immediately and she'll feel so CLEVER.
At the same time, teach her to write each sound. Please make sure that she is forming her letters in the right way. When she's forming the letters, it's important that she start at the right point and finish at the right point. Firstly, it will be clearer to read. Secondly, if she doesn't do this, she will have to relearn the correct method of forming the letter, before she can progress to cursive writing. Letters join together in only one way and if she's not beginning and ending them at the right point, she won't be able to join the letters together properly later on.
In learning to write the sounds, repetition through supervised practice is the key. Immediate feedback for the child is essential to correct any errors, even little ones, before they become habit. Many children will want to write their letters in the way that is easiest for them. They don't see the value of doing it in a particular way. As long as it looks right in the end, they don't see any problem.
The intervention must be as she's writing the sound. If she's not watched carefully during her practice, she may revert to what's easiest for her. If the correction is done later, three problems will be encountered. There will often be no way to tell which way the letters have been formed. Every time the student forms the letters the wrong way, that habit becomes stronger and harder to break. The student will feel that she is being punished unfairly when she has to rewrite the lesson.
Once that's done, progress to teaching the sounds made up of more than one letter, such as the 'oa' of boat, the 'ay' of day, the 'ai' of mail, etc. As you teach these, introduce three or four letter words that have these sounds. On flash cards, write the word and underline the diagraph (sounds of more than one letter), so that she learns to see the diagraph as one sound. She'll get used to the look of the sound and it will help later with spelling.
Lastly, when you read books to her, make sure she can see the page and, as you read, follow the words with your finger. It will help her to realise that stories are made by puting words together. That's another concept that needs to develop.
I hope this isn't too much information at once. Just take it one step at a time. It's important that both your student and you are relaxed. If you're uptight, she will be as well and it will severely limit her ability to take in information. If the atmosphere becomes tense, take a break. Go and get the mail together, have a snack, play with the dog for five minutes - anything that will relax the situation.
Don't push on if she get's really upset because she's not understanding - all parents know the signs with their own child. Go on to something else and come back to that particular thing, when you sense that she's able to cope with it again. Put it off till the next day or the day after, if that's necessary. There's no rush.
One last point. Make jokes, say outrageous things, have a good laugh. Laughter is a wonderful relaxer and when your student is relaxed, her mind is more open to learning. It also helps her to look forward to the times. Try to put aside the time to give her your whole attention. Make it your special time together and in between teaching certain things have little chats with her about her day. Tell her something that happened to you. It's a great opportunity to bond.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Concept Development in Children
This is one of the most important things to understand when teaching children. The development of concepts is the linking together of ideas in a child's mind, so that they can process more complex lines of thought.
A concept will develop when it wants to and the child has no control over it. It's not that they're being lazy, not concentrating or misbehaving. Encouragement is the most important thing for these students. They need to be constantly told that they're doing their best and that you're very pleased with them. Don't overdo it. Children are quick to see through false praise. Pay attention to every little success they have and draw it to their attention. 'You couldn't do that a month ago and now you can. You're learning more and more.'
Concept development and level of intelligence are not linked. A student may have slow concept development, but go on to do very well at school. I've had a student who struggled with understanding mathematical concepts until grade five. He was tenacious and never gave up, committing many things to memory without really understanding how they all came together. Suddenly, almost overnight, a light clicked on and using the information he had memorised, he shot to the top maths group within six months, did exceptionally well in high school and moved on to study successfully at university to become an engineer.
The problem for children who are slower to develop concepts, is that by the time the light turns on, they've gone up into the higher grades and don't get the opportunity to go over the basics again. If they were able to do this, they'd advance rapidly. As it is, they often convince themselves that they're 'dumb', stop trying and don't realise that they are now capable of succeeding.
When children were held back to repeat a grade if they didn't understand the work, we didn't have the rate of failure that we have now. That's why you hear older people say, 'In my day it was unusual for children not to be able to read and write.' It was unusual, because students with slower concept development were given the opportunity to relearn the basics. I realise, of course that being held back caused other problems for the student - nothing is perfect -but they did learn to read, spell and write.
In my next blog, I'll give ideas for parents whose children do have slow concept development in the reading and writing area. Please feel free to ask any questions you want to, and I'll attempt to answer them.
Lets encourage our kids to succeed.
Wendy
A concept will develop when it wants to and the child has no control over it. It's not that they're being lazy, not concentrating or misbehaving. Encouragement is the most important thing for these students. They need to be constantly told that they're doing their best and that you're very pleased with them. Don't overdo it. Children are quick to see through false praise. Pay attention to every little success they have and draw it to their attention. 'You couldn't do that a month ago and now you can. You're learning more and more.'
Concept development and level of intelligence are not linked. A student may have slow concept development, but go on to do very well at school. I've had a student who struggled with understanding mathematical concepts until grade five. He was tenacious and never gave up, committing many things to memory without really understanding how they all came together. Suddenly, almost overnight, a light clicked on and using the information he had memorised, he shot to the top maths group within six months, did exceptionally well in high school and moved on to study successfully at university to become an engineer.
The problem for children who are slower to develop concepts, is that by the time the light turns on, they've gone up into the higher grades and don't get the opportunity to go over the basics again. If they were able to do this, they'd advance rapidly. As it is, they often convince themselves that they're 'dumb', stop trying and don't realise that they are now capable of succeeding.
When children were held back to repeat a grade if they didn't understand the work, we didn't have the rate of failure that we have now. That's why you hear older people say, 'In my day it was unusual for children not to be able to read and write.' It was unusual, because students with slower concept development were given the opportunity to relearn the basics. I realise, of course that being held back caused other problems for the student - nothing is perfect -but they did learn to read, spell and write.
In my next blog, I'll give ideas for parents whose children do have slow concept development in the reading and writing area. Please feel free to ask any questions you want to, and I'll attempt to answer them.
Lets encourage our kids to succeed.
Wendy
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