Making Literacy Come Alive in a Blended Classroom

According to Annenberg Learner:

“Teachers cannot transmit knowledge to learners. …The student’s job is the building, or the learning. The teacher’s job is to create the conditions that support learning. If we think of schools as contexts for learning instead of places for teaching, we might effectively imagine new approaches not only to the classroom, but also to all aspects of schools—the physical and social, the policies and practices, the attitudes and metaphors. We need to replace the language of teaching with the language of learning.”

Brain science has taught us that in order for students to learn and build knowledge, we educators need to create conditions that support learning. Although teachers were thrown into an emergency situation by having to teach virtually last year, this summer allowed educators to plan mindfully.

This past July, I had the honor of leading several webinars for PreK-5th grade educators on building literacy and math skills in engaging ways. Through design challenges, games, and activities the teachers explored new ways to engage their students while building skills in literacy and math. One example is a game using dice. We used the book The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig to play a dice game. This game could be used with various books in many different ways. The teacher or student, depending on age, could decide what some of the activities are. This could be used to identify main story elements, build comprehension, share responses, or even make crafts. This could be done live or virtually. If students do not have dice at home, they could easily be made by folding paper into a cube. There are many templates available online.

#mindfullearning #literacy #teachingskills