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Teaching and Learning: Engagement Strategies
Engagement strategies are the key to building a positive teaching and learning environment. Teaching and learning go hand in hand; however, one does not guarantee the other. Educators, teachers, facilitators, instructors… whatever your choice the point here is that learning is not guaranteed simply because an amazing lesson is provided. Understand the Learner Nevertheless, there is always going to be those little sponges that soak it all up and look for more. They will learn in the most chaotic classroom or from the most apathetic teacher. For others, learning will…
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Writer’s Workshop: A Mini Lesson on Drawing Expressions
What is a mini lesson? A mini lesson is a short 10-15-minute lesson with explicit instruction for specific skills related to writer’s workshop. The focus of this mini lesson is to teach young writers how to draw different facial expressions and to match how the characters are feeling in their illustrations. After the lesson, children can experiment further with their new skills. Maybe even revisit some of their previous work for reflection and add some revision to existing sketches. Do you teach young children? If so, you already know about…
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What is Visual Literacy?
Visual literacy is the ability to read, negotiate, and interpret the visual environment; to construct meaning from what we observe (images, gestures, and symbols); to critically analyse our observations, question, and then communicate our understanding with others. Let’s explore visual literacy and how it can be applied to reading picturebooks and then how we can support children in developing their visual literacy skills in the classroom. The back story… Although the term ‘visual literacy’ may be a new concept for some, humans have been negotiating their visual environment from the…
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Picturebooks!
A picturebook is many things but most importantly it should be a source of pleasure, or enjoyment. This is key in developing young readers. Ever read a novel you didn’t like? Chances are, yes. Read it twice? Probably not. Providing high quality picturebooks, books children enjoy, and allowing children to choose, is part of developing, fostering a love of reading. What is a Picturebook? A picturebook is a multimodal text that incorporates a variety of modes such as text, image, and design to communicate with the reader; the different modes…
