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Friday, April 1, 2011

Infusing Scooby Doo with Literacy Lessons

My daughter loves Scooby Doo.  When I worked in Las Vegas, we had a "TV the Best Way" session in our cadre of early literacy storytimes.  Luckily, there are books based on the Scooby Doo characters.  Unfortunately, they are not great children's literature.  What's a mom to do?  Keep it interactive!  These are my ways of using these books:
  1. Ask questions.  Often, these include, "How do you think _____ feels?"  and "What do you think will happen next?"  The skills I'm working on here are empathy and prediction (which are narrative skills, from an early literacy perspective-- see point #2)..
  2. Vary voices.  For people who don't want to do full-on acting, a minor change in pitch or cadence can help distinguish characters.  Skill: narrative skills (building the child's ability to tell stories)
  3. Once we've done a story over and over and over again, I will pause at select places.  Then, my daughter fills in the words.  Skill: vocabulary  (building the child's ability to know many words and names for things).
  4. Point to the words.  As I go along in the narration, my finger goes with me.  It is simple and somewhat subversive, but my girl is learning that words in English go from left to right and that they tell the story.  Skill: print awareness.
I hope this post helps you if your children suddenly focus on nothing but Elmo, Spongebob, Barbie, Disney characters, Dora, etc.

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