How you can teach while they’re watching TV. 📺👩🏫
There’s no shortage of hurdles when a student’s trying to learn a new word. One big thing is distractions, and there’s absolutely no shortage of those in our student’s lives, from cinema to social media. Kids just want to have fun, and learning can feel like the polar opposite. That’s why you’ve tried to mix education with entertainment, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. That’s why I went to the expert — here’s her top tips to help you teach your best.
La-Toya Samuels Cousins loves literacy. She’s taught English and has her degree in language and communication. Her Pen Pals Writing Club is amazing learning for children six to thirteen. She’s a mother of three and a strong advocate for supplementing standard education.
She explains to me why vocabulary has more upsides than you think. Some underrated aspects: a larger vocabulary changes the way you think, the breadth of concepts you can understand. That’s why literacy leads to more opportunity, in academics and in employment. Every point of study and every job responsibility leans on terminology you’ll need to deeply understand to get anything done. That’s why today we’ll talk about teaching new words in a media-centric environment. La-Toya’s slick with it.
“It’s very important to make it smooth,” she explains, “you wouldn’t necessarily take students and say ‘let’s sit down and learn some more words’. The whole point is to let them learn without even knowing they’re learning.”
Figure out times you can slip a lesson into your child’s normal habits. As for picking the media, there’s an easy way to get them excited about it.
“Capitalize as much as possible on their natural interests,” she offers, “the child might like science or music or superheroes. Use those subjects to guide them. For example, ask them to write about it and teach them new words using that setting.”
So what type do you start with? Games? Jingles? Word aids? Which videos and books are the best balance between entertaining and educational? Actually, when it comes to this, it’s more about the experience. Don’t stress too much about what type, eventually you’ll learn which your student learns best with — but it’s more about you deliberately steering towards learning points, so Dora the Explorer’s not the only one driving it.
“It should be a lifestyle. You talk to your children, you engage them, and you answer them. It’s very important to answer them. They learn to express themselves.”
With students who grew up in such a media-saturated environment, it’s important to get an early start pointing out the learning to be done within entertainment. Keep swapping in more age-appropriate material as time goes on.
A little bonus tip from La-Toya: if your child’s native language isn’t English, you’ll still want to keep throwing in new words from the mother tongue. Or, if they’re monolingual, why not try a new language, just a few words even. Here’s my recommended German word: “kuchen” — I guarantee you’ll find a fun way to work that one in. To learn how our Spelling Bee winner used that and Harry Potter to win our gold trophy, I heard from them.
🐝 Thanks! You just read Buzzword, where Spelling Bee of Canada spotlights rare words that widen your perspective. For more fun language arts reads and videos, subscribe to Buzz News!
Fran Mbadiwe is an editor who runs SBOC’s Buzz News. Apart from that, he’s probably journaling.
