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Baking a Simple Early Literacy Cake in the PreK-1 Classroom: Ingredients and Method
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Theresa Roberts, Early Literacy Researcher; and Dr. Aparna Ramanathan, Founder and CEO, SoundTown
Sponsored by SoundTown
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Bake literacy success with best-science ingredients in PreK-Grade 1. In this edWebinar, we simplify the recipe for building strong phonemic awareness and letter knowledge in your PreK-1 learners. Together, we:
- Declutter your kitchen: Critically evaluate the large number of recommendations for what to teach and how to teach it in the phonological awareness and alphabet realms
- Taste the evidence: Explore the scientific backing for different approaches, leaving you with a clear understanding of a simple set of essential ingredients and methods
- Learn chef expertise: Discover the most effective teaching methods to “bake” these essential skills into your students’ learning
- Walk away with a simple, delicious recipe: Leave with a simplified list of Science of Reading ingredients and methods for your daily literacy instruction
You leave this session refreshed, focused, and empowered to advocate. Discover how to create literacy magic: Bake delicious literacy learning experiences with greater learning, less stress, and more joy for you and the children you teach.
This recorded edWebinar is of interest to PreK-1 teachers, reading specialists, interventionists, directors of curriculum and instruction, and school and district leaders.
About the Presenters
Dr. Theresa Roberts earned a Ph.D. in educational and developmental psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was a professor at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) for 25 years and taught courses in human development and language and literacy to undergraduate- and master’s-level students. Her research focuses on early language, literacy, and motivation with a special interest in emergent bilingual children. Publications of this work have appeared in journals such as Reading Research Quarterly, the Journal of Educational Psychology, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and Child Development. Her most recent research, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), investigated theoretical and applied questions on alphabet instruction. Her work with schools includes teacher professional development and observing and participating in children’s literacy learning in early childhood classrooms. Dr. Roberts has most recently worked with tutoring and early literacy technology companies to apply research findings to tech-based classroom instruction.
Dr. Aparna Ramanathan is the founder and CEO of SoundTown, a supplemental early literacy program. She started her career as a medical doctor in Australia for 11 years. Moving to the U.S. in 2011, Dr. Ramanathan performed mental health coaching to professional women with biofeedback data. In 2016, leveraging the accessibility of screen-free, low-cost voice technology, she began supporting children to build social and mental resilience skills. A year later, Dr. Ramanathan launched AskMyClass to provide behavioral support activities for the PreK-6 classroom. In 2020, Dr. Ramanathan applied speech technology to early literacy to create SoundTown, a PreK-K phonological awareness program with funding support from the Institute of Education Sciences and NewSchools Venture Fund.
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Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
SoundTown is an engaging, easy-to-use, effective way to help young readers learn foundational literacy skills that are research backed and Science of Reading based. Our team of doctors, researchers, and educators have created a library of 5-minute interactive videos that teach phonemes, letter sounds, and blends.
Each 5-minute video is a zero-prep lesson that includes a speech articulation segment, catchy songs and original SoundTown music, an integrated mnemonic alphabet to help students master letter sounds, animated stories with original SoundTown characters, and planned opportunities for movement and motion at the end of each lesson. SoundTown is geared towards 4-6-year-olds and supports diverse learners, including multilingual learners. Free trial and & teacher resources at https://mysoundtown.com
