MEDIA LITERACY: Making the Most of Screen Time

An Online Media Literacy Workshop for Parents and Early Childhood Professionals

Media Literacy Workshop

This 1 1/2 hour online streaming workshop demonstrates how PBS Kids shows can be used by parents, home-schoolers, childcare providers and preschool teachers, anyone who cares for kids, to supplement what they are already doing to help young children get ready to read. Getting kids ready to read involves more than reading books to them. Children 3-5 can be learning their alphabet letters and sounds, that letters strung together make words, that many words belong to "families," that understanding what is read is just as important as reading. And these pre-reading skills can be taught in a fun way using educational television programs.

MEDIA LITERACY: Section 1

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Learn why television is a useful tool for supplementing what you are already doing in your home or classroom to teach pre-reading skills. Discover what PBS Kids shows are available and their educational goals through a game of "PBS Kids Jeopardy."

MEDIA LITERACY: Section 2

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

View a clip from one of the best PBS Kids shows for teaching pre-reading skills, Super Why! Compare the episode of The Three Little Pigs in Super Why! to reading the same story from a book.

MEDIA LITERACY: Section 3

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Use the lesson plan from the PBS Kids Super Why! web site to develop hands-on, fun activities that reinforce the pre-reading concepts introduced on The Three Little Pigs episode.