Childrens Television teaches many concepts about early literacy. SUPER WHY! is a
breakthrough preschool series designed to help kids with the critical skills that they need to learn
to read as recommended by the National Reading Panel (alphabet skills, word families, spelling,
comprehension, and vocabulary).
If you wish to purchase an episode you can copy and paste this URL into your browser or
search for Super Why in your ITunes Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-show/superwhy!/id270607701
Concept 1: Balanced literacy presentation, including recognizing words (Heilman, 58), and
constructing meaning (Heilman, 59) via semantics and syntax (Heilman, 63)
Date stamp: 20:11
Activity description: The lead character states that, I can change the story and save the day. He
sets about changing the word nothing in the sentence Ella plays with nothing. This conveys
to the student that meaning will change when a word changes.
He then engages the viewer in a recall activity, giving the viewer three word choices: Can you
remember what Ella wants to play with? The word choices displayed are elephants, stars,
and balloons. Both stars and balloons were presented in the video, but only stars were
presented as what the character Ella wants to play with.
He verbally suggests they try the word elephants and asks the viewer to look for the word. He
gives a hint that it starts with an e. Later he gives a similar hint for stars saying that it has
two ss in it. These are strategies for recognizing words.
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He demonstrates a strategy for figuring out the right word. He takes a word and tries it in the
sentence to see if it makes sense. He tries the word elephants then gives a visual representation
of Ella trying to play with elephants, which is not successful. This indicates to the viewer that
elephants was not the right word. When he tries the word stars the sentence correctly reflects
the meaning intended. This is a good strategy for students to use when writing or reading: Ask,
does it make sense?
Concept 3: Phonology
Book page number: 63
Date stamp: 15:45
Activity description: Princess Presto with Spelling Powers walks the viewer through spelling a
word using phonics. Her role is to spell words with her magic wand, and the words come to life
to help with whatever situation the Super Readers find themselves in. In this part of the episode
they need to get to the top of a mountain. Princess Presto decides to spell the word balloon so
that they can ride to the top of the mountain in a balloon. She scaffolds the process: What letter
makes the b sound? The next letter is a, What makes the l sound? There are two ls in
the word balloon, Now we need the oo sound, In this word the oo sound is made with
two os, What makes the n sound? For each letter she demonstrates making the lower case
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version correctly with her wand. All of these are procedures for teaching spelling through the use
of phonics.
I might use public television to teach reading in my classroom by showing small portions of a
program if I felt it supported a concept I was working on. I might make links to the program
available to parents and students on a class website or in an email, so that students would have an
idea of an entertaining show to watch at home that would support reading concepts. For in-class
use, I feel that 30 minutes spent watching a program is time that would be better spent working
in real life. I think it would be difficult for an entire class to stay focused on watching that long
of a video. This might be something that a student could watch individually during individual
computer or iPad time, as a choice. Im also not totally thrilled with the program, as I find that
the characters are somewhat stereotypical, and I would be trying to stay away from stereotypes in
the classroom.
Heilman, A. W., Blair, T. R., & Rupley, W. H. (2002). Principles and practices of teaching
reading (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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