Thank you for your interest in learning about the work of the Literacy Essentials and MAISA's partnership with Michigan Learning Channel. This work helps to bring the Literacy Essentials to life through the literacy broadcast series, Read, Write, ROAR!

Read more about the Literacy Essentials here!

WKAR's Director of Education, Robin Pizzo, supported the production of this award-winning video that features experts in literacy and neuroscience, including Michigan literacy researchers, Dr. Nell K. Duke and Dr. Laura Tortorelli. When attending the Michigan Learning Channel retreat in July, Annie Spear, MLC Project Director for MAISA, had the opportunity to view this phenomenal video and was immediately struck by how it illustrates ways that the MAISA work and Michigan Learning Channel work is connected. Drs. Duke and Tortorelli have been supporting Literacy Essentials since the beginning. They provide ongoing training, guidance, and support for the ISD Early Literacy Coaching Network, and support various projects connected to the Literacy Essentials. This video represents our Literacy Essentials mission and aligns to both the Prekindergarten and K to 3 Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy so well. Knowing this, a screening of this video was presented at the ISD Advanced Coaching Institute in Grand Rapids on August 8th where Dr. Tortorelli was already presenting, and had the chance for coaches to engage with Dr. Tortorelli around it engaging in a process designed by Dr. Susan L'Allier and Annie Spear to support coaches to consider ways to utilize the video to support educators, families, and community members. This screening was well-received by those in the room, and conversations demonstrated how coaches were considering ways to utilize it. Find this and more resources on WKAR's site: https://www.pbs.org/show/wkar-specials/collections/building-the-reading-brain/ and read about the Emmy Award here.

With great excitement, MAISA announces the Literacy Essentials are now also represented in Read, Write, ROAR! Upper Elementary (Grades 4-5). As part of this partnership with Detroit PBS, MAISA has been involved in the planning, scripting, editing, and review process of these new resources. In addition, teacher onboarding training and slides informed by research-supported practices from Essential Instructional Practices in Literacy: Grades 4-5 as well as some other research-supported documents, including Helping Students with Dyslexia Read Long Words: Using Syllables and Morphemes (Kearns and Whaley (2018). This new series is still in the midst of production, with MAISA continuously represented in the process.

This series offers engaging videos and activities designed for 4th and 5th graders to enhance their reading and writing skills with alignment to themes in social studies and science represented. Hosted by experienced teachers and educators from across the state, these videos encourage deep thinking about literacy. Please contact Annie Spear with any questions about MAISA's part in this process.

Check out sample videos below. Mrs. Brittany Mora (Bloomingdale Public Schools) uses the Overt Strategy to teach multisyllabic words! Mr. Brian Peterson (Rochester Community Schools) reads an informational text embedded with grade level science content while modeling how to determine the cause and effect.

Course 1: K to 3 Literacy Essentials: Read, Write, ROAR! - Word Builders 1, Version 2.

The first version of this course had over 243 engagements with a 5 star rating! It will be available to complete until September 18, 2024. This new version represents content from the updated Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy: Grades K to 3, new and updated resources, and new videos.

Description: Mystery Words and Word Ladders are fun, interactive lessons that allow students to play with sounds by segmenting, blending, adding, substituting, and deleting sounds as they study words and discover spelling patterns. These two lessons are aligned to the Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy: Grades K to 3, specifically practices 4, 5, & 6. In the course, by explicitly explaining letter-sound and sound-letter relationships, you will learn how to replicate these lessons in your classroom to support phonological awareness development (particularly phonemic awareness), alphabet knowledge, and sound-spelling knowledge.

BRAND NEW!! Course 2: K to 3 Literacy Essentials: Read, Write, ROAR! - Word Builders 2

Description: This second course in our Word Builders series will highlight research-supported practices that help children learn about letter-sound and sound-letter relationships. The Letter Heroes lesson type in this course provides a protocol educators can use to teach children the letter name, sound, and formation of the targeted letter within the lesson. In addition, children can find the letter in the text, demonstrating the real-world application of learning. High-Frequency Words lesson types will demonstrate how educators can use research-supported practices to teach these words that are necessarily aligned to "rules" of spelling. Rather than telling kids to memorize the words (which doesn't work!), these lessons will demonstrate how to show children to use what they know about letter names and sounds so they can discover how high-frequency words "work." These two lesson types are aligned to the Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy: Grades K to 3, specifically practices 4, 5, & 6. In the course, by explicitly explaining letter-sound and sound-letter relationships, you will learn how to replicate these lessons in your classroom to support phonological awareness development (particularly phonemic awareness), alphabet knowledge, and sound-spelling knowledge.

A newly released "go to" resource for day-to-day teaching...

● Need a literacy lesson for a substitute?

● Did an unexpected event interrupt your teaching?

● Are you looking for a resource that a paraprofessional can implement?

● Do you have volunteers who want to help but might need guidance for

instruction?

Our Lesson Plan Guides linked to Read, Write, ROAR! episodes can help

save the day! This one page document, holds links for 16 (!) different Lesson Plan Guide documents!

Explore this page where Matt highlights the many different resources that MLC has to offer for educators, families, and communities! Contact Michigan Learning Channel: connect@michlearning.org.

During the 2023-24 school year, the Michigan Learning Channel (MLC) piloted a brand new teacher fellowship program called Iconic Michigan. Thanks to a generous grant from WETA (Washington, D.C.), MLC staff were able to recruit, identify, and support 18 educators as they learned more about media literacy and media making in the classroom.

For more information about Iconic America, and to preview and download the Iconic Michigan curriculum and student project guide for use in your classroom, visit michiganlearning.org/iconic.

To watch student stories and learn more about communities across Michigan, check out the playlist on YouTube.

To stay up-to-date and be notified when the next Iconic Michigan Fellowship call for applications is open, subscribe to our educator newsletter and follow us on social media @michlearning.

This FREE module from Michigan Virtual outlines the MLC summer program for educators and shows connections to the Essentials Instructional Practices in Early Literacy with Read, Write, ROAR! It will remain open so that you and your colleagues can view it at any point within the year as you are thinking about ways to support summer learning for students. Though the dates and the themes of the weeks, will not be updated until Spring 2025, the concept and the way the Summer of Fun program works will be evident and support your planning considerations. If you have questions, please reach out to Annie Spear (aspear@gomaisa.org) or Matt Hamilton (mhamilton@detroitpbs.org).

Extending Learning Opportunities with the Michigan Learning Channel

Many thanks to Mark Raffler (markraffler@kentisd.org) & Sarah Shoemaker (sarahshoemaker@kentisd.org) for inviting Rachel Cain (Former WGVU Engagement Coordinator) and Annie Spear (MAISA Project Director for MLC) to join them on the Kent ISD Literacy Leaders and Coaches Network Podcast! From Mark and Sarah:

This sixteenth episode provides us with the opportunity to lift up the expertise of Annie Spear Literacy Content Project Manager for MAISA and Michigan Learning Channel and Rachel Cain Education Engagement Specialist, WGVU Public Media. This was an informative episode with Annie and Rachel as we explored educational resources that are out there to keep the learning going for our Michigan Educators and Students. Be sure to connect and listen in to this great conversation on the latest around artificial intelligence in the field of education.

We hope you will listen to it and share it with your district colleagues! https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/llcnbrief

Did you know you can now earn SCECHS by listening to the podcast?!!? Sign up today and start earning credits!

Please reach out to Annie Spear, MAISA' s Michigan Learning Channel Project Director: aspear@gomaisa.org.