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As schools across the globe are adapting to varying levels of online learning, the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) has launched a Virtual Teaching Resource Hub to ease the transition for reading teachers.
UFLI is dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for students who struggle to learn to read and write through teacher professional development. Among the institute’s latest efforts is a monumental collaboration with best-selling author James Patterson to address Florida’s literacy crisis and double the state’s literacy rates — the James Patterson Literacy Challenge (JPLC).
A part of the JPLC, which began in 2018, are robust professional development curricula and online programs designed to increase the capacity of reading teachers. Recognizing the growing needs for resources and tools to support online learning environments, the JPLC team created materials for teaching reading online, and the Virtual Teaching Resource Hub was born.
“When schools first shut down back in March, the thought was, ‘Oh, kids will be home for an extra week after spring break,’” said Holly Lane, director of UFLI and associate professor of special education. “So, we got to work putting together our Parent Resource Hub to provide information and activities for home learning.”
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Holly Lane
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Working with JPLC schools during emergency remote learning, Lane saw that while there were professional development programs available about precautions for the coronavirus and using online learning management systems, there was a gap in teacher education resources tailored to online reading instruction.
“Very soon, it became evident that kids would be home for much longer, and we wanted to help teachers in our JPLC schools be as effective as they could be as they were thrust into teaching reading online — most for the first time,” Lane said. “So, we got to work.”
The hub has resources ranging from lesson templates and activities to tips on managing behavior and maintaining student attention to promote literacy learning and support struggling readers via remote learning methods.
“No one was helping teachers figure out how to actually teach reading online,” Lane said. “Through our use of the hub in the spring, we had figured out a lot of the ins and outs, so we thought we should help more teachers learn what we had learned.”
While initially developed with JPLC schools in mind, the resources on the hub are available for free for anyone to use and adapt for their classes. For example, UFLI offers pre-made virtual materials for a wide range of activities to develop foundational reading skills. The team has also collaborated with UF’s Digital Worlds Institute to create several innovative apps to support development of word reading skills. All of the materials can be used face-to-face, as well.
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In addition to the resources available on the hub, a six-part webinar series was launched and is available for viewing. Lane and her team have previous experience in webinars for professional development and saw that the format would be beneficial for teachers looking at best practices for online reading instruction.
The UFLI team hosted the first webinar on teaching reading virtually on August 4. Within the first two hours of its announcement online, the team was surprised that all 1,000 seats were reserved.
“When we were planning the webinars, we thought it would be wonderful if we could fill up all the seats in our 1,000-seat Zoom license,” Lane said. “But, once we posted the announcement on the UFLI Facebook page, it got crazy. We filled up those 1,000 slots in less than two hours.”
Within a week of the first webinar premiering it had over 70,000 views from teachers across the globe. Lane reported that UFLI’s website analytics indicate that the webinars have been viewed as far as Australia and the Philippines and has “raised the profile of the institute on the global stage.”
The content on the hub is aimed toward students at the elementary level, but older students who are struggling will be able to benefit from the techniques and resources provided on the hub to improve their reading skills, as well.
“The response we’ve received has been incredibly positive, and it has more than confirmed our hunch that this was a real need,” Lane said.
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