Today’s Literacy Headlines

To be successful, remote instruction requires a lot of the same things any instruction does: clarity, review, checking for understanding, prompt feedback. But distance adds additional challenges, and these tips can help. But even in the best of circumstances, remote instruction can intensify challenges inherent in face-to-face settings. Research has shown that online learning doesn’t generally work as well as traditional instruction—and that students who are already struggling are likely to be harmed the most. Still, in recent weeks some experts and practicing teachers have offered pointers that can help remote instruction be as effective as possible.

John Daniel, superintendent of Cottonwood Public Schools in rural Oklahoma, talks about the challenges of making sure students don’t fall behind when many of his students and teachers don’t have access to computers, Wi Fi, or even reliable cell phone service. The one good thing that might come out of this experience, Daniel said, is a public commitment to ensuring digital access to all of Oklahoma and the rest of the country. You can learn more about Daniel and Cottonwood if you listen to Episode 2 of Season 2 of ExtraOrdinary Districts.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act outlines specific requirements for identifying and educating children with disabilities, but the coronavirus crisis has sparked fierce debate over how adaptable the law is to a world where online education may be the only option. For some educators, the biggest challenge has been determining how to handle students’ Individualized Education Program, the carefully constructed plans designed to meet the educational needs of children with learning and physical disabilities in an online learning environment. More than 7 million children in U.S. schools have IEPs, leaving no room for a one-size-fits-all resolution. Education Week interviewed three experts—a special education attorney, an attorney who represents school districts in special education disputes, and a professor who studied special education law for decades—to find out what advice they have on handling IEPs during the global pandemic. During the discussions, three common themes emerged. Schools should: provide services to students as soon as possible; worry more about making progress than following the letter of the law; and understand that much of federal law wasn’t written with online education in mind.

Amid the flurry of new technologies used by K-12 schools to fire up remote learning in recent weeks, a piece of seemingly antiquated technology is playing a key role: the television. School districts are getting help from an old school tech solution—television stations—that includes a cross-country public broadcast initiative to deliver remote e-learning activities while the unprecedented wave of school shutdowns affecting more than 55 million students continues. On Monday, public television stations in New Jersey and the Washington D.C., metro region started featuring the at-home learning program, which is now set to air in all 50 states. In other cases, school districts are producing new original educational programming on their own local cable stations. The effort amounts to a low-cost alternative and readily accessible solution for districts that have been forced to develop and implement long-term online lesson plans on the spot, while facing a shortage of available devices and WiFi accessibility for many students.

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act allocates $13.5 billion for K-12 education through a stabilization fund, of which at least 90% is intended for school districts through the Title I aid formula, including serving English-language learners, and the rest of which can be used for most educational purposes. The package also includes a $3 billion fund for state governors to use as they wish to help K-12 and higher education.

Comprehension is a complex and gradual process involving factors that don’t lend themselves easily to scientific measures of effectiveness—with one exception: metacognitive strategies, techniques that help readers think about whether they’re understanding what they’re reading. Many studies of these strategies, generally lasting no more than six weeks, have shown positive effects. Other kinds of studies have shown that background knowledge and familiarity with the conventions of written language also have powerful effects on comprehension. While their effects have been measured, we don’t have scientific data that shows boosting them has a direct impact on reading comprehension. Given the abundance of data on the effectiveness of strategies, educators and reading experts have placed greater weight on comprehension “skills and strategies” than on the other elements of comprehension.

If you’re trying to keep up with reading lessons at home during the coronavirus school shutdown, now is a good time to explore reading science materials with early readers. ReadWA leaders suggest these sources, which are geared toward both parents and educators. Some are free, but others cost money. For students who are well on their way to knowing how to read, Seattle schools reading specialist Julie Bedell suggests buying two copies of the same chapter book, and reading it aloud with your child. The book should be a bit harder than what your child can read on his or her own. With this exercise, the parent serves as a “scaffold,” helping the student sound out unknown words, and defining the meaning of words. It helps children map new words into their brains, and helps with comprehension and builds vocabulary, Bedell said.

Tomie dePaola brought comfort and laughter to young readers for decades. His death this week after a fall felt somehow more difficult to endure for his fans and friends at this uncertain time when the world could use Strega Nona to blow a few kisses and save the town. Unable to gather together and remember him in person, even those closest to him took solace in his literary legacy. “His books radiate his love of life, food, family, music, art, travel, culture and friendship,” said Lin Oliver, president of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and a friend of dePaola for 40 years. “His joyful spirit and big heart spill from every page. Who doesn’t love both Nanas, the one upstairs and the one downstairs? Who doesn’t cheer for Oliver Button when he triumphs over those bullies? Who doesn’t think of Strega Nona every time you put up a pot of pasta? “Tomie’s books offer children his soul and spirit, which is why they will be forever loved. In that sense, he is with us forever.”

WizardingWorld.com is hosting Harry Potter At Home, a hub of information and activities for parents, children, and carers to discover the magic of Harry Potter, by reading or listening on their own or together with loved ones, whilst staying at home. Explore the hub for a wealth of creative and craft activities, quizzes, puzzles and more. There will also be a weekly email newsletter bringing fresh ideas into inboxes each Friday.

“I miss my friends and all the specials that we had like P.E., music, computer lab,” says Nina Daer, a third-grader from Tempe, Ariz. Coronavirus has shut down schools across the country, forcing millions of students to learn at home. Parents and kids are struggling to adjust to this new reality. In this video, families from Seattle to Maine react to how they feel during this time and talk about what it’s like to navigate these changes together. “You’re not used to me being your teacher, so I think I get a little more pushback than you normally give your other teachers and little more attitude when I ask you to do work,” said Stephanie Petrides, a parent from Bethlehem, Pa.

April is National Poetry Month and is often celebrated across the nation’s schools through reading, writing, and sharing poetry all month long. While many students will be home this month due to the COVID-19 crisis, poetry can be a source of comfort as we face tremendous challenges and waves of uncertainty. Poetry can also serve as an expressive outlet for the small moments of joy students may be experiencing as well as the difficult feelings they are navigating. Poetry offers a pathway for students to look inwards but also to look outwards to take notice of the sights and sounds of their everyday lives at this moment. In this post, we share ways you and your students can celebrate poetry from home. There are low-tech suggestions that include drawing, noticing, wondering, and composing. There are also high-tech suggestions including the investigation of online poetry sites and ways to incorporate technology into the composing and sharing processes.

As schools, teachers and families face the shock of abruptly shifting to online education, one small question has been how to shift these read alouds to Zoom, Facebook, Google Hangouts and YouTube, the spaces where many classes continue to meet. A second question has been given almost equal importance: Is reading a book to students online even legal? The short answer is, well, yes. While many well-intentioned commentators have warned teachers against this practice, the fact is that copyright law—specifically fair use—permits many read-aloud activities online. As instructors and learners adapt to new educational environments, copyright concerns about reading aloud need not be among the challenges they face.

Novelist Jacqueline Woodson is a slow reader. Taking her time lets her savor each word, brings her closer to each story, and it lets her pay respect to her ancestors who weren’t allowed to read. Jacqueline Woodson is the author of nearly thirty books for children and adolescents, including many award winners like Brown Girl Dreaming and Miracle’s Boys. From 2018 to 2019, she served as the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and from 2014 to 2016 served as the Young People’s Poet Laureate.

Tucked away in the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization bill is a provision that allows Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to seek congressional approval to waive parts of the federal special education law while schools combat the coronavirus pandemic. Schools are scrambling to shift classes online as more than 55 million children stay at home. For now, that has upended special education, which is administered through meticulously devised plans called Individualized Education Programs, or I.E.P.s, which require extensive services that are not easily transferred to the internet. Students who qualify can have moderate to severe disabilities and require a range of support, such as tutoring and behavioral assistance, hands-on services like physical and occupational therapy, and specialized staff. Such services are critical for school districts to comply with IDEA’s mandate that students with special needs receive an education comparable to that of their peers. The possibility that those obligations could be waived has driven a sharp wedge between school administrators, parents and special education teachers

The evidence suggests that the way to boost reading comprehension is to build kids’ knowledge—ironically, through the very subjects that schools are pushing aside to spend more time on comprehension skills. But some reading experts point to hundreds of studies showing that teaching strategies boosts reading comprehension. So what’s a teacher (or suddenly homeschooling parent) to do? Focus on comprehension skills and strategies, or focus on building knowledge? Of course, most teachers don’t get to choose; they need to adopt whatever approach is mandated, and it’s usually “skills and strategies.”

Policymakers are focusing on the craft of teaching reading. They must also focus on the politics. Most conversations about literacy treat the problem of poor reading instruction as one of craft. The problem is that teachers don’t know how to teach reading, so how do we make sure they do? Solve the craft problem, the argument goes, and the politics take care of themselves. But what if this is exactly backward and, instead, it’s a political problem that allows the craft problem to persist? And maybe not just on reading but also on other issues like testing, accountability and teacher evaluation, where we’re constantly told that if things were just a little better from a technical standpoint everyone would actually be on board? On reading, fierce ideological debates persist despite a lot of research.

Authors and celebrities continue to try to help students, parents, and educators during the coronavirus pandemic that has closed schools and put stay-at-home orders in place across the country. This week, Dav Pilkey, Dolly Parton, and LeVar Burton begin their initiatives. Dav Pilkey at Home, a collaboration between the “Dog Man” and “Captain Underpants” author and the Library of Congress (LOC), launches today with free activities, including how-to-draw demonstrations, read-alouds, and resources from the LOC’s collections. On Fridays at 8 a.m. EDT, new video content created by Pilkey will be released. More videos and content, including downloadable activities, discussions about books, and tips to create characters or act out scenes from the “Dog Man” series will be added periodically throughout the week.

As students with learning disabilities enter distance learning environments, a tangled patchwork of state regulations, a lack of therapist training, and limited access to high-speed internet threatens to limit their access to key services that help them speak, move, and acquire skills for daily living. The sudden shift to online learning going on across the country to tamp down the spread of the coronavirus will, at best, place new burdens on children with disabilities and their families—and, at worst, lead to extended disruptions in services such as speech, occupational, and physical therapy. The federal government does not track the number of students with disabilities who receive tele-therapy, or are supposed to under federal law, but the total could swell into the millions during the widespread national school closures. Roughly 1.5 million students have diagnosed speech or language impairment, making it the second most prevalent disability category in the nation’s K-12 schools.

The reading wars are back, reignited by radio journalist Emily Hanford of APM Reports, who in 2018 began arguing that too many schools are ignoring the science of reading and failing to teach phonics. The debate has elicited passions, vindication for proponents of phonics and distress for defenders of a so-called “balanced” approach to reading instruction. As a journalist who regularly covers education research, I wanted to boil down the key points of what we know from the research on reading and answer the big questions that people have been asking me: 1. Is phonics really better? 2. What’s wrong with balanced literacy? 3. What about memorizing sight words? 4. What about reading comprehension?

More than 55 million American students are staying home amid the coronavirus pandemic. The impacts are huge — affecting students, parents and teachers. Learning is happening with a host of new challenges. Kate Gardoqui of the Great Schools Partnership joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

The COVID-19 pandemic has kicked off a series of changes in the American book world that may well lead to permanent changes down the line. Publishers were quick to set up services for the homebound. For example, Penguin Random House moved up its “Read Together, Be Together” campaign, which was originally scheduled for the summer but instead launched in March. The campaign, developed in partnership with Parents magazine, encourages parents and caregivers to read with young children. As bookstores and warehouses close, publishers are taking steps to make their digital products more affordable to schools, libraries, and individuals. The Association of American Publishers has a list of publishers’ actions, including free access to digital and e-book platforms for educators; resource guides for parents, teachers, and librarians; online storytimes and other events for kids; and social media activities.

Tomie dePaola, the celebrated author and illustrator of scores of beloved children’s books including the “Strega Nona” series, whose heartwarming stories nurtured and delighted many young generations, has died. He was 85. Mr. dePaola stirred imaginations by writing or illustrating more than 270 books. The ones that resonated most with children, he told The Times in 1999, were inspired by his own life. His grandmother and great-grandmother formed the basis for the characters in “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs,” one of his most famous books, which dealt with the death of each woman. And “Oliver Button Is a Sissy,” a book about a young boy who is bullied by his peers for preferring dancing and reading to doing sports, was inspired by his own experiences as a child.

Tomie dePaola passed away yesterday. He will be remembered and missed. Members of the children’s literature community shared their remembrances on Twitter. From Jarrett J. Krocoszka: “We are gutted. Tomie was joy & love personified. We will remember him for all of our days. We are mourning & crying but his laughter will live in our hearts & our ears. Sending 3 kisses up to the sky.” From Lin Oliver: “Today we lost the adored children’s book creator Tomie DePaola who passed away from a head injury. Forever joyful, he was a creator of beauty and a beloved friend. RIP you genius imp.”

Teaching kids to read isn’t easy; educators often feel strongly about what they think is the “right” way to teach this essential skill. Though teachers’ approaches may differ, the research is pretty clear on how best to help kids learn to read. Here’s what parents should look for in their children’s classroom. Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an expert on reading instruction, said phonics are important in kindergarten through second grade and phonemic awareness should be explicitly taught in kindergarten and first grade. This view has been underscored by experts in recent years as the debate over reading instruction has intensified. But teaching kids how to read should include more than phonics, said Shanahan. They should also be exposed to oral reading, reading comprehension and writing.

As the vast majority of schools in the U.S. have transitioned from the classroom to the computer — teachers and administrators have struggled to offer learning to special needs students. Some districts have plowed ahead with holding one-on-one lessons over software like Zoom and virtual meetings to discuss the individualized education plans — known as IEPs — that are required for students in special education. Others have put all learning on a pause, as they figure out how to use distance learning to serve all students — not just those with disabilities but also those who don’t have computers or high-speed internet. On Saturday, the U.S. Education Department announced it was giving schools flexibility in interpreting IDEA, saying that complying with the law, “should not prevent any school from offering educational programs through distance instruction.”

Every day, Hannah Haskell reads a chapter of Harriet the Spy to her 3rd graders. She used to read the book to students during snack time. Now, she reads the chapters online, as her students tune in from their own homes. Haskell reads the book live on Google Hangouts, but saves the recordings in her Google Classroom so students can listen whenever it fits into their schedules. One student told her that he listens to it before he goes to bed at night. As school districts scramble to get online learning systems up and running, virtual reading sessions are a way for educators to provide a sense of normalcy and connection to their students.

There’s been heated debate over reading instruction within the education world lately—and some confusion. Now that the coronavirus has closed most schools, parents may be experiencing confusion too. Here’s some help. “This is the remote reading lesson I taught to my kindergartner yesterday,” a New York City parent named Michael LaForgia recently tweeted. “I am a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, and I could not correctly identify the ‘main idea’ in this passage—though the instructions assured us it was in there.” The passage, sent home by the teacher, wasn’t an excerpt from Kierkegaard. It was a paragraph briefly mentioning sharks, whales, dolphins, and other sea creatures. The teacher eventually revealed, via a recording, that the main idea was “ocean animals”—which also happened to be the title.

Picking the best bedtime story to read for your child is an incredibly daunting task. And reading the same story over and over again isn’t always fun. Luckily, you can find your newest bedtime hit in the digitized archives of a few academic libraries scattered around the United States. As you and/or your child travel through the world’s complex social history in these books, you might see just how connected the past and the present really are. The Library of Congress’s collection of children’s books is smaller than some repositories, but it has a wide variety of titles for parents to choose from.

Members of the Senate worked through the weekend on a bipartisan, nearly $2 trillion “economic rescue” bill that passed the Senate, and is expected to quickly pass the House of Representatives and be signed into law. Education, from early education on up through higher education and workforce training, has been drastically affected by the coronavirus crisis, and it has a big part in the emergency spending bill, including some funding for education technology. However, the bill includes relatively smaller amounts of funding to address the needs of households with little to no access to high-speed Internet, even though students in schools and colleges around the country are expected to learn online from home. We’ve teamed up across New America’s Education Policy Program to explain what’s included – and what’s next for the field.

Every morning in Berkeley, a video conference call platform designed for white-collar workers is taken over by a group of antsy 6-year-olds. Welcome to the Zoom version of Alicia Traister’s kindergarten class. Traister has been offering the daily lessons completely voluntarily. After COVID-19 forced schools to close for at least three weeks, starting March 16, Berkeley Unified Superintendent Brent Stephens said the district was unable to come up with a “distance learning” program that could equitably serve all students — those with disabilities, those without computers and English learners. Under federal law, a school district must provide a “free and appropriate” education to all students or none at all. So BUSD opted instead to post a set of optional “home learning” resources on its website, launched a free meal program, and began distributing Chromebooks to students in need. But the decision around academics runs the risk of exacerbating disparities itself. With only some parents able to craft elaborate homeschooling plans, and only some teachers deciding to contact their classes, existing gaps could grow. And, while BUSD was struggling to figure out how to get technology to students, some small private schools in the city were able to launch comprehensive learning plans on day one, creating a larger divide within Berkeley.

School leaders are grappling with how to deliver special education services — and stay compliant with state and federal civil rights law — as governors shut down school buildings to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. A handful of districts announced in recent weeks that they won’t yet require distance learning because they haven’t figured out a way to serve all students, including students with disabilities, English Language Learners and students who don’t have internet access at home. The U.S. Department of Education told schools Saturday that they should not let concerns over how to reach students with disabilities stop them from offering distance learning, and that they don’t have to reach all students the same way.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education released today a webinar on ensuring web accessibility for students with disabilities for schools utilizing online learning during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. In addition, OCR published a fact sheet for education leaders on how to protect students’ civil rights as school leaders take steps to keep students safe and secure. These resources will assist education leaders in making distance learning accessible to students with disabilities and in preventing discrimination during this Administration-wide response effort.

The superheroes—and comics creators—are here to save the day. Today, DC launched DC Kids Camp, an at-home program for kids home from schools that are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Fans can watch videos by DC’s roster of middle grade authors and illustrators, including Meg Cabot, Agnes Garbowska, Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, Minh Lê, Michael Northrop, Ridley Pearson, Kirk Scroggs, and Gene Luen Yang, who will teach them how to make their own Green Lantern ring, do superman origami, create a comic superhero, and more.

With schools and libraries closed, children’s programming cancelled, and even playgrounds and playdates discouraged for now, parents and caregivers have a lot of hours to fill while spending time with small children. These suggestions and resources for engaging children ages two to seven will help. Start with a schedule – children thrive on routine and predictability.

Every summer for over a decade, I have hosted a #bookaday challenge—a public commitment to read or share a book for every day of the long summer school break. Over the years, #bookaday has become a community of readers sharing and celebrating books. Whether you read a book every day or not doesn’t matter, really. The folks posting book recommendations and reading experiences using the #bookaday hashtag provide a network of readers to interact with if you wish. Asking folks on Twitter and Facebook last week, there’s interest in holding a Coronavirus social distancing #bookaday challenge, so that readers who miss talking with other readers can gather and share. Here are the “official” #bookaday guidelines.

Schools and libraries closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak may extend their E-rate supported Wi-Fi networks for use by the general public while on school or library property. That’s according to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), which clarified yesterday that offering this service to their communities would not jeopardize these institutions’ federal E-rate funding. Specifically, libraries may offer access to E-rate funded services on their premises as well as services that are “integral, immediate and proximate to the provision of library services to library patrons.” And because the mission to serve the public is ongoing, libraries are permitted to allow the public to access E-rate funded services even when they are closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the FCC announcement. Similarly, closed schools may allow access to E-rate funded services “to community members who access the Internet while on a school’s campus” so long as they do not charge for the use of the service.

According to the most recent federal data, about 14 percent of households with school-age children do not have internet access. Most of those are in households that make less than $50,000 a year, and many live in rural areas. Among those who do have access, not all have a broadband connection. That can make it tough to move to a digital workflow even when classes are meeting as scheduled. As recently as 2018, nearly one in five students said they had trouble completing homework because of internet access. These access issues make it a formidable challenge for districts to move instruction online in a pinch, even if enough computers could be distributed. But across the country, districts, service providers and even the federal government are easing the burden for unconnected families in an attempt to bridge internet access gaps at breakneck speeds.

Here at WY Lit, we have experience tutoring our own struggling readers. It can be hard. We wanted to share some of our experiences and our favorite resources with you. We learned how to do this and so can you. Simply doing homework with your child can be emotionally taxing. Throw in full-time homeschooling, an unexpected difficulty learning to read, your child’s anxiety, your own insecurity about teaching them to read and then what is going on in the world right now, and you have the perfect storm for a most unpleasant homeschooling experience. The best thing you can do for a struggling reader is to read to them or listen to books with them. This teaches them to love escaping into books, and continues to expose them to the structure of written language, vocabulary and background knowledge at their comprehension level while they become proficient readers.

On the second day of her school’s COVID-19 related closure, sixth-grade teacher Elizabeth Raff sent her students a video through Google Classroom. In it, she talked about what she had been up to, including celebrating her son’s second birthday at home, and she told her students that she missed them and wanted to hear how they were doing. She invited them to send her an email, and she promised to reply. Within a few hours, her inbox was flooded. In a survey conducted by Education Week, 41 percent of school leaders said they could not make remote learning accessible to every student for even one day. Though educators in such districts cannot teach classes or give assignments, they can still play a valuable role in their students’ lives by staying connected in this time of uncertainty and heightened anxiety. “We know that strong, secure bonds with our teachers are really important in social-emotional development. To suddenly lose out on that under such strange and unprecedented circumstances can be really hard on kids,” said Jamie Howard, a senior clinical psychologist in the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute and the director of the Center’s Trauma and Resilience Service.

South Carolina education officials on Monday were to start placing hundreds of school buses equipped with Wi-Fi in low-income neighborhoods around the state to serve as mobile hotspots for students. The idea of delivering internet connectivity to students via buses is not new—the Austin Independent School District in Texas, for example, is putting Wi-Fi on hundeds of its buses to smooth the way for remote learning. But South Carolina is widening its focus statewide in seeking to use Wi-Fi-enabled buses during extended closures caused by the coronavirus. “We’re going to place the buses in high-poverty and rural areas,” said state Department of Education spokesman Ryan Brown. “They’ll be in areas where they can be accessed easily. Parents can drive up or students can ride their bikes and access the internet within a certain range.”

As the nation shifts to online learning during the novel coronavirus outbreak, language and access barriers may shut many of the nation’s nearly English-learner students out of the learning process. A December 2019 report from the U.S. Department of Education found that few teachers reported assigning English-learners to use digital learning resources outside of class, in part because of concerns about students’ lack of access to technology at home. The same report also revealed that teachers who work with English-language learners are more apt to use general digital resources rather than tools designed specifically for English-learners and that English-learner educators reported fewer hours of professional development with digital learning resources than did mainstream teachers.

It’s an old-fashioned skill, but it’s still relevant in today’s world. Several weeks ago, my family took a four-hour road trip to visit the grandparents. Before long, the kids were asking where we were and how much longer it would take to get there. I tried explaining, but then pulled an old Ontario road map out of the glove box and passed it to the back seat. The kids unfolded it and I showed them exactly where we were, where Grandma and Grandpa live, and the route we were going to travel that day. They were fascinated, never having seen the province of Ontario laid out like that before. They pored over the map for a long time, asking about all the towns, provincial parks, and other landmarks we’ve visited recently, and I pointed them out on the map. It made me realize that I take for granted the mental map of my home province and that, unless my own kids become familiar with reading paper maps too, they won’t possess a similar mental version and are likely to have a poorer sense of direction.

First Book, a national nonprofit that gets books, education materials, and other life essentials to children in need has a new, immediate mission—get seven million books to kids whose schools are closed but don’t have books at home or internet access. The organization that serves a network of more than 450,000 educators who serve low-income communities is asking for help, as well as offering educators to sign up and share their funding needs. First Book has also created a new and constantly updated resource for educators, parents, and students looking for help with remote learning or just getting through this unprecedented situation.

Every elementary school student in Glastonbury was sent home with an iPad on the day Connecticut’s governor declared a “public health emergency” to blunt the spread of the coronavirus. On it were all the learning platforms students would need to resume learning online. Students without internet access at home were provided a connection by the district. A few days later classes for this suburban town’s nearly 6,000 students went virtual. That morning, Molly Willsey’s first graders logged onto their iPads just after 9 a.m. and started their school day. In one of Connecticut’s poorest cities, however, the transition hasn’t been nearly as seamless. In Bridgeport, where one out of every 26 public school students in the state attend school, some children were sent home with with worksheets and assignments, but this was an effort by individual teachers and not a coordinated approach by the district. Many of Bridgeport’s students went home empty-handed.

As publishers adjust to the school closures and needs of educators and public librarians, Audible has stepped up with a new offering, Stories.Audible.com. The site will be “a place where anyone, in any country, can enjoy unlimited streaming of hundreds of titles for kids and families for free,” according to the company’s announcement. The books were selected by Audible editors and are a mix of education, entertainment, and general-interest titles. “As long as schools are closed, we will be open,” the announcement said.

While major technology investments have consistently failed to deliver on big promises in the past (interactive white boards, personalized learning etc.), we find ourselves in a new era where a “quarantine back-up plan” must seemingly always be a ready option when it comes to teaching. That means no matter how we feel about technology in education, we need to get better at this distance-learning thing – and preferably fast. Some version of this could be the new normal for quite some time. And so, what are some effective principles of instruction that might be of use in a distance learning environment? And, what are some ways technology might even be used to hone aspects of instruction given these circumstances?

You can’t recreate a whole school experience instantaneously. But despite becoming a homeschool teacher overnight, you can more easily manage the process with some clear guidelines. We offer a series of tips that we hope can serve as realistic expectations for a self-quarantined family with work obligations and also kids across a wide spectrum of ages and grades. 1. Create an environment conducive to learning. 2. Routines and a schedule are crucial. 3. Academics should take the front seat. 4. Find a balance.

Due to the coronavirus, homeschooling is becoming the new normal. It’s stressful, but an abundance of resources can help caregivers provide a rich and engaging educational experience while schools are closed—and beyond. The current enforced school vacation provides families with an opportunity to give kids what they want and need—and may not be getting at school. One of the best things parents can do, if they have time, is to read aloud and engage in open-ended discussions. Fiction is fine, but delving into books on history and science is a powerful way to build kids’ knowledge. And it’s almost never too early to start. Consider reading a cluster of books on the same general topic—the American Revolution or sea mammals—to give kids a chance to absorb and retain information and the vocabulary that goes with it.

Children’s books can serve as a powerful catalyst for addressing serious issues and helping students cope with childhood trauma, says NC State College of Education Associate Professor of Literacy Education Angela Wiseman, Ph.D. She has curated a list of children’s literature that can help teachers and parents address serious issues such as parental incarceration, addiction and parental loss with young readers. She also highlights several online resources that can help educators connect students who have experienced trauma with appropriate support.

Any parent balancing work, homeschool and the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic is bound to have their limits tested by sheltering in place with kids who haven’t seen their friends or participated in sports. Lisa Damour, a clinical psychologist and author of Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls, knows well about the stress families face in ordinary times. In these extraordinary times, she has the following advice for families to help get through the crisis.

With a pandemic pressing tens of thousands of the nation’s school districts into extended closures, special education administrators across the nation are wrestling with a weighty dilemma: how to provide services to students with disabilities. Federal law mandates that individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate in everything schools provide—including online learning. But a mix of factors—lack of clarity in state laws, unclear guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, and a reluctance to run afoul of federal law—has left some school districts struggling to get their online learning programs off the ground.

As educators across the United States grapple with the new reality facing them and their students as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, many are being advised to implement digital learning—some for the first time. Whether teachers have done this before or not, it’s new territory for everyone. An e-learning day or two during a snowstorm last winter does not amount to what the education field is facing right now: prolonged, indefinite school closures enforced with hardly a moment’s notice. Even Stacey Schmidt, superintendent of Porter Township School Corporation in Indiana, which has been holding e-learning days every year for over 10 years, said her district is trying to figure out what this will look like over a longer time period. She stressed that educators be forgiving of themselves and their students, and offered some key priorities for decision-making.

With schools closing to stop the spread of coronavirus, you may find yourself working from home with a new side-gig: teacher. If you’re new to homeschooling, you’re probably wondering how you can help your kids learn and keep them occupied while you work. Is it possible to avoid a screen time free-for-all and keep your sanity? With everything from free lessons from Scholastic to a daily doodle with Mo Willems, these free homeschool resources will help.

Many preschool classrooms include learning centers (for example, a writing center, a science center, a water table) where children use hands-on materials to explore, play, and learn about specific topics. Bring the spirit of learning centers into your home with prop boxes—plastic bins or cardboard shoe boxes you fill with materials and props related to one topic, such as math or writing. Here are 10 ideas.

With schools closed in the majority of states due to the coronavirus and the length of those closures looking increasingly long, millions of parents are now finding themselves juggling full-time jobs and full-time parenting. In many districts, students are following online learning programs. In other cases, students are learning from their parents who have become unofficial teachers and launched homeschool programs. But for parents and caregivers of young children who can’t learn online, have shorter attention spans and need much more attention, the prospect of working and caring for children can seem daunting, if not impossible. Here’s a look at some research and advice from experts that may help parents navigate the next few weeks (or longer) with their young children.

As schools across the country have closed their doors in response to COVID-19, the needs of English learner students are top of mind. English learners (ELs) represent a growing share of the U.S. student population and federal law mandates that they receive specialized instruction to support their English language development. Given how rapidly school closures have happened, there remain many unknowns about how distance learning will play out for these students. To be sure, the move to online learning will be challenging for all students, but these challenges will be exacerbated for ELs and other students who receive specialized support and instruction.

As schools shift to remote learning models for the foreseeable future, parents and caregivers are finding themselves in a new role—that of the school co-teacher. Though parents are naturally a part of their children’s ongoing education, co-teaching is a new role for many of them. The goal is not to replicate a typical school-day schedule or intended curriculum online or at home. The goal is to help students continue to feel connected (to the teacher, to each other, to the school), known, and nurtured even though a significant part of their routine has been disrupted.

Scholastic offers free online courses as schools across the country shut down due to COVID-19 on the company’s digital learning hub, which is accessible on all devices, including smartphones, and requires no sign-up, the company announced Friday. In the Scholastic Learn at Home program, sudents will have access to approximately three hours of meaningful learning opportunities per day, including projects based on exciting articles and stories, virtual field trips, reading and geography challenges, and so much more. Users are asked to choose a grade level, separated into pre-K and kindergarten, first and second grade, third through fifth grade, and sixth grade and above.

In order to encourage reading and classroom read-aloud experiences, and to support schools and public libraries forced to close by the escalating COVID-19 outbreak, Penguin Random House is permitting teachers, librarians and booksellers to create and share story time and read-aloud videos and live events, according to the following guidelines.

As educators worry and wonder about reading books aloud online and copyright laws, Scholastic has changed its policy to adapt to the current coronavirus crisis and unprecedented impact on teachers and students. Through June 20, teachers can post readings of Scholastic books online if they follow the guidelines. Read the entire letter to teachers, and policy guidelines in this article.