TV fish flipping promotes reading

Anyone wandering into the library at Bakersfield’s Downtown Elementary School might have wondered what was going on the mornings of September 10-12. One teacher and five children were circled around a table surrounded by bright lights and two men with big videotape cameras.

Eavesdropping on the conversation provided more mystery, as the teacher, county office Coordinator of English/Language Arts Teresa Irvin, was heard to tell the children, “Flip your fish over, if it has a word on it, you read. If it has stars, you get an extra one to read. But if your fish has a sad face, that means you don’t get to read.”

Reading fish? Actually, they were laminated, paper fish, and the words printed on them were designed to help children learn how to improve their reading and comprehension skills. The cameras were rolling and captured every fish flipped and every word read for the benefit of beginning teachers and those who haven’t taught reading in the classroom.

“What we are doing is putting together a three-part video series for teachers called ‘Techniques for Essential Beginning Reading Skills,’” Irvin said between takes. “It demonstrates some of the methods that work best when instructing beginning readers. In addition to the ‘how-to’ demonstrations, we list the elements teachers will need to develop their own exercises in the classroom. It is sort of a recipe for teaching a lesson.”

Irvin provided the instructional expertise and content for the series. Behind the scenes Laurie Maclin, county office coordinator of instructional media, and John Lenko, broadcasting production manager, added the visual production elements that made it evolve. Downtown Elementary donated the actors, five 2nd-graders with varying reading capabilities.

One exercise included every student reading from 15 cards containing short phrases. After letting them study the phrases for a short time, Irvin called on each, one-by-one, to read all the phrases as fast as they could. Mistakes or omitted words counted against the timed score.

Student Nathan Mayer read all of his in just nine seconds which caused a surprised Irvin to exclaim, “Wow!”

According to Maclin, the series will help teachers put the “wow” in standards-based curriculum.

“There are not a lot of quality materials available for teacher training in reading and because of our need to provide training for the districts we came together on this project,” Maclin said. “In a creative way, the series puts the emphasis on standards and quality instruction.”

Maclin should know what works. Her previously produced educational TV series’, “Artifacts Past” and “Heroes Read,” have been nationally syndicated.

Part of the reason “Techniques” is being produced is because Irvin’s role is to travel to the districts to conduct reading workshops for teachers. The videotapes will give the county office the ability to share Irvin’s techniques and exercises with more districts at times that are convenient for them.

Maclin estimates the three, 25-minute segments will be ready for release by December 1.

They will be aired during KETN’s Thursday Staff Development program schedule. The series will also be available for check out for teachers, schools and districts from county office Media Services.

For more information, contact Maclin at (661) 636-4763.
Print This Page   Email This Page