WETA provides free workshops for parents and childcare providers to extend the educational impact of our award-winning PBS KIDS programs. The Ready To Learn workshops are held at daycare centers and preschool centers throughout the Washington area, and demonstrate how to use children’s television programming to help young viewers learn to read.
The children's shows that provide a jumping off point for the literacy training include Sesame Street, Between the Lions, Clifford The Big Red Dog, and many other favorites that families know and trust. The workshops are offered as a community service by WETA.
If your day care, preschool, or other group is interested in hosting a Ready To Learn workshop for parents or caregivers, please contact us.
“Walk past a WETA Ready To Learn workshop and you will see something wonderful - a whole new world opening up to teachers, children and parents all discovering that teaching and learning the Ready To Learn way can be fun. Partnering with this program is a joy and the results are sure as they know the way to show teachers and families how to use TV and books to create a culture of learning and reading for young children"
— Connie Zimmer, Inner City - Inner Child
About RTL workshops
All Ready To Learn workshop participants learn how to connect television to children’s literature and activities. Each workshop introduces 2-5 new children’s books, and all participants receive one of the featured books to keep. Certificates of attendance are also available to participants.
Workshops take place on-site at the times that best work for participants. Workshops for child care providers tend to be 1.5 – 2 hours. Parent workshops tend to be an hour in the evenings at the center or school.
Each workshop’s core goals include the following:
To introduce these ideas, WETA teaches adults about the Ready To Learn Learning Triangle. Because children learn best when they are stimulated and engaged, the Learning Triangle teaches workshop participants how to best use television as a springboard for learning with the VIEW-READ-DO model.
Television is here to stay, so let's use it as a successful teaching tool! WETA Ready To Learn has a workshop to introduce participants to the basics of using television to build literacy skills with an overarching theme of names and identity.
Building Reading Skills, Level One and Level Two
What skills must a young child have to learn to read? The Level One workshop uses Super Why to introduce participants to skills such as letter recognition and word families — the balanced literacy approach shown to help young children learn to read. In the second workshop (Level Two), the award-winning children's television show Between the Lions, in conjunction with WETA's national educational program ReadingRockets.org, are used to teach participants how to introduce slightly higher level reading skills using the balanced literacy approach.
Music and Singing
It's fun and it builds literacy skills! And what better way is there to learn than to sing together? Using Sesame Street and Barney as a model, this workshop shows fun ways to integrate more music and rhythm into daily life and education.
Anger and Tantrums
All of us have trouble keeping the anger inside sometimes. By using the television show Dragon Tales, adults can discuss the subject of anger and tantrums and maybe gain a few tips along the way.
Health and Nutrition
How often do you see commercials for broccoli on television? Using Sesame Street's "Healthy Habits for Life" episodes as a guide, adults can more easily to promote healthy eating and exercise.
Math and Patterns
Think of all the ways that you use math everyday. Now imagine trying to teach your child about all of those ideas! In this workshop WETA uses the wonder and excitement of Curious George to show that math skills can be taught — and learned — with fun and enthusiasm.