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Spotlight on Putnam County Schools Literacy Coaches

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Education Spotlight

Join Cynthia Putman and her guests, Literacy Coaches for the Putnam County Schools (TN) School System. The coaches include Carissa Comer, Diana Cook, and Allison Painter. For this episode of Get Ready To Learn, they discussed an age-old question: How do you teach a child to read?

The Literacy coaches shared their expertise about brain research and some of the lessons they have learned in their roles over the years.

One thing to consider when it comes to helping your child with reading is there are some commonly held myths that may get in the way. Check out some of the misconceptions about teaching reading here.

There are all different ways to learn how to read. Consider how you first learned when you were young. Did you learn using sight words, phonics or another method?

Some suggestions for helping young children begin to read include:

  1. Use songs and nursery rhymes to build phonemic awareness.
  2. Make simple word cards at home.
  3. Engage your child in a print-rich environment.
  4. Play word games at home or in the car.
  5. Understand the core skills involved in teaching kids to read.
  6. Play with letter magnets.

What if you presented reading to your child as a riddle or mystery to be solved? Decoding is a learning method that includes cracking the codes behind letters and sounds to discover how they form words. Learn more about this in a great video about a formula called “The Simple View of Reading.”

Click here for even more resources, including these from Jill Ramsey, Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction for Putnam County Schools.

Additional free resources to keep parents & caregivers connected:

  • Bright By Text is a great tool for parents and caregivers of children birth to to get free learning games and easy-to-understand tips texted to you, text “WCTE” to 274448. It’s free and so easy!
  • We also invite you to check out the Connection Zone where you can find all sorts of activities for kids of all ages. Plus, check out the Monthly Activity calendar for little learners on our At Home Learning website. This is an educational one stop shop for free resources for summer learning!

Listeners outside the broadcast area of News Talk 107.7 and 1400 The Hub can stream the radio show by downloading the 107.7 and 1400 The Hub app.

We invite you to tune in or check out previous recordings of the show at https://www.wcte.org/podcast/!