INFOhio provides resources and web tools at no cost to all Ohio's teachers. Articles, videos, eBooks, and learning modules are available to use in lesson plans and learning activities. To support educators integrating digital content into instruction and remote teaching, INFOhio has created Monday Mini Lessons—videos that showcase best practices for remote teaching using INFOhio's high-quality digital content.
Monday Mini Lessons focus on strategies educators need to connect with and engage students during this time of social distancing. These model lessons are practical approaches with learned best practices to support the use of digital content in instruction whether face-to-face or virtual. You can learn more about how to use and navigate INFOhio’s resources and web tools in INFOhio Learning Pathways, just one option for flexible PD from INFOhio Campus.
October's focus is best practices for reading on the screen in INFOhio's Monday Mini Lessons. Learn more about how to use informational text articles from Literary Reference Center to support reading digital text in remote teaching for middle and high school students. Literary Reference Center contains information on thousands of authors and their texts, including analyses of works from all time periods. Research authors such as James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and Marilynne Robinson. Explore analyses of classics such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and contemporary literature like Atonement by Ian McEwan or Life after Life by Kate Atkinson.
In this Literary Reference Center mini lesson the standard focus is on the Ohio Learning Standards, English Language Arts, Reading Informational Text, Craft and Structure:
The Best Practices for Digital Reading components include:
Previous experience and an introduction to using Literary Reference Center or other EBSCO databases such as Academic Search Premier and Points of View Reference Center as tools for learning will be helpful for students throughout this lesson.
Watch the October, Monday Mini Lessons: Using Literary Reference Center to Teach Best Practices for Digital Reading and reflect on how you can modify this lesson to use in your own teaching practice.
One way to expand on this mini lesson would be to have students independently complete the annotation of the model text using Google Docs. Once students have completed this, work in small groups to compare the students findings and observations about the language and structure of the text. Ask students to share their results aloud and encourage discussion about any differences. You can also use Educator Tools to find quality instructional support for these standards. Search using keywords from a standard, and use limiters to narrow and fine tune your results. To analyze the structure of the model text, you may want to consider modifying this lesson from Read Write Think, found in Educator Tools.
There are other ways to connect Literary Reference Center with best practices for digital reading and instruction. Explore other Teach With INFOhio blogs that provide integration ideas for using this resource and others:
To learn more about how to help readers of any age comprehend and analyze digital text, take the Reading on the Screen class available within the K-5 Digital Content Learning Pathway.
Check out these videos that may be helpful when using Literary Reference Center:
Monday Mini Lessons will continue throughout the school year, focusing on new themes and practical applications for your teaching practice, using INFOhio's licensed digital content. If you have questions or comments, we are here to help! Please contact us at support.infohio.org.
Emily Rozmus is a Senior Instructional Specialist at INFOhio. She has worked in education for over 25 years, first as a secondary English teacher and district librarian before starting at INFOhio in 2013. Emily has developed district growth plans, integrated technology, created instruction for information literacy, fostered teacher development, and worked on teams to implement curriculum. At INFOhio, she focuses on training educators to use INFOhio resources to improve early learning. She also works to share research and best practices for helping students be better readers of INFOhio's digital text.
