Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy (SEEL)

SEEL Implementation—Teacher Development

You have now learned about what SEEL is, how SEEL works, and now know how to bring SEEL principles into any activity plan. This next portion of the SEEL Implementation is designed to give you teaching techniques to help you better facilitate a playful, engaging, and interactive learning environment. We will teach you some ways to engage young students in instruction and how you can integrate the arts to improve your teaching.


Ways to Engage Young Children During Instruction

Engagement Technique

Description

Principle Used

Intonation

Use intonation to express emotions and make the text come to life. Emphasize the literacy target with your voice.

Shared Laughter

The teacher and the students should be laughing and smiling together.

Social Conversation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Exaggerated Interactions/Spectacles

Create interesting actions to comment on; offer options for ways to act on the materials (e.g., “accidentally” spill water while you poor it into a cup).

Engaged/Motivated⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Facial Expressions

Come alive for the students. This is like putting on a show. You are the performer.

Engaged/Motivated⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Balanced Adult with Student Talk

Have conversations with the students while you teach, rather than you doing all the talking. This can be done by making comments, expressing emotion, offering choices or options, and asking questions to know what the child is feeling and thinking.

Social Conversation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Engagement

Provide interesting materials and actively involve the students.

Engaged/Motivated⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Emotional Connection

Connect emotionally with the students by:

  • Creating an emotional appeal; making positive statements; capitalizing on a range of ‘played’ emotions.
  • Mirroring the emotion of the students (reflect or take on their feelings—surprise, confusion, delight, etc.).
  • Encourage students as they participate and interact with each other.

Social Conversation, Engaged/Motivated⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Responsiveness

Respond to the students' expressions of emotion (e.g., joy, pleasure, excitement, sadness, frustration). Acknowledge and elaborate their contributions.

Social Conversation, Engaged/Motivated⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Integrating the Arts

It is so important to integrate the arts into your teaching because the arts help teach principles to children with different learning styles; allows for a playful, interactive environment that children love; and gives children a chance to read, write, and speak the literacy targets in different contexts. This increases motivation, learning, and retention. There are four art forms that will be discussed in this section: dance, music, drama, and art.

Dance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

 

Children love to get up off the floor and dance. Dancing involves four parts that are easy to remember, because dancing is the B-E-S-T!

Body: When dancing, it’s important to include the entire body. This includes moving arms, legs, fingers, toes, head, body trunk, everything! It involves using locomotive movements (e.g. walk, run, hop, jump, skip, slip, gallop, leap) and moving your body into different shapes (e.g. curved, twisted, big, little).

Energy: Changing up the energy of the dance maintains children's interest and is just plain fun. This includes smooth/sharp, strong/weak, and sudden/flowing movements.

Space: Children love using lots of space while they dance. Try mixing it up by dancing low, middle, or high in the air. You can also change the direction, size, and pathway of the dance.

Time: Change the time of the dance by changing the rhythm or beat of the dance. You can dance fast or slow while you change the duration, sequence, and pattern of the dance.

Music


Music is a great way to keep children involved and engaged in the activity while they learn different literacy targets. There are four basic elements of music that can be altered:
  1. Tempo (Rhythm and Beat): change the time or speed, clap the words, emphasize the underlying pulse/beat of the song
  2. Pitch: use high/low tones in a sound pattern
  3. Dynamics: change volume or relative loudness or softness of sound
  4. Texture: use a layering of instruments/voices to create a thin or full feeling

Drama


By having the students act out characters or use different scripted literacy targets, they are given the opportunity to use the literacy targets themselves in a natural, playful way. There are six basic elements that are included in drama performances. These elements can be altered, emphasized, or ignored while teaching literacy targets.
  1. Actor/Characters
  2. Space: where the action happens
  3. Audience: views action and sometimes interacts
  4. Plot/Conflict: sequence of events set in motion by conflict
  5. Setting: time and place for action in a specific space
  6. Mood: feeling created by setting (lighting, music, pace of speaking, etc.)

Art


Art offers yet another way of teaching literacy targets to children. There are countless art activities that can be used in activities, but here are just a few elements that can be targeted:
  1. Line: horizontal/vertical, long/short
  2. Shape: height and width arrangement; geometric (circle, square, triangle, rectangle); organic (natural shapes), symbolic (letters/numbers)
  3. Color: hue=color names; primary/secondary; warm/cool; value (light or dark)
  4. Space: area taken up by object (+ or – space), overlapping
  5. Texture: the way something feels or looks like it would feel (bumpy/smooth, soft/rough)
  6. Form: 3D (height, width, and depth), sphere, pyramid, or cubed

Introduction

SEEL Fundamentals

Teacher Development

Classroom Implementation

What is SEEL?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Learning SEEL Principles⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Engaging Young Children⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Parent Involvement⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Why is SEEL needed?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Choosing a SEEL Activity Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Integrating the Arts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

A Year with SEEL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

What sets SEEL apart?⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Teaching a SEEL Activity Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠