Learning Partners -- Let's Use TV!

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U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement

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Television can be a very powerful learning tool. It is being used more and more in the classroom to inform students and stimulate discussion. Teachers often assign students to watch an educational television show as homework. Television can be used to add to what is being studied at school. As a parent, you can also use television to teach ideas and values that are important to you.

Here are some things you can do at home:

• Limit television viewing time. Remember that when children watch television it takes them away from other things such as homework, sports, and fun with friends and family.
  
  
• Monitor what your children watch. Encourage your children to choose programs that make them think, teach lessons, are free of violence and sex, and show characters who have values similar to yours.
  
  
• Watch television with your children. Ask questions: Why do you think that person did what he did? Would you have done the same thing?
  
  
• Suggest programs to watch that relate to what your child is studying.
  
  
• Have reference materials near the television so you can find additional information. Have your child look up new words in the dictionary. Look at an atlas to find places on the map.
  
  
• Use TV commercials to have a "mental" snack. Review what you have just watched and predict what will happen.
  
  
• Turn off the TV if you see things you don't like. Explain to your child why: "That program is scaring me. People don't act like that in real life. I don't like what those people are doing, because. . . "

TV Activities

Spin Off! for young children (K--2nd grade)

Plan a project using TV. Try some of these ideas that spin off a TV program and teach geography.

1. Watch a program that takes place in another country, for example, "Shalome Sesame" (Israel), "Madeline" (France), "Are You Being Served?" (England), and "Carmen Sandiego" (the world).
   
   
2. Find the country on a map.
3. Read a story from the country.
4. Cook food from the country.

TV Math for beginning students (1st--2nd grade)

Explain math using television.

1. Ask your child how hou find a channel (channels are numbered). How would you punch in channel 32 on the remote control? Use this opportunity to explain the tens and ones columns in numbers.
   
   
2. Have your child look for numbers on television, in titles of programs or in commercials, for example.
   
   
3. Help your child develop an understanding of how long a period of time is by comparing it to the length of television shows (1/2 hour, 1 hour, 2 hours).
   
   
4. Do simple math problems based on time. If you watch a two-hour mini- series for 3 nights, how many hours in all would you watch TV? If there are 6 commercials and each is 30 seconds, how many minutes of commercials will you watch in all?

Get the Scoop for more advanced students (3rd--6th grade)

Help your child understand that television is just one way to get information and that there are different ways to present the same information . This will help your child become a critical TV watcher and reader.

1. Watch the television news together.
   
   
2. Pick a news item to discuss.
   
   
3. Watch the same story on different channels. Talk about how different channels handle the story.
   
   
4. Find an article in the newspaper on the same topic and compare it to the television version. Is the newspaper story longer or shorter? Why?

Credits

Resources: Ideas for this "Learning Partner" were taken fromStrong Families, Strong Schools, "TV Viewing and Parental Guidance," and the Helping Your Child series of books for parents. For more information, please contact the National Library of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20208, telephone 1-800-424-1616. Other materials from the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning--for families, schools, employers, and community groups--can be obtained by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Richard W. Riley
Secretary

Office of Educational Research and Improvement
Sharon P. Robinson
Assistant Secretary

National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment

National Institute on the Education of At-Risk Students