empowerEd Live: Breathing Life Into Texts: Developing Effective Text-Based Learning Resources for Distance Learning

Once again, I had the pleasure of guesting in Francis Jim Tuscano's empowerED LIVE last Saturday, July 4, 2020. This episode is in part an opening salvo to the celebration of National Children's Book Day (NCBD) 2020. Many thanks to Jim Tuscano for this partnership made possible with the Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY). I along with Mr. Eric Perez of the Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP) and Ms. Liza Flores of Ang Illustrador ng Kabataan (Ang INK) had an interesting discussion on the development of text based learning materials as hosted and facilitated by Jim Tuscano himself. 

If you missed the live telecast over at Facebook or YouTube yesterday, you can still view it through these links:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/empowerEDTV

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empowerEDwithJimTuscano/

Previous to the live telecast, I made some notes. Posting them here in the blog since the discussion online covered a variety of topics and concerns. My notes focus on the writing of content and texts.

1. Texts can be expository, factual or informational and fiction. Each is written in a different way, approach and tone. What ever form of text or literature you are writing, researching on topics you are writing about is important. Research is part of pre-writing. Having said this, the writing of texts, stories and literature involves a process.

There are four basic steps in writing namely, pre-writing, writing the draft, revision and editing, and publishing and sharing. This means, you can schedule your writing of text based learning materials and that, you need a reader to give you feedback on your work. From there, you can revise, make changes and edit your materials. In some cases, a kid-test is called for, especially if the material developed consists of complex steps. In my experience as a children's writer, the Mother Tongue Based learning materials we published in 2017 proved valuable to students in Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod because our writing team got feedback from the teachers based in those provinces and comments from selected students in the selected schools.

Now here is a caveat. In writing, as a general principle, nothing is craved in stone. Texts and literary pieces all undergo changes, revisions and improvements as dictated by needs and developments of readers and communities who engage with the materials.

2. Know what form of text or genre of literature you are writing. It is helpful that you read samples and exemplars of the text and the literature you want to write. You can do your own searching and documentation but asking for help and seeking assistance from allies in the profession lessens the burden. Besides, writing is not done in isolation.

3. Of primary importance in the effective use of learning materials is the child reader or the learner who will encounter and engage in the text and its contents. Know who you are writing for. The child reader's developmental stages is at the front, back and center of the creation of the module or the learning material. Pedagogy and curriculum, as well as principles in the discipline of educational technology all come into play. In the midst of it all is the child or the learner.

4. Work closely with the illustrator, designer, technology specialist and editor of the learning materials. The logistics and operational work flows can be set early on but a shared vision binds the team together. Collaboration is key.

5. Observe academic honesty. For this topic, I will have another blog post that will tackle issues in plagiarism, intellectual property and copyright. These are all for now. Do visit the blog for updates on topics we care about, school librarianship, children's literature, reading and literacy, teaching and learning and even the simplest act of creation and reflection. Happy National Children's Book Day!