CEHD faculty develop online video resources for parents

School districts across the country are closed for the remainder of the school year in response to COVID-19. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced Apr. 17 that classrooms would remain closed indefinitely to help stop the spread of the virus.

Many school districts are providing online instruction and sending printed packets of worksheets to their students. Parents are struggling with how to keep their children engaged.

Dr. Kay Wijekumar, professor and director of the Center for Urban School Partnerships in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture, saw that struggle and stepped in to help. She, along with her team, established a series of online videos for students.

The Texas A&M University Literacy.io Student Video Library houses videos for students in grades 2 through 12. Parents have the ability to search by language, grade and subject. The videos are offered in both English and Spanish and cover science, history and language arts.

“I have an unwavering focus on improving the educational experiences for all children regardless of color, socioeconomic level or learning challenge,” said Wijekumar. “I am excited to get this to parents who are at a complete loss as to how to help their children. Just reading books to them is not enough to promote academic comprehension skills.”

Parents will need to register via the Texas A&M University Literacy.io registration page. Once the registration is approved, parents will receive a link to set up a password to gain access to the Student Library.

Wijekumar and her team plan to continue adding videos to the site each week. Please direct any questions about the library to Wijekumar at k_wijekumar@tamu.edu.