AOK Basic Skills Project
Portland, Maine
E: kirkjohnb5@gmail.com
W: www.aokbasicskills.gratis
2021-11-20
Re: “ How parents of children from age 1-7 can use the Internet at no cost for storytelling and pre-literacy activities”
Dear Director of the Institution:
I am a semi-retired ESOL and native/first language teacher over the age of 65. I lived in Ecuador for over 10 years before moving to Portland, Maine in the USA last year. I am the director of AOK, which is a charitable educational endeavor and my retirement project. AOK is not an organization. It was connected to my English school in Quito.
Workshop summary
The workshop “How parents of children from age 1-7 can use the Internet at no cost for storytelling and pre-literacy activities” is designed to help to integrate storytelling into the homelife of the participants. Stories can help to build pre-school children’s language skills and introduce them to a special magic. The workshop can last for one or more 50-minute sessions and serve for follow-up, as well.
Workshop materials
The workshop includes a written PowerPoint presentation (visuals can be added for the local area), director and participant evaluation forms, key handouts, and a list of free, annotated websites to use. The workshop is given in support of UN Global Goal/SDG 4: Quality Education and UNICEF objectives. It includes information on how nonprofit organizations can use SDG student badges and videos to motivate the students’ learning and promote inclusion. It can last for one or more 50-minute sessions and can serve for follow-up, as well. The materials can be downloaded in Spanish on this website.
Workshop Objectives
The participants will learn:
- Several ways to tell their children stories for enjoyment and to help them with their language development. Reading to your child helps their imagination and creativity and is a good family activity.
- Basics about the use of puppets for telling stories. Puppets can give children confidence to express their ideas and feelings.
- Some ways on how to teach four or five-year-old children about numbers, letters and words at home.
- How to use the free file of AOK websites for storytelling and beginning literacy skills for children from 1 to 7 years of age. It has more than 60 websites. They will also be introduced to: (1) ways to learn how and where to find free stories on the Internet, and (2) several sites which teach how to navigate with Google to find more interesting sites.
A long-term goal of the workshop
A long-term goal of the workshop is to encourage UNICEF to provide multi-lingual materials that provide instruction on the Internet in literacy, basic digital education and study skills. It would be motivational for participants to learn some basic skills from UNICEF, and the materials would be written in a professional manner. A formed letter to this effect is included with the workshop materials on this website. It can be rewritten if desired.
I was registered with the National Human Talent Directorate in Ecuador and presented the workshops listed on my website to about 1,000 participants before the Pandemic.
AOK workshops are designed to act as a base for local organizations to individualize and update according to their needs…
Sincerely,
John B. Kirk, Director
E: kirkjohnb5@gmail.com