"Seuss Corner is such an engaging resource, I'm worried my students will spend too much time on it!" -- Anonymous teacher
If the above quote mirrors your own thinking, let us put your mind at ease. We're confident that there's no such thing as "too much of a good thing" when it comes to Seuss Corner. Its pedagogical benefits are many. It can make reading fun and hopefully encourage a lifelong love of reading.
However, we understand your concern that students "can't just sit around and read all day." To this end, below are some practical suggestions to balance students' time between Imagine Language & Literacy (IL&L) and Seuss Corner.
Getting Started
Prompt students to complete their IL&L lessons first before accessing Seuss Corner. The Seuss books can be leveraged as a reward for session time completion.
Recommendation
Tell students that once they are automatically logged out from their session time after working on IL&L, they can then log back in and work on Seuss Corner.
If your class time is limited, you may want to shorten the session time for IL&L to allow time for students to log back in to Seuss Corner. For example, the default session time is 20 minutes, but you could change the session time to 15 minutes, thus granting 5 minutes for students to log back in and read the Dr. Seuss books. An alternative is to keep the session time at 20 minutes but dedicate more than 20 minutes of class time for Imagine Learning work. Keep in mind that the session times are not exact.
Implementation options
At-home reading:
- Since the books are mobile-friendly, they create a seamless continuity between school and home environments. Literacy moments can happen anywhere—even during commutes, in waiting rooms, or at bedtime.
- Encourage your students and their caregivers to read the books together. Older students may enjoy practicing reading to younger siblings or neighborhood friends. A letter explaining Seuss Corner to families is available in the Seuss Corner Teacher Resources.
- You can ask students to maintain a reading log and possibly award students extra credit or some other reward for reading at home.
Teacher-led implementation models:
- Project the books on to your whiteboard or smartboard and use them as a whole-class read-aloud, thereby expanding your classroom library.
- Use a book as a launch point for a targeted mini-lesson aligning with an instructional objective such as phonemic awareness, vocabulary development, or reading comprehension strategies. This could be done with the whole class, in small-group instruction, or as independent practice.
As you can see, what makes Seuss Corner truly special is its flexibility. These implementation strategies are adaptive frameworks you can customize to your unique classroom environment and teaching style.