FAQs

Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard Lessons are lessons that were developed for teachers to use with interactive whiteboard technology to assist in instruction of concepts in phonological awareness and reading comprehension.

Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard Lessons

• Empower teachers with proven, research-based strategies for whole-group instruction. Based on the proven strategies and systematic approach of the award-winning Waterford Early Learning software, Waterford Institute’s interactive whiteboard Lessons provide teachers with research-based, proven-effective instruction and tools.
• Are easy for teachers to use immediately. Waterford Institute’s fully-designed lessons are easy for teachers to use with little or no preparation. Every lesson uses the same simple navigation, short teacher instructions, and user-friendly activity design.
• Maximize the teaching potential of your interactive whiteboards. Waterford Institute’s highly interactive lessons maximize the features of the interactive whiteboard by including ample opportunities for collaboration, exploration, and discovery. Lessons include rich audio, video, manipulatives, games, assessments, and more.
• Are designed to be used by very young students. Every element of the design focuses on the needs of early pre-readers. With 16 big books and more than 15 sing-along music videos embedded in the lessons, Waterford Institute’s interactive whiteboard Lessons are sure to capture each student’s imagination.
• Complement teacher’s classroom resources. Waterford Institute’s interactive whiteboard lessons align with state and national reading standards and can be used with multiple grade levels—with or without other Waterford Early Learning products. An ideal complement to a teacher’s classroom resources, each lesson can be used in a variety of ways and multiple times to reinforce critical and often difficult-to-teach concepts in early reading.

Yes. You can use these lessons with any projection system, with or without an interactive board. Although you can use any interactive whiteboard, you must open the lesson files using the ActivInspire™ software by Promethean®. ActivInspire is available at no cost to teachers at www.prometheanplanet.com. You must be a member of Promethean Planet, but membership is free and the sign-up process is quick and easy.

Software: Promethean® ActivInspire™ (Personal Edition available for free download at www.prometheanworld.com/ActivInspire)
Hardware: Interactive whiteboard, microphone, speakers, and Promethean ActivExpression™ or ActiVote™ recommended

Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard Lessons were designed for teachers to use with whole groups of students to teach phonological awareness and reading comprehension. The lessons include highly collaborative, interactive activities. By comparison, Waterford Early Learning is designed to be used one-on-one for 15 to 30 minutes every school day. The curriculum is also much more comprehensive, covering all five areas of reading as well as complete math and science curricula. These interactive whiteboard lessons share the research-based learning strategies as well as many of the songs, characters, artwork, and books as Waterford Early Learning. For schools already using Waterford Early Learning, the interactive whiteboard lessons are a great compliment. However, these lessons can be used independent of any other Waterford Institute™ software.

Reading Comprehension:
Age: 6–10 years
Grade: First through third grade, including English language learners

Phonological Awareness:
Age: 4–6 years
Grade: Preschool through first grade, including English language learners

Each lesson includes a series of activities to teach a target learning objective. Although one lesson could easily fill a 45-minute period, the content lends itself to shorter, frequent lessons that are more appropriate for the target ages. Teachers may use and reuse one phonological awareness blending activity within a lesson; for example, until the students are able to complete the tasks entirely independently. Reading comprehension activities could also be spread over multiple days and lessons.

Each lesson consists of 10–22 “pages” or at least 45 minutes of first-time instruction. As mentioned earlier, individual activities and instruction can be chunked and reused over multiple days.

Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard Lessons are not a replacement forWaterford Early Learning program. They are designed to give teachers effective tools and strategies to enhance their classroom instruction in two target areas: phonological awareness and reading comprehension. By comparison, Waterford Early Learning provides a complete personalized, one-on-one Language Arts, Math, and Science curriculum for students in preschool through second grade. Because Waterford Early Learning is personalized andWaterford Early Learning Interactive Whiteboard Lessons are collaborative, these programs complement each other well.

Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard Lessons are ActivInspire™ Flipchart files (.flp) that open with ActivInspire software. Users need to have ActivInspire installed, but allWaterford Early Learning Interactive Whiteboard Lessons should open immediately from within ActivInspire.

Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard Lessons were built to be easy for teachers to use immediately, with very little training or preparation. Every interactive whiteboard lesson comes with Teacher Notes on every page that outline the lesson’s objectives and interaction. Teachers may also use the outlined lessons in the Teacher’s Guide that they can take anywhere for lesson planning.

Every Waterford Early Learning™ Interactive Whiteboard is governed by an End User License Agreement (EULA) found on our Website at http://www.waterford.org/partners/prometheaneula/.

The EULA prohibits the sharing or distribution of these files.

The EULA prohibits the modifications or reuse of the assets in these files.

Waterford Institute™ may create more interactive whiteboard lessons. Feel free to share feedback on your experience with Waterford Institute’s interactive whiteboard lessons to help guide future development by e-mailing sales@waterford.org.

Site licenses are available through Waterford Institute™ or Pearson® Digital Learning. Please contact sales@waterford.org or your Pearson representative for more information.

If you have purchased a single-user download, you will have to repurchase. If you have purchased a site license, you may use your original DVD to reinstall.