Level Up Literacy Teletherapy: Unleash FREE Online Resources to Captivate Students!

Keeping your online therapy sessions engaging can be a struggle, and it can require creative strategies to address literacy through a camera. But fear not! There's a treasure trove of FREE online literacy resources waiting to be discovered at your local library and websites like Internet Archive. These resources offer a vast array of materials to target various speech and language goals, keeping your students motivated and learning actively.

Now, we all know that books are one of the greatest tools to grow our students' language, right? We can reach pretty much any goal with a well planned literacy unit: articulation, fluency, auditory skills, comprehension, memory, critical thinking, inferencing, prediction, story craft, story grammar, figurative language, vocabulary, prefixes and suffixes, even pragmatics....try getting all that in one breath!

Have you ever considered the library as one of the best-kept secrets in the world of online teletherapy? Believe it or not, your local library – especially if it's a large metropolitan one – is a treasure trove of FREE online resources just waiting to be tapped into! The online resources available have exploded in the past couple of years, so if you haven't checked yours out lately, do so.

Picture this: your middle school students engrossed in graphic novel versions of classics like The Odyssey, Anne of Green Gables, or Sherlock Holmes, or your emerging language learners delighting in interactive stories

Boost Engagement & Stretch Your Budget:

• Cost-Effective Magic: Budgets are tight! Online libraries provide a massive selection of resources at no cost, allowing you to create dynamic learning experiences without breaking the bank.  Often, libraries offer reciprocal memberships, greatly expanding your selection!
• Content for All Ages & Styles: From interactive stories for beginners to captivating graphic novels for middle schoolers, online resources cater to diverse age groups and learning styles.

Highlighting Powerful Resources:

• Local Library Gems: Your local library's online branch is a hidden gem! Explore their website to unearth a universe of resources waiting to be used in your sessions.  Explore the website or talk to one of the librarians eager to get these resources into your hands.
• There's more than just print books waiting for you - there's audiobooks, graphic novels, and easy-read versions of the classics.  
• Interactive Storytelling with TumbleBooks: For younger learners, platforms like TumbleBooks offer a delightful world of interactive stories that bring learning to life.  This platform is often a free offering from your local library system. 
• YouTube Read-Alouds: Many engaging YouTube channels offer high-quality read-alouds of children's books. Find stories that target your students' specific interests and age groups to add variety to your sessions. For video playlists, check out my YouTube channel - Mrs. Speech!
• Dive into the Internet Archive: This vast digital library holds a wealth of books and learning materials. Explore their collection of ebooks, audiobooks, and even teacher resources like curriculum materials and literature notebooks from top publishers.   
• Need a ready-made literacy lesson?  IA has the Teacher's Editions of many Literacy Textbooks!  Plus, my middle school students can't get enough of the classic short stories - the ones by Saki, Poe, Thurber, Twain, O'Henry, and more. There's a reason they've stood the test of time!
• Try ESL sites like Voice of  America:  VOA has a multitude of famous American short stories that have been simplified.  And bonus, they have an audio version and supplemental materials as well!

Empower Your Students with a Free Bonus!

View my curated list of 85+ FREE resources from the Internet Archive, featuring a variety of short stories and adapted novel collections! This list gives you a head start on incorporating these valuable materials into your teletherapy sessions.

I recently found the free internet browser Brave and have been using it the past couple of weeks.  It was simple to move my Google bookmarks into Brave, and I am using it solely for use with the kids, so it streamlines my therapy sessions too.  I haven't had a single youtube ad, and I haven't noticed other ads popping up on websites.  

Stay tuned for more insider tips and resources to level up your teletherapy game!

Happy Teletherapy,

Mrs. Speech