Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers

Ideal for grades: In-service
Duration: Ten 30-minute episodes with menu.
Closed-Captioned
© WETA

Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers has nine, thirty-minute episodes hosted by well known individuals such as Fred Rogers, Annette Bening, Vivica A. Fox, Deborah Norville, and Frank McCourt. The episodes were filmed in schools, childcare centers, libraries, research centers, and homes around the country. The series looks at different reading strategies that are helping young children learn to read, features practical advice for parents, highlights the best research-based reading strategies, and interweaves the personal stories of children learning to read.

Each program also includes a profile of a prominent children’s book author, such as Norman Bridwell (Clifford the Big Red Dog), Kate Duke (Aunt Isabel Makes Trouble), William Joyce (George Shrinks), Walter Dean Myers (Harlem), and Rosemary Wells (Max and Ruby).

Filmed in more than 40 elementary schools, preschools, and community centers in 17 states. Among the sites visited are the legendary Lab School in Washington, DC, which specializes in teaching students with learning disabilities, and Mark Hopkins Elementary School in Sacramento, California, where - in one kindergarten class - six different languages are spoken.

The series is part of WETA’s national initiative Reading Rockets, which is funded by the US Department of Education and dedicated to giving parents, educators, and caregivers the information they need to help young children learn to read.

Teacher, viewer and parents guides are available free of charge online. A link is provided on individual episode pages.

Rights granted with purchase include: a) life of media audiovisual use, b) public performance, and c) campus or building closed circuit.

Click on individual episode titles below to learn more.