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Literacy & Language Arts Web Resources from PBS

Elementary School

Arthur The Web site for the Arthur series provides extensive materials for preschool through 2nd grade educators and students. Educators can use fun activities to introduce or reinforce many concepts, including creative thinking & problem solving, language & literacy, and social & emotional development. Additional resources allow students to play educational games, submit poems, and participate in an online poll.

Between the Lions The Between the Lions Web site provides preschoolers and early childhood educators with fun resources to extend the learning of the on-air PBS television series. Online and printable stories, educational games, songs, teacher-led activities for the classroom, and resources to share with parents provide fun and engaging opportunities to reinforce early literacy skills with preschool through 1st grade students.

Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks Jakers! follows the adventures of Piggley Winks and his friends Dannan the Duck and Ferny the Bull on Raloo Farm in the rural Irish village of Tara in the 1950s. The opening and closing of each story features Piggley Winks as a granddad telling these tales of childhood shenanigans as lessons in life to his three very contemporary, rambunctious city-dwelling grandpigs. The Jakers! Web site extends the storytelling experience with online stories and teacher’s guides focused on storytelling in primary grades.

News Flash Five On this Web site, children ages 8-12 can explore media literacy and journalism while learning about current events. Each Wednesday, children can hear five new reports covering topics in U.S. and World news, sports, arts & tech and science, or put their journalistic skills to the test with two fun interactive games.

Reading Rainbow Designed for children 4-8 years old, Reading Rainbow builds lasting friendships between children and books. Each episode pairs the dramatic narration of a book with engaging field trips and up-close adventures, sparking interest in reading and learning for young viewers. The Reading Rainbow Web site provides fun episode-related activities, book reviews and the winning stories from the annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators contest.

Sesame Street The PBS KIDS Web site for the long-running Sesame Street series offers preschoolers the chance to interact with some of their favorite characters while reinforcing numbers, letters, shapes, rhymes and Spanish words.

Middle/High School

The American Novel The program “Novel Reflections on the American Dream” explores the theme of the American Dream in seven great American novels. The companion Web site offers lesson plans and interactive activities, including a literary timeline, an exploration of six additional themes and quizzes focusing on elements of the novel.

In Search of Shakespeare This four-part series explores the life and times of William Shakespeare. The Web site offers interdisciplinary lesson plans, teaching tips, articles, a multimedia digital library and an interactive playwright game.

Literature and Life This program and Web site are based on the The Givens Collection of African-American Literature, which contains novels, plays, poems and short stories by African-American writers and by whites writing about African Americans, as well as a wealth of autobiographies, nonfiction and scholarly titles. The Web site includes extensive background information, dramatic readings and an online study guide.

Mark Twain This film biography, directed by Ken Burns, tells the story of Mark Twain’s remarkable 19th century life. The Web site includes an interactive scrapbook, classroom activities, selected writings and a chronology of Twain’s life.

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure In this program, Michael Palin takes viewers on a journey to recapture the world of Ernest Hemingway. The Web site contains lesson plans designed for middle school students as well as extensive information on Papa’s life and works, a Hemingway glossary and an interactive about the Lost Generation.

Masterpiece Theatre This series provides high quality film adaptations of many classic novels and plays. The Web site contains extensive teacher’s guides for Anna Karenina, Our Town, The Hounds of the Baskervilles and many other popular titles as well as a guide to using film in the classroom.

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