Wildchild Resources

These resources are built as grab and go supports for educators teaching Shakespeare, classic literature, artist study, and composer study using Classical and Structured Literacy Curricula. My story: I was teaching university level language prep at university when the ISIS incursion happened. Airspace shut down. The economy collapsed. The human toll was devastating in ways I still find hard to put into words. And my students still showed up to class. Some had stable electricity and internet access. Some didn't. Some were living in tents and could only get online for short windows when power came back and a shared computer was available. Equity was not an abstract concern. It was the daily reality of every single lesson. I had no choice but to find methods that worked with almost nothing. What I found was that the theoretical principles I learned while in my MA TESOL program held true in the classroom. Students acquire language through rich input just a bit beyond their literacy level, anxiety shuts learning down, oral production (even with adult learners) comes before written production, and scaffolding builds toward independence. Keeping these principles front of mind, held the class together. After the defeat of ISIS I continued teaching in the Middle East. Then, COVID-19. I came home eight months into the crisis when airspace briefly opened. My nieces and nephews had transitioned to homeschooling their children by then. I recognized many of the language acquisition principles learned in my studies running underneath the curriculum they were using. None of my nieces and nephews have a teaching background. They wanted some simple supports as they learned alongside their children. That is where these resources come from.