Media Templates
Ignite! Learning's use of media templates create repeatable ways of teaching content for the variety of multiple intelligences and learning styles in the classroom while also modeling thinking skills such as, cause-and-effect, part-to-whole, compare-and-contrast, and many, many more. Seventy-two different templates modeling thinking skills across all three subjects: Math, Science, and Social Studies. These templates help students make stronger connections among concepts, improving both learning and retention, while also allowing them to practice a cognitive skill transferable across content.
Media Deconstruction
Ignite! Learning's digital content solution contains over 3,000 academically scripted media pieces, each one instructionally designed to be engaging, teach to different learning styles, and model different thinking skills. All of the Ignite! Learning media is augmented with rigorous print material to give students even more practice gaining fluency with a concept.
Because stories demand active meaning-making, narrative contexts improve
how well the lesson is learned.
Click below to watch a media piece that shows how narrative makes the
concept of economics more memorable. |
Humor is especially effective when it
is intrinsic, that is, when the humor is not layered onto the lesson,
but comes from the concept being taught. The song "Your Phenotype is
Showing" strikes students funny in a way that makes the concept more
memorable, because (duh!) of course your phenotype is showing! The word
"phenotype" means a trait that's visible! |
Teachers know that
thought-provoking questions are a natural hook for students because the
students become engaged as they actively think through possible answers.
In this example, students are asked to consider that if the Sun exerts
the most powerful gravitational force in our solar system, why isn't
Earth pulled toward the Sun and fiery doom? |
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Students today are more
media savvy than ever, and can readily absorb a lot of information
through familiar media genres. Our educational media capitalizes on that
by framing some lessons as game shows, reporter on the scene interviews,
music videos, etc. This media piece comes from a lesson on geysers and
models a television news report. |
Because the left brain processes
language (such as lyrics), while the right brain processes musical
elements (such as rhythm and melody), songs create a whole brain
learning experience. This is especially true when the song is paired
with onscreen text and images. From rap to pop to folk to blues, the
Ignite! curricula contains a wide range of memorable music videos.
Watch a music video from the Math lesson on displaying and interpreting
data. |
Rhyme is a great mnemonic, which is
why kids of all ages know that 1492 was the year Columbus sailed the
ocean blue. Not just engaging and fun, but also cognitively "sticky,"
rhyme is a powerful tool in student comprehension. This song from our
Texas history course uses rhyme to help students learn about the Caddo,
an important Native American nation from East Texas. |

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Metaphor is a fundamental tool for
conceptual mapping. Metaphor, and wordplay (from puns to etymologies to
connotations), is one of the most important ways we can deeply
understand and recall what we learn. In this media piece, thinking of
how continents might fit together like pieces of a puzzle provides a
deeper insight into continental drift and plate tectonics. |
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