Room to Read Blog

Fun with Phonics at Nakatete Basic School in Zambia

As Ms. Sharon Chanda sings instructions to her class, her first grade students run to the mat at the front of the room to join her, one by one.  

It starts as a few students from the table underneath the mtondo (mango) sign scramble to the front of the room. They are soon joined by their classmates who sit below the dangling nanazi (pineapple). As they settle, they don’t miss a beat in the call and response routine.

As Ms. Chanda calls out in Chinyanja, the language of instruction for these first graders in Zambia, the students sing back a melodic reply. The exercise is one of many teaching methods Ms. Chanda learned through the in-service training she received as part of Room to Read's Literacy Instruction program. “The students have always been eager to learn,” she shares, “but the Literacy Instruction program has inspired them to be more curious in their studies.” 

While the first graders wait patiently on the mat, their fingers dance in anticipation of the phonics game they’ve gathered to play.  She hands out letter cards and has students match the letters to the sounds on the wall.  Ms. Chanda believes this interactive approach is working. “I have never seen my students have so much fun while in class", she shares. "Reading and learning are no longer droning activity for them—it’s fun.”

As the phonics game comes to an end, select students report to Ms. Chanda to deliver the next exercise back to their respective tables.  

What could result in chaos is pure energetic order, as the students dutifully file back to their assigned tables, all led by Ms. Chanda’s signing.  

Once reunitied, the teams work together to match the phonics in pairs with their corresponding vowel sounds—speaking each pair aloud to check their answers.  “Ba, be, bi, bo, bu,” they chant together, grinning from ear-to-ear.

“The crux of teaching with the new methods is that we ensure that the students are having fun while learning," says Ms. Chanda. "It emphasizes creativity and encourages both the teachers and the students to learn in a different, yet fun-filled, way.” Maureen Simunchembu—Room to Read’s Literacy expert in Zambia—agrees, adding that the program, “offers a great opportunity for children to learn to read and write, and inspires them to strive for more.” 

At Nakatete Basic School, the Literacy Instruction program “has definitely inspired the students, since it complements the prescribed course content perfectly," says Ms. Chanda.  A quick observation of her classroom shows that this is clearly the case.

Learn more about our work in Zambia and about our Literacy Intruction program.

 

Don't forget to help us spread the word this month about our campaigns for literacy!

Join our tweet campaign! Each RT will donate $1 to our literacy programs in Asia and Africa (up to $30,000) thanks to Random House, Inc. Click to Tweet!

 

Throughout September, all donations to our library programs will be matched up to $40,000 thanks to our partner, Better World Books. Click to donate.

 

"Big Books" Help a Little Girl in Zambia Develop a Love of Reading, Despite Late Start

Meet Stella: a lively 3rd grader from Balmoral, Zambia.

Born the sixth child of eight to parents Phales and Patrick, Stella was a happy baby who seemed no different from her siblings. At three years old, however, Stella had not yet begun to walk, and it became clear that her development was not following the familiar pattern.

Doctors assured Phales and Patrick that their daughter was healthy, despite her developmental challenges. Relieved by this news, they vowed to raise Stella in the same manner as they had her older brothers and sisters, including enrolling her in the local primary school.

Stella began first grade at Balmoral Basic two years ago at the age of nine. Because the school has a special education program, she is able to get the extra support she needs, as well as attend classes with her peers.

The school also has a large library that Stella visits often. She is particularly captivated by the colorful posters and "big books", which she shares with our team when they visit. “Lyi ni sapato yaba mami,” (this is my mother’s shoe) she says with a smile, pointing to a poster on the library wall. 

"The posters and 'big books' enable her to indentify objects and relate them to her everyday life," says Room to Read Country Director for Zambia, Samantha Chuula. These supplementary reading materials are included in Room to Read libraries because they help to create a literate environment and encourage young kids to read. It's clear that they have helped foster a love of reading in Stella, despite her late start in school.

When asked about her favorite book, Stella proudly holds the “big book” version of Who Can Be a Friend. She's almost completely hidden by the book's massive cover, but peeking out from behind it, her face is all smiles.

Learn more about our Reading Room program and our work in Zambia.

Drawing a Line in the Sand on Literacy

Literacy is defined as "reading skill and reading habit," and it has the power to unlock doors to opportunity. As Room to Read focuses on enhancing literacy skills in the nine countries where we work, we're introducing literacy pilot programs that include additional teacher training, curriculum development and supplemental classroom materials. Joel Bacha, Room to Read's Southeast Asia Program Manager for Literacy, describes a visit to a school in Cambodia where our literacy pilots have been initiated.

Walking with the principal toward the grade 1 classroom at Tatouk Primary School in Siem Reap province, we notice several students watch our approach through an open window. The principal explains that the grade 1 reading program is different this year: the students are more active – from his office, he can hear them sing songs and play games, and overall they seem to be enjoying school more. In today’s class, there are about 40 students. The teacher asks for volunteers and half the class raises their hands. The teacher calls on one girl who comes to the front of the class and chooses a letter. She holds it up to the class, and everyone calls out the name of the letter, “Shri-la.”

After we observed the class for 10 minutes, the teacher had the students go outside and line up in two lines. She asked them to draw the letter shape they had just learned in the air. Then the students bent down to write the letter in the sand.  When they were finished, each student checked their neighbor’s work to see if they had drawn the letter correctly. For those who needed more help, the teacher provided extra guidance, and in some cases, the teacher directed students to help each other. To reinforce the lesson, students wiped the area in front of them clear and practiced writing the letter again in pairs.  Afterwards, they washed their hands, returned to the classroom and pulled out their notebooks. The teacher wrote the letter on the board several times and the students followed by writing the letter in their note books at their own pace.

The literacy program is seen as important in Siem Reap where a large percentage of students are not reading at grade level by the time they reach grade 3. The program aims to promote a balanced approach for teaching reading where students are exposed to phonics instruction and structured reading time. Part of the challenge has been the limited training for teachers and the complex Khmer script which students are expected to learn in a short amount of time.

Earlier this fall, 36 grade 1 teachers from 20 schools in the local school district participated in a Room to Read literacy teacher training. However, while many grade 1 teachers are used to teaching phonics, teaching reading is still new. The teachers were introduced to interactive teaching and learning methods for phonics, reading and writing in the Khmer language. One of the teachers commented, “The extra activities in the [My Reading] book are really helpful. The students are learning better [than last year] because they are interested in the activities. I thought that trying the “new” way would be difficult. It takes more time to try at first, but once I get used to the activities, it seems better for students.”

For more information about our pilot programs and our work in Cambodia, visit our website.

 

Zambia: The "Teacher Librarian"

Chingale Mudenda has been teaching for the past two years at the Lukwipa Basic School in Zambia. What she loves best, she says, is that she gets to teach children how to read and write. “I spend a lot of my time with the children in the library to help them improve their reading skills,” she says. One could scarcely miss the enthusiasm and passion on her face as she goes on to explain how she skillfully helped set up the library at her school following the librarian training she received from Room to Read. So it’s no surprise that as a result of her efforts, she became known as the "Teacher Librarian."

Asked what the new library has meant to the school, Ms. Mudenda says, “It is a valuable gift to our children. In the past, the school had no books at all. But now, thanks to Room to Read, we have nice story books and our children are excited to spend their time in the library reading.”

As she walks through the library to check on what’s going on, she is impressed to find children busy reading. When asked what her role is, Ms. Mudenda proclaims that her duty is to help and encourage pupils to spend time in the library. She talks enthusiastically about how the book-borrowing system is working and how she encourages children to borrow books and read at home with their families.

Ms. Mudenda is so passionate about enhancing children’s reading skills that she even enlisted helpers to ensure that the library remained open during the day. She took it upon herself to train two pupils as library monitors and another as a teacher library assistant.

“When I’m busy teaching, the library assistant takes over and the monitors help out during the students’ free time,” she says proudly.

Thanks to Ms. Mudenda leadership and guidance, students at Lukwipa Basic now have a library (with helpers!) they can depend on to offer lots of story books that will help them to develop good reading habits and a love of learning.

To learn more about our programs in Zambia, click here.