Yay, I completed the Adobe Youth Voices online course!

Recently I have been one of 12 teachers in South Africa participating in the Adobe Youth Voices programme where youth are encouraged to make video media that gives a voice to an issue. The idea is that the teachers do the very comprehensive, well-designed course and then teach their students what they have learned. The 12 of usfrom South Africa joined a group from around the world in this online course and viewed each other’s’ progress along the way. During the course we learned how to use Adobe Premier for video editing and Adobe Photoshop Essentials for editing still photos. This was really a superb though demanding  course (especially when time is at a premium) and I was thrilled when I received my Certificate of Participation for completing the course!

Unfortunately my Grade 7, 8 and 9s didn’t get their media completed in time to enter the Adobe competition. Howver the winners have been announced and can be viewed on this post Celebrating the Adobe Youth Voices Awards Winners

[Grade 2] Reading the stories in the African Storybook website

In a previous post I talked about Introducing the newly launched African Storybook website  to a Grade 1 ICT technology class. In this post I report back on introducing the website to a Grade 2 class.

Step 1: A discussion about the African Storybook website
After discussing the amazing African Storybook website and its stories especially created for Grade 1 – 3 students I showed the class parts of the website on the big screen, and we read one of the stories together as in a Big Book lesson where the students are actively involved in reading the story. For more information on how to use a Big Book in a lesson click here.

Step 2: Choosing a story to read
For this lesson the class was instructed to choose a story from the English/First sentences section where there was a lovely selection of stories. When one clicks on Find am African Story one comes across this table. When I used the website with the Grade 1s we selected the ‘First words’ section. With the Grade 2’s we selected the ‘First sentences’ section.

Reporting back on a favourite the story
In our report back session on the favourite story read during the lesson I used this lovely idea found on Pinterest. This was a fun way to introduce the different aspects of a story.

I discovered that the favorite story was ‘A Very Tall Man’.

Step 4: Follow up to the story
As a follow-up to the story the class opened a drawing programme and drew a picture of the story they had read. Some of the students set about drawing the very tall man in the story.

[Grade 3] The African Storybook website and the Grade 3s using the story circle idea

In this post I report back on introducing the African Storybook website to a Grade 3 class. We used a fun method which I have called ‘The Story Circle’  Students always love it when a game-like activity is used in a lesson.

A discussion about the African Storybook website
After discussing the amazing African Storybook website and its stories and looking around the website I instructed the class to each choose a different story from the category First Paragraphs. I had written out the name of the story I wanted each person to look for and distributed these on pieces of paper.

Reading the stories as a story circle
I set a timer and we begin reading for 3 minutes. When the timer rang, we stopped reading and moved to the next computer on the right. We then read that story. We followed this prpcedue until we had each read at least four e-books.

Reporting back on a story
In our report back session each student reported back on the last story they had read  I used this lovely idea ‘Retell Rope’ idea’ found on Pinterest. This was a fun way to reinforce the different aspects of a story. Students were able to help each other if part of the story couldn’t be recalled.

The students enjoyed the activity and asked if they could do it again sometime. Warning: If you use this method, be prepared for moans and groans when the timer rings and students have to move on without completing the story.

[Grade 1] Introducing Grade 1 students to the African Storybook Project website

I was looking forward to introducing my Grade 1 ICT technology class students to the newly launched African Storybook website and it turned out to be a very exciting lesson. I thought I would write about it.

Step 1: A discussion about the African Storybook website
First we had a discussion about the amazing African Storybook website and all its stories especially created for Grade 1 – 3 students. I showed them a little bit of the website on the big screen, and read them a couple of the stories. They got very excited at the thought that they were going to explore the website on their own.

Step 2. How to locate the African Storybook website
We haven’t done all that much Internet work in Grade 1 as yet, but what I have taught them is how to retrieve a file out of the Grade 1 section of Student Share on our network, and how to open a URL link that is written in a Microsoft Word document.  I had written http://africanstorybook.org/ on the document and so they opened this link quite easily.

Step 3. A rhyme with a catchy rhythm to help them remember the process
We  explored the website together for a while and then I taught them a little rhyme with a great rhythm as we clicked on the relevant parts of the website relevant to young readers

“Find African stories
English
First words.
Read
Clap clap clap”

Step 4. Choosing a story to read
The class was instructed to look through the stories on the page that came up.  I was interested to see how they looked down the first page of stories and generally made for the one that was in colour.

Step 5: Reading the stories
I was amazed as I walked around listening to the Grade 1s reading their stories with great enjoyment. For example, I found two of the students reading the same story together out loud. After the lesson I commended the Grade 1 teacher for enabling them to make such excellent reading progress in just four and a half months

Step 6: Reporting back on a favourite story
We finished off with a report back session on the favorite story read during the lesson. The class loved the website and said they were going to continue reading the stories at home. I wondered if they would manage to locate the website again!

The favourite story was 'Supercow!" This is a great website!

Different ways of Saying... (word lists for English Language teachers )

The Internet is amazing! I saw one of these word lists that primary school teachers love on Twitter and that sent me exploring for more! I  started off by looking up a list of alternative words for ‘nice’, as one always needs that at school, and came across all these lists of alternatives in different locations. Take a look! There’s no doubt - teachers of English can find some amazing stuff when they surf the Internet…or use Twitter!

Alternative words for ‘nice’ from http://goo.gl/DGmBk6

http://goo.gl/NtW6hf	http://goo.gl/3LuAnB
http://goo.gl/3hVA2Y	http://goo.gl/8d3ipr

http://goo.gl/Js7jSK

http://goo.gl/XZSSb5

http://goo.gl/QGE3lH

Word lists like these displayed on a classroom wall could be an excellent way for any teacher to help the students develop and reinforce their vocabulary.

Create 9 links to resources using '3X3Links'

(This is a cross post of a post I wrote for SchoolNetSA on their blog.)
As I was browsing Twitter today I came across a retweet of a post by @PrimaryIdeas. I looked them up on Twitter and my search led me to another site called 3X3 links where they advertise links to their various resources http://www.3x3links.com/pi. 

What is 3X3 links?
3X3Links (http://www.3x3links.com/index.html).  is a useful webtool that allows you to create links, namely 9, to resources. This could be useful as an Internet start page. When you open 3X3Links it describes itself as an Internet start page used mainly by teachers. The opening slide looks like this:

It gives you the option to customize your page which is the option I chose.

After that you start adding the links you would like on there. When you choose a logo it has to be reviewed by their admin which could take up to 24 hours. Three of my blocks’ logos have to be reviewed. But in the meantime here is the grid I created for SchoolNet.

As soon as the logos have been approved I’ll try adding this as a widget at the side of the blog.

Classroom uses for 3X3Links
This is a great tool. I can see that it could be useful in the classroom. The following ideas come from TES resources shared by Dan Roberts from the UK (http://goo.gl/bzoshX) 

1. Get students to create their own 3x3Links for a series of homework tasks, the whole class can then look at each other’s links. This could be as part of a long term project or simply as a way of collecting useful websites for revision lessons.

2. Ask students to work together in groups to build a 3x3 starting page for researching a specific topic.

3. When you’re working with students to develop their study skills encourage them to produce 3x3Link pages for different topics containing relevant websites.

4. You could get other teachers in your own school, or department, to create their own 3x3Link pages containing useful resources or starters that they can then share with other teachers. You could even display these pages on the school intranet or website.

Dan gives a link to the page he created for his students on cloning http://www.3x3links.com/cloning2

Report back on The Multilingual Resources for Early Literacy Development Symposium on 3rd and 4th June

Recently, on 3rd and 4th June, I was privileged to attend a Multilingual Symposium on Literacy Development funded by the European Union at the Leriba Hotel in Centurion, Pretoria. Delegates hailed from the UK, USA, Canada, Uganda, Kenya, India, Mozambique and local including representatives from the Department of Basic Education. The reason that I was there is that I am involved in the wonderful African Storybook Project as part of my work for SchoolNet. This was a very interesting event and I thought I would write about ten of my takeways.  

1. The launch of the African Storybook Project website
The most exciting part of the event, in my opinion, was the launch of the long-waited African Storybook Project website. I am sure this must be Africa's first multilingual website for young readers http://africanstorybook.org/. It was created with funding from Comic Relief in Britain to address the serious literacy challenges on the African continent. In preparation for the launch of the ASP website, the African Storybook team was hard at work quality assuring over 120 unique, illustrated stories, with over 650 versions in 15 different languages.  The team put together by Saide in Johannesburg have done a wonderful job.

SchoolNet played a part in this project by initially being part of the website creation brainstorming team, and thereafter creating and running a four-week online digital storytelling course for teachers around South Africa in 2013. Some of the stories created during the course feature on the website. The course will be held again from the beginning of the third term and will be advertised on the SchoolNet blog and website. On the last day of the Symposium everyone had an opportunity to attend a wonderful, practical workshop  and demonstration on creating and using multilingual digital stories with young readers.We were able to experiment with the story creation and versioning tools on the African Storybook Project website.Please follow the African storybook project on the following social media platforms to keep up to date with this project:
Twitter - @africanstorybook
Facebook – africanstorybookorg 

The really exciting feature of this website is that the stories can be downloaded, translated on the website, reversioned etc all because of the OER Creative Commons license that is used,  You are able to create a new version of a story and adapt it for your own purposes.

2. A keynote from Suzanne Singh of Pratham Books, India
I really enjoyed the inspiring keynote from Suzanne Singh from Pratham Books in India on the role of alternative publishing models in facilitating multilingual literacy development. She emphasised that books inspire us to dream and they give us the tools to dream. Pratham Books targets children who don’t normally have access to books.

Suzanne Singh from Pratham Books delivering her keynote

Pratham Books see themselves as a community publisher and they have their books available on most platforms - using technology enables stories to travel far and wide. They have discovered that the free books catalyse the sales of the sold books. They also find that open stories multiply. Their social publishing model opens publishing through creativecommons licensing and enables the remixing and porting of stories.

3. A practical workshop run by the Nal'ibali team

The Nal'ibali team’s practical workshop on using stories to develop a culture of reading was most enjoyable. We experienced a reading club! We were shown how a story comes to life with reading, acting, singing and movement and so much more. Nal'ibali has 180 reading clubs in 6 provinces in South Africa reaching around 5000 weekly participants.  Nal'ibali produces a regular supplement in the Times every week with stories and ideas that can be folded, cut and used in the classroom. All their supplements can be downloaded from their website. You can find out more about Nal'ibali by visiting their website http://nalibali.org/. Nal'ibali has developed a Children’s Literacy Charter. Carol Bloch can be seen below showing the Charter to the workshop participants.

The workshop starts

Carol Bloch with the Children's Literacy Charter

4. Language ability in the contemporary context

Professor Lilli Pretorius from Unisa spoke on language ability in contemporary context. I found this presentation extremely interesting. She quoted the findings from many interesting studies. Storybooks are not only about the magic of reading but they have huge cognitive implications. The slide below indicates the relative richness of input in the acquisition of vocabulary.

5. Story presentations provided for our entertainment
The entertainment at the conference was in the form of story performances from  Marlene Winberg and Kapilolo Mario Mahongo (San Memory House and Manyeka Arts Trust). Marlene would give the English version of the story and Kapilolo gave the African version.

Marlene Winberg and Kapilolo Mahongo assisted by a sign language interpreter

6. Atteridgeville learners respond to ASP stories
Learners from the African Storybook Project pilot primary schools in Atteridgeville joined us with their teachers to read and respond to stories on the African Storybook website. This was a delightful part of the proceedings.

Young learners from Atteridgeville Primary respond to stories

7. The Department of Basic Education's new ILAL multilingual policy
Representatives from The Department of Basic Education spoke on challenges in the piloting of the Incremental Introduction of African Languages (IIAL)  strategy and the need for resources. The policy is Home Language plus 2 Additional Languages. The interesting part of this presentation was the critique and the comments from the crowd! 

8. Kenya's ICT rollout plan for 2015
Esther Gacicio (Kenyan Institute for Curriculum Development) spoke very clearly  on how the Kenya Ministry of Education plans on rolling out the ICT Strategy in schools in the light of the renewed policy on the use of mother tongue in early literacy. In Kenya 1500 district masters and 20,000 teachers have been trained on ICT integrated lesson plans. This policy starts with a roll out to Grade 1.

Esther Gacicio explaining the Kenyan ICT Strategy

9. Mary Metcalf's report back on the PILO project in KZN
Mary Metcalfe talked about improving reading outcomes through teaching reading in school through shared reading sites. She is currently involved in the PILO project aimed at improving early literacy in KZN.  Reading outcomes depend on the accountability of the state in providing suitable support conditions in schools. 

10. The importance of inclusive education in early childhood development

David Crabtree (Consultant to the British Council on Special Educational Needs) spoke about the importance of inclusive education for early childhood development. He emphasised that teachers need two skill sets - their subject knowledge and knowing how learning occurs in diverse students.

Those are just a few of the many highlights from a really interesting two-day Symposium. All the participants were also given a flash drive with useful materials on it to take home.

Tweet archive from the multilingual Symposium
A summary of the tweets from the Symposium have been archived using www.storify.com and can be viewed at https://storify.com/fibeal/the-eu-symposium-and-launch-of-the-african-storybo