Tips for Foundation Phase reading lessons using a tablet offline - as inspired by the IkhweziLesizwe Foundation Phase teachers

This is a cross post that I wrote for the SchoolNet blog at the beginning of October

Tablets are revolutionary devices that hold great potential for transforming learning. In the hands of skilled teachers and interested learners, tablets can be used to create some fantastic learning opportunities.

Learners at IkhweziLesizwe Primary School

Western Cape Microsoft Windows tablet devices
Recently Microsoft and the Western Cape Education Department delivered 99 Windows 10 tablets, in three cabinets, to 42 Western Cape Schools that would otherwise never be able to afford such devices. Selected Grade 1,2 and 3 teachers from each school, along with teachers from other schools in the vicinity, were provided with a day’s training presented by SchoolNet facilitators. These teachers shared what they had learned with the rest of their staff when they returned to their schools; and then, a few weeks later, each school was visited by a SchoolNet facilitator to see how the teachers and classes were managing with the tablets.Mostly, no Internet is available in the classrooms at these schools, so the teachers have to use offline apps in their lessons. The Windows 10 tablet is well-suited to offline use as it is very similar to using a Windows 10 computer offline.

My visit to IkhweziLesizwe Primary School 

I was privileged to visit IkhweziLesizwe Primary School situated in Khayelitsha, one of the poorest areas of Cape Town, as part of this visitation programme. The minute that I stepped out of my car I knew I was in a happy school environment. People greeted me and smiled and I could hear the happy buzz of children learning in the classroom. 

IkhweziLesizwe Primary School, Khayelitsha

Generally, like in most Khayelitsha schools, the class sizes are large, ranging from 40 - 47 learners. The principal Mrs Mayeye is a very pleasant person who is extremely proud of her school and its achievements. 

Mrs Mayeye showing photos of the school's hockey and drama achievements

As we talked in her office and I told her of some of the exciting things that are happening in technology around the world in classrooms, such as the ever-popular mystery Skype sessions, she grew very excited and begged me to come back once Internet has been installed at their school, to get them involved in these opportunities. I found that teachers at the school had developed a tablet timetable from Grade R to Grade 3 and and they were well into using the tablets routinely every week. They mainly used an offline program called Talking Stories on the tablet, for reading lessons; but they were very keen to hear more about how they could use the other apps in their lessons when I presented the coaching session after school. As I watched the teachers using the tablets, whilst observing them in their classrooms, I had the idea of writing a post about using the tablet offline for reading in a Foundation Phase classroom.

How the IkhweziLesizwe teachers use the tablets for reading
Some teachers use the tablets for group reading sessions while others use them for whole-class reading. The reading app installed on the tablets, Talking Stories, has been installed in such a way that it can be used offline; and since there is no WIFI in the classrooms at the school, this is a great advantage. Although the teachers enjoyed this app with its English stories they really longed to also have isiXhosa stories on their devices especially as Grade 1-3 learners learn in their mother tongue. Since the classes are so big the learners have to use the tablets in pairs.

Grade 2 learners

Grade 3 learners

Different ways to use tablets for reading

Here are a few ideas for reading:

1. Read aloud
The teacher reads to the whole class, modeling fluency, thinking processes, and the type of expressive reading necessary for comprehension and engagement. The read aloud often builds upon the learners' existing knowledge and skills, but it also serves as a useful way to introduce new types of text and reading strategies. In the read aloud the teacher often thinks out loud so that students can learn they techniques they use to make connections, visualize stories, make inferences, use fix-up strategies when they don't understand what they read, determine unknown words, and formulate questions about the text.

2. Paired reading
It really helps when learners can read to someone. A reading partner, sometimes called a reading buddy, is a good choice in the classroom. The learners can read to one another and help one another.

Two learners doing paired reading

3. Shared reading

Shared Reading is an interactive reading experience that occurs when all the learners join in or share the reading of a big book or other enlarged text while guided and supported by a teacher or other experienced reader. Students observe an expert reading the text with fluency and expression. The text must be large enough for all the students to see clearly, so they can share in the reading of the text. I noticed that the teachers had the BIG Book versions of the Talking Stories which would enable shared reading to proceed smoothly. (If one didn’t have a Big Book available a data projector projecting on to a screen could work,) The Department of Education developed an excellent booklet called Teaching Reading in the Early Grades some years ago. It explains the process of shared reading really well. It can be accessed at https://goo.gl/oXKP4V .

4. Group-guided reading
Group-guided reading is an instructional approach that involves a teacher working with a small group of learners who demonstrate similar reading behaviours and can all read similar levels of texts. (The challenge to a teachers is always what to do with the rest of the class while group-guided reading is taking place.) Very often, the teacher will begin a session by introducing the text and modeling a particular strategy. The teacher and student engage in meaningful conversations about what they are reading, and the teacher can build on their use of different reading strategies over time. This time of classroom reading instruction is essential to promoting essential reading skills.

5. Independent reading
Independent reading gives learners the opportunity to practice the strategies they’ve learned through group-guided reading, shared reading, and teacher read alouds. In independent reading time the learners choose their own stories.

Components of a successful reading lesson
There are said to be five components to a successful reading lesson, and teachers need to incorporate these into their lessons; namely phonemic awareness, word recognition of both sight words and phonics, comprehension, vocabulary and fluency. Teachers will use various activities during their reading lessons to develop these components. For example, to develop comprehension teachers might use 'retelling'. The learners retell the story in different ways to a partner, a group or the teacher.

Reading strategies
A reading strategy is a plan of action designed to help learners understand the material and direct their attention to the details.. Strategies usually combine a number of skills simultaneously. It is important that teachers are aware of different reading strategies. The essential thing is that teachers have a plan of what they will do to start the reading lesson, during the reading lesson and after the reading lesson. A post by Teachthought ‘25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area’ https://goo.gl/XlFA5G shows some useful reading strategies such as:

25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area via TeachThought

Finding digital isiXhosa reading material for Grades 1-3

When the teachers mentioned that they would dearly love digital reading material in Isixhosa, I immediately thought of the African storybook project http://www.africanstorybook.org/ developed right here in South Africa for Grade 1-3 learners.

Isixhosa books on the African Storybook website - all free

The stories are all free in the languages of Africa, and they are downloadable, with beautiful illustrations. The project has an app for Android and iTunes but I don’t see one for Windows devices. The only way I can imagine downloading these lovely stories in isiXhosa to the tablets, with my limited understanding, is as follows:
Download the stories to a computer using WIFI and then:

a) Transfer them to a SD card and store them in a Windows device with a link on the home screen
OR
b) Transfer the stories via Bluetooth to another Windows device.

Download the African Storybook Project app from the African Storybook website

Further Reading lesson resources for teachers

• Scholastic Reading Strategies: Everything You Need to know https://goo.gl/jicUyZ
• Reading Lesson Plans https://goo.gl/aX8hT
• Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/

10 ideas for using the Paint app in a Foundation Phase class - as inspired by a visit to Isikhokelo Primary School in Khayelitsha

This is a crosspost of the post I wrote on the SchoolNet blog 

Tablets are an attractive device to use in the classroom because they are halfway between laptops and mobile phones. This means they are big enough to work on for a period of time, on a desk, in a classroom. Their touch screen capability allows them to be used with a stylus which is similar to using a pen or pencil. The use of touch-screen tablets can bring many advantages to the classroom. One such advantage is that learners become more enthusiastic in their lessons. The big challenge to teachers is to consider not only the apps and the technical side of the tablet devices, but to be aware of pedagogical considerations as well.

Recently Microsoft and the Western Cape Education Department delivered 99 Windows 10 tablets, in three cabinets, to 42 Western Cape Schools that would otherwise never be able to afford such devices. Selected Grade 1,2 and 3 teachers from each school, along with teachers from other schools in the vicinity, were provided with a day’s training presented by SchoolNet facilitators. These teachers shared what they had learned with the rest of their staff when they returned to their schools; and then, a few weeks later, each school was visited by a  SchoolNet facilitator to see how the teachers and classes were managing with the tablets.Mostly, no Internet is available in the classrooms at these schools, so the teachers have to use offline apps in their lessons. The Windows 10 tablet is well-suited to offline use as it is very similar to using a Windows 10 computer offline.

I was privileged to visit five schools in one of the poorest areas of Cape Town, Khayelitsha, as part of this visitation program. In this post  I’ll refer briefly to my visit to Isikhokelo Primary School in Khayelitsha. In Khayelitsha, generally, the class sizes range from 40 - 47 learners.

The Grade 1 class at Isikhokelo Primary using their tablets

I found this visit very inspiring, as the teachers who were trained had shared what they had learnt with the other Foundation Phase teachers after the training, and the school had drawn up a timetable and a plan for using the devices. When I visited some of the classes I could see that both the teachers and learners were feeling comfortable using the tablets. One of the apps I noticed them using when I visited their classes was the Paint app. This post will focus on some ideas for using a painting app such as Paint in the classroom.

10 ideas for using Paint in a Foundation Phase class Microsoft Paint doesn’t appear in the alphabetical list of apps on a Windows tablet, but it shows up when one types 'Paint' into the search bar. This is a very useful app, especially in Foundation Phase, as it can also be used as a whiteboard with colour pens and an eraser.
Benefits of using the Paint app in the classroom

• The learners can identify different colours, shades of colours and sizes of pens. They can develop their fine motor skills when they use a stylus with this app.
• The nature of this app taps into a learner's creativity.
• The Paint app can be used as a whiteboard in a lesson.
• Learners can manipulate different shapes.
• Learners can use a text tool to type words. 
• The work can be saved if desired.

Using the Paint app in the classroom

Paint can be used in a number of different ways in a Foundation Phase classroom. Here are ten ideas.

1. In reading lessons learners can paint a favourite scene from the story just read. They can describe what they have drawn, and why it was their favourite part of the story.
2. Learners can illustrate sentences from the story. The teacher could highlight a sentence and the learners draw what they visualise. 
3. Learners can redraw a picture that appears in the story.
4. Learners can also complete an unfinished story in the form of a picture.
5. In phonics lessons learners can listen for the beginning sound of a word spoken by the teacher and they can write it in Paint. The teacher could also call out some of the phonics they have learned and the learners could practise writing the sounds on their tablet devices. 
6. Paint is useful in Life Skills lessons. For example, when learning about dental hygiene, learners can draw a picture of a beautiful smile that demonstrates healthy teeth. 
7. Learners can easily draw diagrams and label them. For example they could draw a body and label the body parts when learning about the body.
8. In Maths lessons that involve using shapes, Paint provides a great selection of shapes that can be manipulated and coloured in.
9. In Maths lessons Paint can also be used for writing the Maths sum and working out the answer by means of a sketch. The learners could be asked to explain their thinking to a partner.
10. Paint can be used in an Art lesson especially when art resources are limited at a school.

An example of a lesson using Paint
Topic
Draw a picture showing a new end to a story.

Objective:
The learners will create their own story ending after listening to a story.

Before class begins
Locate an interesting story for the class. You will either read the story to the class or tell them the story, but remember to leave out the ending.

Opening activity

• Read or tell the story to the class modelling as much reading expression as possible. Do not mention the end of the story.
• Discuss possible story endings with the class.
• Tell the learners they will draw a picture showing their own ending to the story.

Task: Draw an ending to the story

• Introduce the Paint app to the learners if they have not used it before. Talk about the paintbrush sizes, the colour palette, the paint pot for colouring in, and the eraser for rubbing out mistakes.
• Let the learners use the stylus when using Paint to have better fine motor control. The stylus in this instance is their paintbrush.
• Walk around and help those learners who require assistance. Be quick to compliment the learners on their drawings.
• Let the learners use the A icon in Paint to type their name. They could also type their own sentence about the picture they have drawn.

Ending the lesson

• Let the learners discuss their story endings with one another.
• The image can be saved to illustrate how to save, but this will need to be erased after a while to save space on the tablet. 

A tutorial on using Microsoft Paint

Whatever tablet you use in your classroom, make sure that you have a similar app to Microsoft Paint that can be used as a whiteboard as well as an art programme. You'll be surprised how often you'll use it in your lessons.