The Grade 2s - 7s participated in World Read Aloud Day 2022

  

Today was World Read Aloud Day and we celebrated this in my Grade 2 – 7 ICT classes at school with Nali’bali. We downloaded Nal'ibali's #WRAD story,  A Party in the Park, on our Chromebooks, and we all read together in unison. Then we discussed the story in the form of an oral book review. The children loved it. 

Nal'ibali aimed to get 1 million families to pledge their family to read aloud the Nal'ibali special story on World Read Aloud Day 2022 - 2 February. If only parents could realise and embrace the importance of regular reading in brain development – if only they could see the big picture about this. They would then definitely make reading aloud to children a daily priority!

The importance of reading aloud to children

Here are some useful quotes from articles and studies about the importance of reading aloud to children: 

“Reading regularly with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development, which helps build strong pathways in the brain and in turn builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that can have life-long health benefits.”
- from '‘Reading to young children develops their brains.'   https://bit.ly/3KYQnxr 

"A child care provider reads to a toddler. And in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in these children’s growing brains respond. Some brain cells are ‘turned on,’ triggered by this particular experience. Many existing connections among brain cells are strengthened. At the same time, new brain cells are formed, adding a bit more definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry that will remain largely in place for the rest of these children’s lives.

Therefore, the more adults read aloud to their children, the larger their vocabularies will grow and the more they will know and understand about the world and their place in it, assisting their cognitive development and perception." (An excerpt from a study on toddlers’ cognitive development as a result of being read aloud to) - Quoted from:  https://www.all4kids.org/news/blog/the-importance-of-reading-to-your-children/

As we come out of the Pandemic, let's prioritise reading aloud to children in order to develop their reading skills. The long-term benefits are immeasurable.

A Book Review of Oaky and the Virus

Oaky and the Virus: written by Athol Williams and illustrated by Tarryn Locke. Published by Theart Press 

I am a primary school teacher – a technology integration specialist, and I used a Grade 1, a Grade 2, and a Grade 3 class to help me write this review. We downloaded the book from the Oaky website to our Chromebooks, and used it as a class read-aloud in the three classes. We all read aloud at the same time, in unison. Each class loved the experience because the book was very relevant to the COVID pandemic. The three classes helped me write parts of this book review. 

Oaky and the Virus is an educational and fun story about two acorns, Oaky and Oaket. The two acorns learn how to avoid a virus when it comes to their town. The book is the first in the OAKY series of 7 books that follow the adventures of OAKY, an acorn who grows into a big oak tree.

In Oaky and the Virus, Oaky and his sister Oaket hear about a dangerous and tiny virus that has come to town. It could make people very sick. That means the virus could also make them, Oaky and Oaket, very sick if they caught it. The two acorns think of ways that they can protect themselves from the virus and also keep themselves feeling positive and hopeful. Oaky wants to help his anxious sister, Oaket, feel safe. He teaches her a song about how she could protect herself from the virus so that she will feel comforted when she sings it.

The song is available to listen to on YouTube.

What did we like about the book?

All three classes liked the book because it is about the Covid19 pandemic, and children everywhere are worried about the pandemic. The book gives good ideas for keeping oneself safe and positive. The pages are brightly illustrated and written in a large, clear font, which makes reading a pleasure for Foundation Phase learners.

The common favourite part of the story was when Oaky thinks of ways of protecting himself and his sister from the virus. The classes liked Oaky, as a character, because he thought of ways to help keep him and his sister safe, and he didn’t give into fear. He was kind to Oaket. Some children said they feel a bit like Oaket at times, so they liked that way she felt happier when she knew how to protect herself.

Do we think the book could be improved?

All three classes felt the writer should have created the song to a well-known tune so that they could sing-a-long. They tried fitting the words to 'The wheels on the bus' which added another fun aspect to the lesson. The Grade 3s also felt that the book didn’t have enough excitement for them. They suggested that the writer should have added some more relevant scenarios to make the story more interesting, such as:
- hearing about a friend whose parent was very ill from the virus
- maybe one of their own relatives could have caught the virus but fortunately didn’t have to go to hospital. As a result Oaky and Oaket had to be careful to keep away from the relative.

Would we recommend the book to a friend?

Everyone said yes to this. They let that the book gives children hope in the midst of a frightening pandemic. The Grade 1s and 2s gave the book five stars! The Grade 3s gave the book four stars!

An important point to mention is that at the end of the book there is quiz. My three classes had clearly absorbed the story content as they were able to answer all the questions in the quiz.

This is a lovely book. It is available to purchase or as a free download from www.oaky.com. The publishers recommend the book for Grade 1 - 4 learners.

Our Grade Ones love using 'Teach your monster to read'

The online version of Teach Your Monster to Read is free and my Grade 1s love it.  I allow them to use it in the last 10 minutes of our computer lessons https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/. Whenever I announce that it is time to play our reading game, I get a chorus of 'Yays'!

What is Teach your Monster to Read? 

This literacy game has been funded by the Usborne Foundation, a charity set up to support initiatives to develop early literacy. The program is free if you use it online, but you pay to use it as an app.  

The game is for children in the first stages of learning to read, or for older children who need a bit more practice. There is a video trailer on the Home page of the online version of 'Teach your monster to read' that shows how the game works. 

How does it work?

The information provided on the website version says, "The game takes children on a magical journey, meeting colourful characters along the way and collecting fantastic rewards. When children are engaged, they’re motivated to learn. As they progress, they rehearse a range of essential reading skills; matching letters to sounds, blending, segmenting, tricky words and reading full sentences."

Commonse Sense Media provides great reviews of programs on their website. This is one of their reviewers, Caryn Lix, says about "Teach Your Monster to Read" https://bit.ly/3cSm4Zt. 

"Teachers can have students play the game at home or at school. Each student creates an account, which allows teachers to monitor their progress through a dashboard, including how often they play, what games they're playing, and how well they're doing. This makes it a great way to assess basic reading and prereading skills as well as a fun way for kids to learn, on their own time and on their own terms. Students can also use the story as a starting point to come up with their own creative ideas: Write stories about how their monster damaged its ship, for example, or design their monster's home world in art class. Flash cards also provide an opportunity for students to review frequently confused sounds." 

How do you enrol students as a teacher?

You go to the website and sign up for a free teacher account. After that you create multiple players and give each student their login credentials.  The players log in to thir account and play. The app keeps a record of where they are at. As a teacher you can track their progress. The players can use these login credentials to log in to the app on any device, even when they're at home.

All I do in my Grade 1 Google Classroom is provide the link to the login page.  The students click on that and then each one signs in with their credentials - and they start playing and learning.

This is a great online game to add to your Grade 1 collection!

Free reading sites to use on World Read Aloud Day – or anytime!

1 Feb, is World Read Aloud Day. Exciting reading activities are taking place all over the world. People all around the globe are reading aloud together and sharing stories on this day, to promote literacy as a human right that belongs to all people. It is important to celebrate days like these that put reading in focus. However, reading aloud to children should take place every day! In my previous blog post, Reading aloud to children - is it important? I wrote about what some of the research studies show about the importance of reading aloud to children.

Taken from the Nalibai site

Activities we will see happening on Read Aloud Day
Here are a few examples:

1. Some people create their own special one-on-one read aloud moment at school or at home. The Litworld website gives a read aloud guide that shows how to read to children effectively.
2. Many teachers connect virtually with authors, classrooms, and more for a special read aloud session using Skype.
3. Some classes around the globe read to each other via Skype.
4. Many websites such as KidLitTV have some read aloud sessions where children can watch people reading awesome children’s books.

Our World Read Aloud Day celebration in Grade 3
I am the computer teacher at my school, and my Grade 3 class celebrated World Read Aloud Day in the computer lab. In this post I want to tell you about some of the things we did on WRAD and show you some of the reading sites we visited.  

1. World Read Aloud Day with Nalibalihttps://nalibali.org/
Here in South Africa, Nal'ibali (isiXhosa for “here's the story”), a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children's potential through storytelling and reading, always does something great for World Read Aloud Day. Every year on World Read Aloud Day, Nalibali commissions a brand-new story and translates it into all 11 official SA languages. This year's story is "Where are you?" written by Ann Walton. It can be downloaded from their website free of charge.  Nalibali encourages adults and caregivers across the country, to join them in reading it aloud to children on WRAD (World Reading Aloud Day) They have called this the #WRADChallenge2019. 

We downloaded the story and read it together, aloud, in our computer lesson. 

After that the class visited a number of websites to see what they were about, and then they selected and read a story from one of the following sites, aloud. but softly!

2. The African Storybook website
https://www.africanstorybook.org/
This is a wonderful local website that has a huge amount of Grade R-4 beautifully illustrated Creative Commons picture storybooks that one can read, translate, change etc. I have done numerous activities using this website. The stories are in many different African languages - one simply has to choose English. The storybooks can be read online or offline, or downloaded from the website and printed. All the storybooks are available for free. The website is also available as an app that one can download. 

3. Storyweaver website

https://storyweaver.org.in/
This is a wonderful website from India that has a huge amount of Creative Commons beautifully illustrated stories. It works on similar lines to the African Storybook website in that the storybooks can be read online or offline, or downloaded from the website and printed. All the storybooks are available for free. They also focus on Indian languages but all one has to do is type in English for a large variety of lovely stories. The website was awarded a substantial grant from Google which enabled it to expand its storybase to 11,154 stories in 136 languages.

Both of the above story websites make use of four levels in reading:

Level 1: Easy words, word repetition, less than 250 words
Level 2: Simple concepts, up to 600 words
Level 3: Longer sentences, up to 1500 words
Level 4: Longer, more nuanced stories, more than 1500 words

4. Storyline online

https://www.storylineonline.net/
This is a popular children's literacy website created by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which provides free storytelling videos and resources for parents and teachers to foster a love of reading in children. The stories are nearly all, if not all, in the form of videos.

5. Litworld
https://kidlit.tv/category/read-out-loud/ This is a site I haven't used much yet, but I plan to explore it. LitWorld is a nonprofit organization founded by literacy expert Pam Allyn in 2007. LitWorld works with a broad coalition of national and international partners to ensure that young people worldwide can experience the joy and transformation of reading, writing, and storytelling.  They have an interesting approach in that their year-round, child-centered programming is designed to develop each of the 7 Strengths which LitWorld sees as inherent in every child. LitWorld’s 7 Strengths are: Belonging, Kindness, Curiosity, Friendship, Confidence, Courage, and Hope.

Studies show that one of the most important things we can do for our children, at home and at school, is to read aloud to them. The benefits are enormous when this becomes an ongoing practice. Why not make reading aloud to your class a daily habit? 

Reading aloud to children - how important is it?

World Read Aloud Day is coming up on 1 Feb 2019. Exciting reading activities will take place all over the world. People all around the globe will read aloud together and share stories on that day to encourage teachers and parents alike to read to the children in their care.

Let’s think about the importance of reading aloud to children. Is it important? In this post I plan to put reading aloud in perspective and take a look at what some of the studies on reading aloud show. 

1. Reading to young children gives them a headstart in life

Studies show that one of the most important things we can do for our children is to read aloud to them when they are young. A study conducted in a partnership arrangement between the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, uncovered some interesting information. http://bit.ly/2UDCFVN. The key finding was that frequency of reading to children at a young age has a direct causal effect on their schooling outcomes regardless of their family background and home environment. The study shows that there is an important role for parents in the development and educational performance of their children. Parental reading to children increases the child’s reading and other cognitive skills at least up to the age of 10–11. This is an early-life intervention that seems to be beneficial for the rest of their lives.

Taken from Unsplash

2. Children need 1000 hours of being read to before preschool

This fits in with what I heard about reading before preschool at a reading conference not too long ago. The Dean of Education from Rhodes university quoted a study that showed that If we can develop independent readers by Grade 3, we can almost predict academic success at school. However to become independent readers by Grade 3, he said, children need to have received 1000 hours of being read to before entering preschool.

Just hearing the written word helps them develop their vocabulary, strengthens their memory, and nurtures their imagination. Children who are surrounded by print and immersed in great and well-told stories are more curious, confident, and motivated to learn. Stories help our kids develop empathy for others, curiosity about the world we live in, and they stimulates critical thinking.

Our goal must be for our children to start reading for enjoyment, meaning and understanding on their own. If we can get the children in our care interested in reading for enjoyment, we are setting them up for success. Reading for pleasure makes a big difference to children’s educational performance. 

Taken from Unsplash

3. Research shows the importance of parents reading with children – even after children can read on their own

A study ‘Interactive reading opportunities beyond the early years: What educators need to consider’ by Margaret Kristin Merga found in the Australian Journal of Education, was highlighted in an article by the author. http://bit.ly/2Uv9hkj She found that “hared reading experiences are highly beneficial for young people. Benefits of shared reading include facilitating enriched language exposure, fostering the development of listening skills, spelling, reading comprehension and vocabulary, and establishing essential foundational literacy skills. They are also valued as a shared social opportunity between parents and their children to foster positive attitudes toward reading. When we read aloud to children it is also beneficial for their cognitive development, with parent-child reading activating brain areas related to narrative comprehension and mental imagery. 

4. The Benefits of Reading to Your Unborn Baby

I was curious to see if there was any research on reading to babies in the womb and was surprised to see that there is a lot! Science indicates that reading to baby in the womb helps develop early language learning. 

A study at the University of Oregon found when pregnant mothers were given a recording that included a made-up word to play near the end of pregnancy, the babies were able to recognize the word and its variations after they were born. They could discern this by neural signals emitted by the babies that showed they recognized the pitch and vowel changes in the fake word. The babies who heard the recording most frequently displayed the strongest response, suggesting that infant language learning begins in utero. The researcher says, “Our findings indicate that prenatal experiences have a remarkable influence on the brain’s auditory discrimination accuracy, which may support, for example, language acquisition during infancy. “ A website ‘Womb to World: Reading and Talking with Babies’ highlights some of the research done on reading aloud to babies in the womb http://bit.ly/2Uw0IWv.

A great article on the Baby Centre website called ‘Reading to your baby’ http://bit.ly/2UrxEiK suggests that it’s never too early to start reading to baby. Babies recognize their mother's voice in the womb, so why not make reading aloud a habit while you're still pregnant? Another article ‘Womb to World: Reading and Talking with Babies’ http://bit.ly/2Uw0IWv gives some very practial tips on how to get started. Joining the local library is a great way to start. 

Statistics from local websites

The PUKU website in South Africa gives some interesting global literacy statistics about reading. https://www.puku.co.za/en/south-africa-celebrates-world-read-aloud-day/ Here are two examples:

• Reading aloud to children every day puts them almost a year ahead of children who do not receive daily read-aloud reading, regardless of parental income, education level or cultural background. (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research)

• If all children in low-income countries left school literate, 171 million people could move out of poverty. (World Literacy Foundation)

The Times Live in an article ‘80% of Grade 4s can't read, literacy survey reveals’ quoted that ‘Almost four in five Grade 4 pupils fall below the lowest internationally recognised level of reading literacy‚ and South Africa is last out of 50 countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls 2016).’ http://bit.ly/2S27BC7

There’s no doubt about it – reading improves the mind. It has a multitude of benefits to us as humans. We need to start early in the home to ensure academic success at home. “The pen is mightier than the sword.” As parents and teachers let’s join in on the fun on World Read Alud Day on 1 Feb 2019. 

A Shared Reading lesson with self-drawn pictures and sequencing, in the Foundation Phase.

This post is being written as Deb Avery conducts a Grade 1 Shared reading lesson at Victoria Primary in Grahamstown. The Grade 1 girls are all sitting on the mat at the front of the classroom. A group of Foundation phase teachers sit on the mat at the back of the classroom along the wall observing the lesson. The aim of the lesson is to read a story from a Big Book with understanding, and reconstruct the text in joint rewriting.

The Preparing for Reading stage
Deb gets to know the class and relates the story to the context of the girls. The girls want to tell her lots of stories. Deb summarises the story. She has drawn pictures because the story has no pictures. This is to show that it if one has a good story but no pictures, one can create one's own images even if you can't really draw! As she summarises the story and shows the pictures she develops the vocabulary of the learners. This section ends with Deb reading the story to the girls. The girls love to recite the repetitive parts.

Preparing for the Reading stage

Deb reads the story

Sentence making
Deb now reads the story again, and as she finishes a page she hands the words and pictures to a child. After she has done this, she reads the story again and the learners recognise whether they are holding that part of the story. The girls sequence the story correctly.

Handing out a piece of story, after reading it

All the girls with their piece of story, in sequence

Deb retells the story again pointing to each text. Deb then questions the learners for their comprehension of the text. After that, the girls give back the story pictures and words, and Deb hands out the sentence strips.

Handing out the sentence strips

The learners work in groups. As Deb calls out questions they cut out the words from the sentence strips, taking it in turns. Deb points out language along the way. She affirms all the way when someone answers the questions correctly.

The girls read the sentence strips together

They take turns cutting out the words, as directed by Deb's questioning,

Spelling stage
Deb works with selected words and breaks them into syllables.

Breaking selected words into letter patterns

Vocabulary building

Joint rewriting
Following the patterns of the text the learners reconstruct the story with different characters and settings. Deb lets them vote for different aspects of the story. She then writes the reconstructed story on the board and the learners read the new story. 

Independent writing
We didn't have time to complete the next stage which is Independent writing. In this stage, the learners go a step further and write their own story or sentence, and they draw a picture. 

This was a great lesson. It was long yet the learners remained engaged all the way through. 

Working with factual text using the Reading to Learn methodology

This post is being written as Deb Avery conducts a Grade 4 Science lesson on the topic of  Energy at Victoria Primary in Grahamstown. The Grade 4 girls are all sitting at their desks in the classroom. A group of Intermediate Phase teachers are sitting at the back of the classroom next to me, observing the lesson. They are as engaged as the girls!  The aim of the lesson is to understand the text on Energy and make one's own notes from the text.

Preparing for Reading stage
First comes the Preparing for Reading stage. Deb gets to know the class and links the topic, cleverly, to the class’s prior knowledge. She explains where the text will be found, and gives a summary of the text.

Preparing for Reading stage

Detailed Reading stage
In the Detailed Reading session, the girls read through the section with Deb. They work with vocabulary, synonyms and comprehension questions, guided by Deb. They are then given a copy of the page from the textbook as they are not allowed to write in their textbooks. They number the sentences and underlined keywords. Deb asks 'wh' questions as they identify the keywords together.

Today's text

Intensive Strategies stage
In the Intensive Strategies session the girls each get a paragraph to illustrate how to work with keywords. They cut up the text as guided by Deb's questions. They then jumble the cutouts and have a competition to see who can put them in order first.

The paragraph that is cut up

Cutting out the words

Putting the sentences together again

Joint rewriting session
Deb writes the keywords from the first three sentences on the board. (The class calls out the keywords).  Different girls call out their recreated sentence and Deb chooses one girl to go to the board and write it. The girl goes to the board and writes a simplified sentence next to the original sentence. Different girls give their versions of the other two sentences using the keywords and the same procedure is followed.

The first sentence is written

The second sentence is written

The third sentence is written

Joint reconstruction of the third sentence is complete

Independent reconstruction
We had to leave after this stage because Deb needed to give a demonstration lesson in Grade 1. The Grade 4 teacher then took over for the Independent Reconstruction stage where the girls would completely reconstruct the text and make their own notes.

It was a brilliant lesson. The teacher sitting next to me was excited about it and said she would definitely be doing a factual text like this next term. (School closes tomorrow).

A week of teaching demonstrations in Grahamstown using the Reading to Learn methodology

Currently I am in Grahamstown assisting Deb Avery from Reading to Learn wherever possible.  Deb has been training an enthusiastic group of teachers from three schools in a Reaing to Learn course.  Read 'Five great things you need to know about the Reading to Learn methodology' to find out more about this very effective reading approach.

Deb Avery is a very experienced and inspiring trainer, and she offered to do reading lesson demonstrations at each school using the Reading to Learn methodologies. This post records the various demonstrations.

Graeme College in Grahamstown - Grade 6 Factual Text lesson
Four teachers from this well-known boys' school are on the course this week. Deb was invited to do two demonstrations at Graeme College.  The first was to a Grade 6 class using a factual text related to what they are learning about at the moment, namely Electrical Circuits. The lesson took place in the library and was observed by a number of teachers and teaching students. The aim of the lesson was to use a factual text to teach the boys how to make notes from what they read.

First Deb introduced the class to the topic and conducted the Preparing for Reading stage. This included linking the text to prior knowledge, summarising it for the class to give sequence and meaning, and reading the text to the class.

The Preparing for Reading stage

After that a stage known as Detailed Reading was followed. The class gave sentence summaries, and they were guided to find and underline keywords. This was followed by several minutes of language elaboration.

The Detailed Reading stage

This stage was followed by a session of Intensive Strategies where the class got to grip with a section of the text. Synonyms were found for the keywords.  The learners learned to spell key vocabulary and they practiced sentence making.

The Intensive Strategies stage

In further sessions the class will write a new text as a class using the Joint Writing step. This will be done on a flipcart or whiteboard. The final step is for the joint construction to be removed and for the learners to rewrite the text on their own, with reference to their notes. This heavily scaffolded process will lead to the boys eventually making notes on their own independently.

After this lesson, Deb was invited to address the whole staff in the staffroom on the Reading to Learn methodology.

Deb Avery preparing to address the staff.

Graeme College in Grahamstown - Grade 1 Shared Reading lesson
The next lesson was a Shared Reading lesson with Grade 1.  A number of the Foundation Phase teachers observed the lesson. The first step was the Preparing for Reading stage where Deb linked the selected text to the boys' context.

Deb links the book to the boys' contexts and prior knowledge

The Shared Reading session followed where Deb summarised the story and finally read the story to the Grade 1s. 

Shared Reading

A Sentence Making session followed where intensive strategies were used. Comprehension questions were asked, and the Grade 1s each received a section of the text to work with.

Deb asks relevant questions

Affirming learners who give correct answers

The boys start to manipulate the sentences.

A Spelling session followed.

The boys make sentences and read the words.

Once the class was very familiar with the text they started on the Joint Rewriting stage where the story was rewritten with new characters and a new setting. Deb used a flipboard to write the suggestions for new characters and new events. A vote was taken.

New ideas

A new story

Finally the Grade 1s were asked to draw a picture of the new story they had created in the Joint Writing section, for homework. Here is what one of the boys came up with,

Holy Cross School Grade 2 and 3 combined lesson
Deb demonstrated a Grade 2 and 3 lesson at the Holy Cross primary school. She selected a text from the Grade 3 Literacy Rainbow books that the Department of Education supplies to the schools.

The Preparing for Reading stage

The Making Sentences stage

Victoria Primary Grade 4 Factual Text lesson
The topic for this lesson was 'Energy'. A number of the Intermediate Phase teachers came to observe the lesson. Deb managed to get quite far in the cycle - she completed the Joint Rewriting section where the learners constructed notes together from the keywords. The teacher decided she would complete the lesson when we left and she did the Independent Construction session where each learner makes their own notes from the keywords, in the same way that they have just been taught. 

Preparing for Reading stage

Intensive strategies - the learners jumble the text and reconstruct it

Joint Reconstruction stage

Victoria Primary Grade 1 Shared Reading lesson
This lesson was done with the Grade 1 girls. The story was called Hi Zoleka. Deb drew her own pictures on red card, to show the teachers that they could make their own illustrations even if they couldn't raw.

The Grade 1s sequence the story

The learners cut up the sentences, jumble them up, and reconstruct the sentences.
 

Joint Reconstruction stage - writing a new story together

All these lessons were amazing. The learners were thoroughly engaged and the teachers who observed the lessons were very inspired to try out the Reading to Learn methodology.