Phonological Awareness Workshops

So, I had a busy work week last week.  3 workshops (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) with 8 schools. The teachers for Grades 1-4 were invited as well as an "administrator" (usually either the deputy head - vice principal, or the head teacher - principal)

Schools: teachers from Batoka and Sikalongo attend the workshop hosted by the Mboole teachers

The first workshop on Monday, was at my furthest, at least it seems the most remote, school:  Nakeempa.  I always have a good time when I go there!  The teachers really got into some of the workshop games. (See the first video below).

So - here's what my workshop was about (briefly):

*skip this part and go to the photos if you need to!*

What is Phonological Awareness? Some ideas to teach it.

We reviewed our Phonics workshop from the first term:  Singing alphabet song with letter names and sounds and also the phonics BINGO games.  (In both Chitonga and English)

Then we did some blending / segmenting / rhyming / other Phonological awareness ideas using puppets, the blackboard (Morning Message for all you teachers), and then we moved onto Sight words.  They call them Look and Say Words here.  For those that don't know - it's words that are most frequently found in children's books and if you can memorize them you can become quite a fluent reader.  For example: Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only the dolch sight words.  More information here if you want: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/dolch/

This is how I generally teach reading skills, both in my classroom in Canada and with Kate:

The steps: pre-reading / pre-writing

phonics and phonological awareness

learning dolch words

practice reading and practice some more (the very painful step of "decoding" words)

keep reading to build fluency

and with good fluency comes comprehension and the ability to teach comprehension

The variable in all this is oral English.  If you cannot speak English and understand it, you will not be able to understand written English.  I give myself as an example to the teachers.  I've learned most of the Chitonga phonics sounds through my first workshop.  I even know some "look and say" words.  I can "read" some of the student books I have through decoding.  However, though I can painfully sound it out I have almost zero comprehension.  (Just a couple words I recognize which is not enough to even follow a simple story with pictures).

Once again, my friend Annie Chinyama, who helped me write "The Alphabet Jive" (phonics song) in Chitonga worked with me again to make a list of Chitonga "look and say" words.  She went through Grade 1 literature: workbooks, teacher guides, and story books, and picked out the most common words.  She ended up with 130 "service" words - like dolch words, and 139 nouns.  

In the workshop we then played some Look and Say games.  Games that will help the students learn the words, which will allow them to read up to "Green" level books.  (Which they should be reading by the end of Grade 2 to be on track).

So - a bunch of pictures and a couple videos of my week of workshops: (there are very few at the beginning workshops and the next couple I remembered to take more photos!)

This video is at Nakeempa.  The teachers are playing the game "Around the Word" where they compete against each other to say Look and Say words quickly.  I had to wait for my phone to turn on and by that point I missed the awesome moment.  The teachers at the very beginning of this video were very competitive.  It was great!  I always have a good time in Nakeempa!  (The lady who wins at the end is my friend, Annie Chinyama, who helped with the Chitonga)

This video is of a "snowball fight."  The teachers are throwing paper at each other and at the end of a time period they open the papers and read the Look and Say words to the people on each side of them.

The following pictures are from the Mboole workshop which included the teachers from Batoka and Sikalongo schools as well.

Teachers at Mboole discussing what they already know about
Phonological Awareness

Teachers working together to share what they already know about
Phonological Awareness

Practicing writing a Morning Message in Chitonga

Mboole, Sikalongo, and Batoka teachers playing the Snowball Fight game

The following photos are from the workshop hosted at Hamoonde.  4 schools attended: Macha Central, Macha Mission, MICS and Hamoonde

Teachers waiting for the classroom to be ready and the workshop to start

Discussing what the teachers already know about Phonological Awareness

Another group discussing previous knowledge

Practicing Morning Message in Chitonga

Having a drink and a package of biscuits (cookies) while listening to teachers practice Morning Message in Chitonga

Morning Messages in Chitonga

Practicing on the teachers.  I had to take another photo of morning messages
because I just LOVED her blazer!  Don't you?!

Playing "Erase the Face."  Another Look and Say Game

Playing "Erase the Face"

Lots of smiles while playing "Erase the Face"

Playing "swat the word" with our temporary word wall

Swatting a word on the word wall.


I am waiting for a date to do this workshop with one more school.  Then I'll be preparing for the next thing: having teachers come to my office in town and make their own sock puppets to help them teach Phonological Awareness.  Then, hopefully, another EdCamp during the term break followed by a workshop in term 3 on writing with phonics

This term we had many challenges in the form of funerals.  The first was a teacher at Annie's school who passed away after giving birth to her stillborn child.  Annie ended up doing the Look and Say list 2 days before our first workshop because she was, of course, busy with the burial. I had one day to type it all up and laminate games!

Next: our first workshop was delayed.  Nakeempa was originally scheduled for the Friday before this busy week.  The delay did provide me with a bit more time to tweak things.  Nakeempa postponed because one of their Grade 3 students was to be buried the day planned for the workshop.  They called me that morning before I left.

Tragically, the third grade teacher from Mboole lost his brother the weekend after my workshop there.  It became even more of a tragedy because when he went to travel to the burial in Lusaka he died in a accident.  The funeral was on Tuesday.

I don't know if it is "just this term" or if it's because I have started making more connections but it seems like there were a lot of early deaths.  It reminds me why the life expectancy age in Zambia is around 35 years.

Please keep the families, schools, and communities of these people in your prayers!