Thursday, November 06, 2008

Teaching reading to kindergartners

Kindergartners are guided to learn how to read, through repetition and positive feedback, and by using time-tested strategies such as rhyming songs, alphabet exercises, phonetics lessons (The P says "pah"), sight words, and simple books that contain a small vocabulary of short words with good illustrations ("Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss). Schools in rural Burkina Faso have none of that, and most teachers have little training in how to deliver these strategies. An important component of rural village libraries is to have librarians who are trained and who can train others in these strategies. This seems to me to be an essential medium-term focus for library support organizations like FAVL. But with present resources, we can barely scratch the surface.

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