Tag Archives: early reading

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Through The Hearts Of Teachers

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Teaching the teacher (parent or caregiver) about Souns initially takes about two hours.   The Souns program – focusing only on letter-sound associations – is the most natural, developmentally appropriate route to reading for the young child. Teachers love this simple, logical, effective tool. After the introduction of the program, we observe the teacher teaching the children (below).

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The result, often in three to four months of learning letter-sound associations, is the building of words (below). This “writing” by listening to sounds in words lasts for several weeks or a month. Taking the puzzle of a spoken word apart, building it with symbols is fun! This understanding of the structure of words leads to a seamless step into sounding out printed phonetic words.

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Soon, the magic of decoding – sounding out words – appears spontaneously in the classroom….one little person at a time. The five-year-old in the image below is reading a sentence I wrote. She sought us out to share something she had read in the classroom. I wanted fresh material for her, so I created a short phonetic sentence, which she read with no hesitation.

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Are we making a difference in South Africa? Absolutely! Rotarian volunteers teach the teachers in the implementation of a program that is provided by a Rotary Global Grant.  In a country with 11 official languages, Souns focuses ONLY on letter-sounds, most of which are the same across all the languages. Letter-sound associations are the most direct link to writing and reading. These children will walk a better path toward success in school; they will read!

“Thank you!” to The Rotary Foundation for your support of this Global Grant 25244 literacy project initiated by the Rotary Club of Pretoria East in Rotary District 9400 and the Rotary Club of Peachtree City in Rotary District 6900.

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Memories – the STUFF of our stories!

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khwattu13The door of the little museum shop at Khwa ttu was closed. The rippled glass pane in the antique double doors confirmed there were people inside. I turned the handle and the door opened to quiet conversations inside.

As if scripted, the lady behind the counter and I exchanged glances and time melted.…the look on her face mirrored mine. Oh, how good is that warm feeling of seeing someone you have so enjoyed in times past. Memories are real! They breathe life into those moments when we touch the past, paging through history to the sentence, the paragraph, the story.

Wrapping each other in hugs and smiles, we revisited the little class of preschoolers at Khwa ttu, of which her child was one. Four years earlier I wandered into the facility intrigued by the call of the billboard on the highway – San Cultural and Educational Center.  The story of man, specifically the bushman of South Africa, was compelling.

Khwa ttu was the beginning! A little class of children two to three years old and their hopeful moms was such a treat. The tiny facility, the little shaded play area, the magnificent view of the Atlantic, the willing minds and eager hearts imprinted my world forever. Visit after visit I came to train or teach, as they wanted. Then, the government closed the bit of heaven. Reasons are of little importance. I had lost my heart.

Nonetheless, each trip to South Africa I made my way up the long entry road to Khwa ttu in hopes of seeing the children, hearing the laughter behind the two neatly aligned stick windbreaks. I would ask for the families I had gotten to know. Fewer and fewer of them were at the center.  Finally there were none left that I knew.

But still I returned, hoping for an encounter with the past. This time the past was there to meet me, confirming that the time given in that little class had made a difference for a family and their child. The child is 7 now and loves to read. That is the gift.

Memories are powerful, especially when they meet head on with the present. They are the stuff of our stories…our lives!

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The Magic Is In The Play!

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Slowly! Step By Gentle Step, It Happens!

By arrangement with the teacher, this was the first time this child had sounded out words. Clearly he was ripe with readiness and was SO happy with himself. “Look at you! You are reading!”

He had Souns since he began school. This was mid-year.  He was almost 5 years old. The happiness you see is the result of a very good teacher implementing Souns in just the right way – slowly and playfully.

First the child learned 12-15 specific letter-sound associations, then he began building words (as you see) by listening to the word to find the sounds. He has been building words for a while, long enough to be ready for the next step….. listening to the sounds to find the word. Encoding – writing – comes before decoding – reading – in Souns.

The magic is in  p l a y !

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Early Literacy? YES! I Smile!

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Take the time to see what four minutes of building early literacy looks like.

Do we have the patience to watch learning happen in child time? Probably not…but this is a happy 4-year-old doing what she wants to do…no “school” and no one telling her to do the work of learning. Play / real learning looks just like this. Souns is so different than other early literacy programs. Souns is designed for how children learn best – through exploration, manipulation, PLAY!

 

Mexico has never been analyzed so closely –  so much fun!

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This same child was already sounding out phonetic words. Deep learning keeps on going as long as exploration and manipulation are involved. Child time is SO important. She demonstrates years of accumulated hands-on fun with Souns. NO “SCHOOL!’

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GET SET With Souns in Colorado Springs

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The graph shows progress in the GET SET preschool in First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs, CO. There are 31 children in the preschool and they began implementing the Souns program at the beginning of this school year – 2012/2013. The preschool serves children 4-5 years of age from economically challenged environments.  GET SET’s goal is to ready their students for success when they go to public kindergarten. The teachers are exceptional and the environment is a model for others to follow. In September as the children entered GET SET’s classrooms they were evaluated for letter-sound knowledge. That demonstrated knowledge is on the graph in green. The lavender is demonstrated letter-sound knowledge from a mid-year evaluation. The teachers should be proud of their progress, particularly since they are in a learning curve for the program as well. Imagine the possibilities at end of year and in future years as Souns becomes a natural part of their environment. What a grand step forward for the children they serve. Ready, GET SET, Go!

Looking at the results of the Souns program is SO much fun. The video is of a Rotarian volunteering at GET SET and a young student building a word by saying the word, listening for the individual sounds in the word, and identifying the letters that make each of the sounds. Building words or encoding is stage two in Souns. The first stage is the learning of at least 12 to 15 letter-sound associations. The third stage is decoding, or sounding out words, which happens after much experience building words. You can see the enthusiasm that comes from suddenly realizing, “I know that sound!”

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“Oo! Oo! I love, love, love letters!”

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Words of a 4-Year-Old From-the-Field in Colorado Springs

A gift from Rotarian Robby Dale Nelson of Rampart Range Rotary Club of Colorado Springs provided Souns literacy materials to the two GET SET classrooms of preschool children from economically challenged communities in the city of Colorado Springs, CO, USA. Teachers and community volunteers were trained in the implementation of the Souns program – a 2.5 hour session one morning in August. The materials were received for the start of school mid-September 2012.

Included are reflections and images  from a follow-up visit and training – again, 2.5 hours – in January 2013. There will be a third visit at the conclusion of the year. The results of the Souns program never cease to astound us. Faces glow as teachers share their successes, confirming their children are really learning to read.  The children take to Souns like air to their lungs, filling up with an understanding of the endless bits of print in the world around them, inaccessible at their age without letter-sound associations. Then the fun begins.

“Learning is more effective when it is an active rather than a passive process” -Euripides (Thank you, Mo!)                                          Mo Weinhardt ‏@ArtofParenthood

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RD 5470 Governor Carla and Rotarian Robby Dale are pictured with teachers and volunteers.

The following are reflections from the teachers and assistant.

From the assistant: Souns is such an amazing tool to put in the hands of these precious  4 year olds. Their intellect grows exponentially as their confidence and joy blossom into life with learning. The light that beams from their eager eyes is an incredible gift to behold. This reading and learning program [Souns] starts them off on a fulfilling life of learning, ready to make their own history.

Teacher one: The children have grasped letter-sounds much more quickly this year through the Souns program. Their retention of the letter-sound associations is better, too. They love learning their sounds, never wanting to miss an opportunity to work with the beautiful pleasing letters of Souns. Being able to hold each letter somehow makes it “theirs” – they have an ownership, a relationship with the letters.

Teacher two: The children came back after Christmas excited to be back at school. We were expecting the kids to have lost some of the knowledge of letter sounds. But we were surprised to see how much the children remembered and how quickly they were learning new sounds. Now we have several children excited about putting letters together to build words. It is so encouraging to see the children’s progress in learning to read. When working in small groups, the kids not included exclaim, “Do I get to do it?” 

See what a 4-year-old can do if he learns letter-sounds through play and exploration.                                                                                Thank you, Rotary!

 

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Team Literacy – Rotary and Head Start

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Building little readers in Puerto Rico

Collaboration between Rotary and Head Start builds a better future for pre-school children in Puerto Rico. Rotary Districts 7000 and 6990 initiated a literacy project that has been supported by The Rotary Foundation to provide Souns® literacy materials to 135 Head Start classrooms in the San Juan Municipality.

This yearlong literacy project included a distribution of materials in October 2012, and concluded with a distribution in January 2013.  The total of 135 sets of materials are currently in the classrooms, with each teacher participating in training for the use of those materials.  Enthusiasm is typical with teachers implementing the Souns program, as it is hands-on, engaging, simple, and effective.  “Children love it!” is an exclamation heard often. When asked, “Why? Because they are actually learning!”

It is estimated that the Souns materials distributed thus far will impact 2000 children each year, as there are no expendables in the program.

This is a good start, but the goal is to reach all Head Start children in Puerto Rico. Most immediately that means supplying the remaining 90 classrooms in the San Juan Municipality with Souns materials. Following that will be an effort to expand the program into other Head Start programs in Puerto Rico as funding is secured.

Rotary and Head Start celebrate the positive results seen from the classrooms receiving the Souns materials in the first stage of the project in October. The teachers are excited to see their children reading ready with letter-sound knowledge.

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Alongside Their Children

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Below is a Peace Corps volunteer’s from-the-field  report about a literacy effort she initiated.  PCV’s are such a force for good in humanity. They serve in ways that change lives in lasting ways in their assigned communities. What awesome work they do! This PCV is currently structuring a plan to sustain this literacy program past her term of service.

Her words:

           A Family Outreach Program began in three informal settlements. Tribal leaders nominated residents to serve as “Community Development Coaches.” These Coaches were trained in early childhood development, play, nutrition, and gardening. Each Coach works with ten families for two years at a time, conducting weekly home visits and teaching both parents and children together. The program targets children ages 1-5 years whose caregivers do not have a source of income (excepting social grants). In 2011, toys and books were donated to each of the families in the program. The arrival of the books prompted the Coaches to request training in literacy. In November 2012, nine Coaches were trained on the SOUNS method and began to implement SOUNS with 110 children in the program.

            Most of the children were immediately delighted with the SOUNS symbols. They readily mimicked the Coaches and eagerly handled the O-M-S-T as each sound was presented. Even the children’s caregivers were excited to participate. Many of these caregivers are illiterate, and SOUNS provides an opportunity for them to learn basic literacy skills alongside their children. At one home visit, the grandmother in charge of four young girls sat to the side, pronouncing each sound carefully and showing her granddaughters how to feel the symbol. X (pronounced “sh” in Tsonga) is already a favorite among the children who giggle every time they shush their Coach. By using the SOUNS method, the Coaches expect to prepare these children to enter Grade R on par with their peers who have attended crèche. 

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One Leap For Literacy

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What can eight months do for literacy in a Head Start Center? Combine a furiously determined Center Director and a local Rotary Club and children will read! The Rotary Club of Thomasville, GA, and their local Head Start Center have joined in the work of literacy.

Nine classrooms – including three Early Start classrooms – began training in the Souns program in October of 2011. Several follow-up visits occurred between October and May to observe how the work was going. During the last week of school, each of the students age-appropriate to be graduating into local kindergartens were evaluated to see progress made. The results are below. It is not surprising that they reflected a direct link between those who followed the program and those who did not. The teacher is the magic that makes any program work.

This center has an abundance of remarkable teachers working with their children. After this year’s success, we expect all the teachers will see the value of this simple program for their children. It is understandably difficult to accept a program that is counterintuitive. We have been so steeped in teaching letter-names first, that the idea of teaching letter-sounds first causes resistance. Thanks to those teachers who stepped outside the box in Thomasville, children will read. The results are quite clear. Consider the data at this year’s end, when those little four year olds who are going into their second year with this program are evaluated.

We smile with tears in our eyes at what is happening in southwest Georgia. Determined people working together can make a difference. Thank you, Rotary!

Every – Yes, every – child will read.

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One Story – One Child

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One story at a time!

This little one became a Souns kid when she was barely 2 years old. She is now five. She is reading and writing. Creative writing for a young child means creative spelling….and research confirms that children who write creatively early are better spellers in school  (Souns White Paper  page 8). More important than spelling is the absolute joy a young child has in written expression. The work of it disappears, morphed into the confidence of “I can do this!” Head down (with mouth almost touching the paper), little hand moving to encode the sounds in the words the mouth is quietly saying.

It is magical! It is mysterious! It is freedom!

(the daddy is asleep; do not wake the daddy up; I like the mouse; I like the daddy; the mouse is gray)