Kimuka Village Videos

These interviews were done at Kimuka Village Primary School after the teachers, the coaches, the head teacher and the village Chief had their first full-day introductory workshop at which they talked about their students’ needs; saw a demonstration of reading for meaning; and learned about long-term vs. short-term memory. The question posed was, “What do you hope to get out of this program?”
Kimuka Village Pilot Study: Teacher Interviews Before Workshop Week

 

The teachers’ education workshops shown below are very different, both in their objectives and duration, than the workshops teachers in the developing world occasionally receive. In the next 2 slideshows, you will get an overview of what the teachers learned during 5 full days of workshops on the teaching of reading, thinking and writing. They are practicing the methods that have been demonstrated.

Kimuka Village Pilot Project: Teacher Workshops 1

 


Kimuka Village Pilot Project: Teacher Workshops 2

 

The pilot project teams’ comments, shown below, were given at the end of the week of workshops.


Kimuka Village Pilot Project: Teachers’ Comments At The End Of Workshop Week

 

After the teachers and coaches learned and practiced teaching the skills and strategies used in the reading process as well as the kinds of transactions that promote confidence and participation, they implemented their new teaching behaviors with their students over the next 5 weeks. Coaching support was provided both in and out of the classroom. What are these teachers doing that is rare in poor government schools?


Kimuka Village Pilot Project: Classroom, Coaching, Collaboration

 

  • These teachers are developing lessons on decoding words. They are explicitly teaching how to use letters and sounds to read words. They have gone beyond just teaching their students to recite the letters of the alphabet.
  • These teachers are asking their students to select words from the board by giving them sentence clues (like when doing a crossword puzzle). They are connecting words to their meanings.
  • These teachers have a chart on the board displaying some of the children’s sentences. They are using their language to teach reading, not asking them to repeat words from a textbook that the children do not understand.
  • These teachers have been reading story books to their students each day and thinking aloud to demonstrate how good readers question, predict and infer. Their students are learning to do the same things.
  • These teachers have turned their students on to books and reading. They can’t wait to be called on.
  • These teachers are preparing their students to be competent and thoughtful individuals.
  • These teachers have knowledge and tools for teaching reading, thinking and writing that fill a huge gap left by their teacher preparation program. They designed their own lessons. They are not following a script.

Kimuka Village Pilot Project: Last Teacher Interviews

By the end of the six-week teacher education period, the students in grades 1,2, and 3 in Kimuka School and Olamarora Primary School were given a baseline reading readiness and beginning reading assessment and two teachers that received 125 hours of training were hired as literacy coaches. Their job was to continue classroom visits, provide collaboration and coaching and maintain contact with CMT.