PELP workshop 3 - The science of reading.

In this workshop teachers shared how they had made use of the materials in their classrooms and centres.  Everyone was proud to report the successes of their Fono's and the positive reactions of whanau and the wider community in supporting the programme.  

We read the some texts then the students worked in pairs to cut out and sequenced the illustrations from the story, retelling the story to each other as they went.

The big idea.  

Dr Rae Si'ilata talked about the current trends in literacy to move to phonetics based teaching of reading.  She contends that this is not supportive of Pasifika children's literacy as it reduces the focus on the real goal of reading - ie making meaning from a text.  A child may be able to learn a set of rules for decoding a text based on  phonetics, but are they truely reading it if they are not taking meaning from it.  This discussion made me reflect on how I teach phonics within my classroom and how I can ensure it is combined with a strong oral language and vocabulary focus to support the student to make meaning during reading.

Learning vocabulary through lexical chunking, was also discussed and I have made planning changes to my spelling program and high frequency word learning to ensure that by including these words within commonly used phrases I support my learners to acquire these words with more ease.

The final workshop in the PELP project had a celebratory feel.  It was a happy day full with song and laughter and hope for this Palangi teacher that she might have a role in supporting the mana of her students home languages and in turn the success of them and their aiga.