And the research continues

Well my class for the fall is officially finished as all the assignments have been turned in... however the research continues.  I am intrigued to see how these children continue to respond to books.  Each day, it is my lunch time pleasure to spend time with these little brown eyed cuties.  Since they are very familar with the dozen books that I have, we have been creative.

Writing their own book... one day I brought down paper and markers ... and gave them the writing prompt..."My favorite food".  Each child made their own page with the words and a drawing of their favorite.  I compiled them and took the book they made back the next day and read it to them.  The joy on their faces showed the pleasure they had for the book they had written.

Read a rebus...these are the stories that have a picture either with the word or instead of the word.  To add some variety, I made my own out of chart paper and the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  The older children did better at this and even knew some of the sight words.  This is the first time any of them had heard this story... so I may have to introduce some of the basic nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

Fingerplays with music...  since these children love anything with a beat or tune... they do really well with stories set to music or a rhythm like itsy bitsy spider or 5 little  ducks.  I normally use these to fill time but these little ones really like learning them and then sing them eveytime I am around. 

Most days however... I just take down a few books and let them explore them. Many just sit and look at them forgetting that they are supposed to be eating lunch.  Watching their faces of enjoyment and excitement as they turn the pages.  Listening to them retell the story to whomever will listen.  Counting the objects on the page. 

As a result from these interactions.... their spoken English skills are improving... the know basic sight words... they know simple rhymes... they can track from left to right and up and down when a book is being read.  Most know how to hold a book and they show great care when holding the books.  These dozen books definitely show signs of all the love they are receiving by all of the red dirt fingerprints but the children are showing signs of many early literacy skills from these books.

On a side note...I am super excited for my aunt and uncle coming tomorrow.  They are bringing more books!

Presentation on research

This video is specifically for the UH Cohort class meeting on October 17th, 2013 as I am literally half a world away and can't be there to do a three minute presentation on the action research I have been working on. 

If you are in the UH class... no sneak peeks... ;)  You shall see it in class! 

If you are following this research and not involved in the UH class... you may go ahead and watch the video and send me your feedback! 

I plan on continuing to monitor the growth and progress of these children throughout the next 8 months.  It has become a daily habit to read to the children and the only problem that I have faced thus far is lack of books!  So if you are following this blog and want to send children's storybooks...  you can mail them to ...

Integrity Primary School
c/o Angela Calhoun
PO Box 71748
Kampala, Uganda, AFRICA

 

Thank you and many blessings!

Success

You know there is success when you see growth and accomplishment.  Even though I technically have finished gathering my data for my research project, I don't think that you are ever finished being a researcher.  With the exception of Thursday when I had to go to Kampala for supplies I have continued to read to the children.  During this week I observed some things that were worthy of being noted...

1.  Reread the two books from the first day... there was a lot of interest and a lot more participation.  The children responded to my questions when I asked what is this or what sound does it make.

2.  I can't seem to make it to my reading spot with books in hand as the children are so eager to look at them.  I actually have to sit on one while reading the other or they are distracted.  I think I can make the clear assumption that these children like their books!

3. A very heart warming story... the first few days I was here, school was not in session yet so there were few children around.  Louis, our campus cook's grandson, was the only little one around and he was scared of me.  He is 18 months old and I am the first white person he had ever met.  Every time I would come near he would get this look of fear on his face, start crying, and hide with grandma. While I have been reading to the older children, he has been observing and now smiles and laughs when I come around.  He has even said... "bye mamma" as he left my apartment.  Yesterday I walked down to read and the older children had not gotten out of chapel yet.  Louis was the only little one so I walked up to talk with him... he put his hand out and said "book".  I am not sure if there was more shock or joy as this child had never been spoken to in English before I arrived... he had never seen a book ... nor had he been read to!  Success with books... I think so!

Pieces of evidence

After a little over a week of doing action research... I am finding myself with more evidence than I really know what to do with at this point.  Our project required us to have 10 pieces of evidence and after only 6 days, I have almost 30 pieces of evidence. 

Pieces of evidence for MARP (as of September 24^th, 2013)

1. reflections
   1. meeting with Hannington (noted in Purposeful storytelling)
   2. on what early literacy looks like (noted in How to determine what early literacy looks like in another culture)
2. observations
   1. each day the field notes, observations, and reflections are written up on the blog and labeled by the day... (Day 1-6)
3. field notes
   1. of phone interview with Jenn (noted in Field notes 1)
   2. Day 1 (noted on blog as Day one of action research)
   3. Day 2 (noted on blog as such)
   4. Day 3
   5. Day 4
   6. Day 5
   7. Day 6
4. video
   1. Day 1-
      1. video 1- reading From Head to Tow with small group (part 1)
      2. video 2- continued reading... children are interested but hesitant to respond... eventually they warm up
      3. video 3- children acting out animals
   2. Day 2-
      1. video 1- Seche reading
      2. video 2- counting to 10 while Seche videos- the children are responding to the rhyme with paper eggs after reading the books. The children are verbally responding and going through the rhyme.
   3. Day 3-
      1. video 1- Seche reading
      2. video 2- children looking at and talking about the books in Luganda
   4. Day 5-
      1. video of Itsy Bitsy spider- e-book (notes to video on Intro to e-books)
5. pictures
   1. Day 1-
      1. 3 pictures of interested children while reading
      2. 9 pictures of involved children drawing picts of their favorite animals from the books that were read
      3. 3 pictures of children acting out animals
   2. Day 2-
      1. pictures of girls perusing the book
      2. picture of Seche reading
   3. Day 3-
      1. 8 pictures of children looking at the book... still working on the concept of left to right and up and down... but a lot of interest... by the looks on these little ones faces they enjoy being read to
6. work samples
   1. Day 1 drawings of favorite animals
7. interview
   1. with teacher Allen with personal reflection (Noted in Interview with Teacher Allen)
   2. observation and interview with teacher on her view of books (Noted in An adult's fascination with books)
    

So at this point, I will keep reading to the children at lunch time but it is now time to start analyzing and really reflecting on what the evidence collected is showing.  May need to go back and add in a couple more days of observations and reflections but at this point... let the fun of putting together the research begin! 

Day 6

Today I read....sang "She'll be coming round the mountain" by Jonathan Emmett and Deborah Allwright.  After only a week the children have learned the routine... they follow me  down from the classroom to where they eat lunch... they let me sit and then gather as close as the can to see and hear the story.  During the story I have children literally holding me into my chair... sitting at my feet... leaning on my legs... peering over my shoulder...  they are all eager to hear and see the story.

Today the story had movements that went along so we took the first reading rather slow so they could learn the words and the movements.  This book when sung can go rather fast so I didn't want anything to get lost in the reading. 

Midway through the second reading a couple of the younger children noticed that the pages felt different than their writing paper...  they also realized that if they slid their fingers down the waxy feelung pages it made a sound.  This was very entertaining to them.

At the end of the reading we talked about the picture on the cover which has a girl riding the horse.  I tapped on the book to make the sound of a horse gallopping and immediately the children started dancing and moving their body to the rhythm.   This started atrend where all the older children wanted to tap on the hard cover book as if it were a drum.  Very entertaining to me.

Intro to e-books

Notes from video taken while children were hearing the audiobook of the Itsy Bitsy Spider played on Storia by Scholastic. The pictures are just like that in the paperback book they are just on the screen of my Samsung tablet and the book is narrated and sung while the pages are turned.

(As the video is playing on the tablet in one hand, I have the camera in the other hand trying to capture these moments.)

As the book starts the children don't know what to expect... there is a lot of interest and the sound effects make the children laugh... they are so excited that they start standing and get scoldings from the older boys as they can't see... Seche (the boy in the red shirt) gets very bothered by the children standing but eventually goes back to enjoying the story...

The children have their attention glued to the e-book and are very amused by the main character of our story. They repeat certain words and point out things that they see as it is being read.

How many children can you fit around one 10 inch tablet???

 

After the video ended they continued to listen to the story. At the end the e-book ends with the song of the itsy bitsy spider. These children love anything set to music so they sang right along. I taught them the hand motions and they worked at trying to figure out the fine motor movements of putting the thumb and forefinger together.

Reflection: I thoroughly enjoyed observing both of these new experiences for these children. Their excitement and amusement is priceless. These type of things are old hat to the children that I have worked with in Hawaii so to see this desire and passion for books in the eyes of these little ones is exciting for me as a teacher. I am looking forward to continuing this reading time long after the research is finished. I have already seen the desire to read more in a couple of the older boys. When I told Seche that Mamma Kimberly would bring him out a book on pirates/pilots... his face lit up. He asked “It is a small one that I can read?”... His confidence in reading the written word is increasing and he is willing to try new words that he has never seen before. I am also seeing that if you build off the interests of the children that they are more apt to give you their full undivided attention.

Day 5

Both books I brought to read today were about bugs.

I started off today by reading “How many bugs in a box?” by David A. Carter. This is the pop-up counting book that I shared with Teacher Allen last night. In the intro question before starting the book I asked “what is on the cover?” The children were able to answer “insects”... we counted the number of insects on the cover. I then introduced the title by pointing to each word as I read it.

The children enjoyed all of the colors and counting the bugs on each page. On each page there is a colored box with some pop up design hiding the bugs. At first the children did not look interested when I showed them the red box and asked “How many bugs are in the red box?”. They look at me like I was crazy as they could not see inside the red box. After I lifted the flap there was intrigue to see what was in the next box. There was one page where the bugs in the box “disappear” when you fully open the book... they are the four fast fleas. The children giggled over how they disappeared and made me go back to that page. At the end, there are 10 bugs in a box and you have to carefully open the lever to see inside the 3 dimensional box... the children were timid to look inside but were really interested to find out how many bugs were there. This book brought lots of interest and the need to read it a second time. As in the other days, I had quite the crowd of not just children but also adults. Pastor Jackson and Mamma Vencencia stopped what they were doing to “read” the book with us. Even a pig came sauntering by in the midst of our story! Oh, the joys of the village!

(See “Intro to e-books” for part 2)