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)

 

An adult's fascination with books!

Last night I was sittng in my apartment working on writing a book when teacher Allen came in.  She has been sharing the apartment with me so that I am not there by myself in case someone comes up at night.  She normally comes in around 7:30 or 8pm to work on her lessons for the next day before going to bed.

Tonight she was looking through the books I brought.  She read a bug pop up book that I had set out to read to the children today and was very amused.  Her facial expressions showed that she truly enjoyed the surprises of the book.  There were many pages where she concentrated on counting the bugs hidden on each page. 

After she finished that book, I pulled up Storia ( by Scholastic) onmy computer and had it read a story of addition to her.  She was intrigued by this self reading digital book. It got me thinking how the children would respond to the e-books on my tablet or computer.  We  may have try and see what their reaction is as many have never seen that kind of media!

Day 4

Field notes....
Read Rain rain go away and Ruby's Rainbow to the group at lunch...
Wanted to see if there was as much talking during Ruby's Rainbow as yesterday in baby class
The first book was read in a sing song rhyme type fashion...  the children sang along and even after I put it down...they picked it up and continued to sing the song while looking at the pictures..
(Video) Seche even read this one to his friends...needing  help with a few of the words that wouldn't rhyme due to the way he had learned to say that particular word.
When I read Ruby's rainbow some of the children got distracted by other things like my camera or my arm or their lunch so a few left.  The others, as the day before, repeated a few of the words so I think I may have to include this in reading books that are more in story form rather than song.
Just on these two books, I spent almost 40 minutes with the children.

Reflection... the children are truly enjoying this time of reading.  Even after I am finished reading they sit  and carefully look at the books turning the pages very carefully ... talking about what is on the page or singing the rhymes to themselves.  A few of the children know how to hold the book and flip the pages from left to right... many have the book upside down and are flipping the pages fro back to front or right to left.   The teachers are asking to borrow the books. I did notice today that if I point out certain things within the book and call them by their Luganda term... the children start giggling.... probably more so of the muzungu trying to say their words! 

Because of the story reading... I am noticing more English words being spoken and the barrier of shyness is being lifted.

Day 3

As with any teaching situation and classroom, you never know what the day will bring and flexibility is a must.  Walked to school today only to find the baby class teacher did not show up.  The P1 teacher was covering her class and baby class so I stepped in to help.  Ran back to my apartment to gather a few teaching resources and books before heading back.  The little ones were writing their lesson for the morning... Today is Wednesday 18th September 2013.  My name is.... I am in baby class.  Then they were matching first letter sounds to words.  As they finished I transitioned them into coloring with color pages and colored pencils.  Did music time with them and then after break we talked about rainbows... how they are made... the colors in order... and then read Ruby's rainbow and had the children draw rainbows and sing the colors ofnthe rainbow song.

My reflection on the story reading... the children were interested in the pictures.  They did stay at their desks but wanted to repeat every word I said... especially the name of Max.  Becuase they have no forms of media... they were unfamiliar with the cartoon characters of Maxand Ruby.  This type of book would have been an immediate hit with the children on MKK because they had seen the cartoon.  I am accustomed to children sitting quietly while listening to a book so it made it difficult for me to concentrate on reading.  I also have to realize that the books I read the past few days had fewer words and were very simple.  Curious how this type of storybook would go over with the mixed group of older children.  Will have to try it during lunch time reading.

Day 2

I think I may have started a new trend.  Today before lunch I walked up to the school to see if the children were out for lunch.  A  couple of the children from top class were out so I chatted with them and by the time I headed down to where I read yesterday... I had 20 plus children following.  It is really hard to count exactly how many because like most children they are constantly moving. 
I took my place in the blue chair on Mamma Vencencia's porch and instructed the children to sit so that everyone could see.  This lasted for only a couple of minutes but the older children reminded the others to sit.  Before I began reading "Big fat hen" today... we talked about the cover and the title.  This was a bigger book than yesterday's with glossy paper pages.  The images are very bright and colorful and ones that the children could relate to as there are chickens in the village.  We read through the book several times... each time talking about something different... like counting the eggs on each page... or what is going to hatch out of these eggs.... or what are the chicks about to do...  Each child was engaged at his or her own level.  And I learned that even chickens/hens make different sounds here!

To extend the book I made little paper eggs with written numbers (1 and one) on each to ten and as I held up the numbers the children retold the rhyme.  At this point I tried to have one of the older boys video but that turned into a huge distraction as they all wanted to see the images on the camera rather than the actual story.  Will have to reevaluate this means of documentation.

Ended up reading the book a couple more times while a couple of the little ones rubbed my arm or touched my hair and just watched me.  Not sure what is more interesting... the book or me!  Gave them a chance to explore the book.  They looked at the cover and the slip that protected the book... they turned the glossy pages and answered questions as I asked... before I got up to leave... I placed the book into Seche's hands and let him read it.  Seche is in P1 and was able to read every word on the page even the words on the flaps of the slip that I had not read.  This is the same child that skipped school yesterday and showed up at my doorstep asking for a soccer ball.  I told him that he needed to come to school to get the privilege of the soccer ball.  As he and I talked, I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up and he stated "A pirate!".  This child has so much potential... and proved to me that even though he doesn't have a storybook filled life, he does know how to read.  The same child that does just what is needed in the classroom to get by... happily read a story to the younger children from the storybook!  From today's observation, I am going to conclude that storybooks definitely make it more enjoyable to read.  On a side note, I am really wishing that I had brought a story book about pirates!

Day one of action research

While typing up the required curriculum for children in baby class (ages 3-4) I ran across this important learning area that covers what I am trying to accomplish by reading to the children...

Learning Area 5: Language Development 2: Developing and using language appropriately

1. 1. Reading to enjoy, acquire knowledge and understanding
      1. Recognizing similarities and differences in objects, pictures and letter shapes
   2. Writing different kinds of factual and imaginative tasks depicting appropriate letter formation creativity and writing skills
      1. Coordinating my eyes and hands effectively
      2. Reads and writes the letters

 

Today was the first day of the research in action! Changed things up and went down to the area where the children eat lunch so I had about 12 children from age 3 to 9 years. Due to the language barrier for some of the children... I started off with simple picture books and the guy that is filming also was able to translate if the children didn't understand. I read Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert and From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. Both are picture books based on animals. Color Zoo also went through the basic colors and shapes. I did not video the first book but asked questions of what the animal was... what the shape is on the page... what sound the animal makes... At first the children all stood around and looked at the pictures with very few word. After a couple of pictures, the children started responding to the shapes and the animals that they knew. For monkey... the sound made here is cawcaw and that is reflected as I ask the children what sound a monkey makes. Very different from the oohooh ahhahh sound that the American children would make.

For the second book... From Head to Toe... I had one of the guys video for me so it took several attempts before he figured out what he was doing. Instead of just responding to the questions, I asked them to move like the animal in the book. Many of the children didn't know what I was asking so again my video guy had to translate and model... so you hear him in the background. By the second or third animal, some of the children were interacting with the story. At the end I had brought paper and colored pencils for the children to draw their favorite animal. There was reluctance but after I modeled and one child tried they all wanted paper and laid down on the porch to draw. Many had excellent memories of the shape picture of the cow and chose to do that as there are many in the village. Once they started they didn't want to stop. I had the children write their names on their pictures and turn them in so that I can have a progressive record of what they are getting out of the story.

Personal reflections: As the only muzungu in the village there is still a trust that has to be build. I had more than 12 children curious of the book but what surprised me is that all the adults in the area were also very curious and joined us. They were sitting in the back making the animal sounds and movements which was comical to me. Some of these things I have taken for granted but in a village where there are no storybooks within the classroom much less at home, they are intriguing to the people of Nabisooto!

Interview with Teacher Allen

This evening (September 13) I sat down with T. Allen to discuss reading within the classroom.

Are there childrens storybooks in the classroom?  MMM with eyebrow movement meaning yes... the P1 class have started reading some of the words but the baby and top class are still working on learning the sounds of the letters.  (I realized later that the books she was referring to were their literacy workbooks...I definitely need to get more books into the classroom!)

Do the students have books at home?  All children are sent home with their finished reading books but many parents don't see the importance of them and throw them away or use them to start their cooking fires.  Books are very expensive so besides the ones from school...No.

As a teacher, what is your view of books?  They are great for learning new words and showing the children how letters make words... words make sentences... and sentences make stories.

After explaining  the research project, Allen was excited to see what would happen when these children were read to.

From talking with Allen, the books they have in the classroom are more for teaching the child to read rather than for the pure enjoyment of reading.  Books are a means to an end rather than opening a world of possibility.  I plan on spending some time in the classroom next week truly seeing these books she is telling me about.  May also share a book or two in the classroom with the entire group of children.

Field Notes 1

These were collected on June 29th during a phone conversation with a dear friend (Jenn) that lived in the villages of Kenya.  Because of the similarities between the cultures, I think the information collected will be helpful.

-oral culture
-children are great with sitting and listening in a group
-the attentiveness is not a good indicator of understanding however
-will put me in contact with linguistic person and someone that puts stories into the tribal language
-suggestions- have children draw about a story heard in their language
-basic Bible stories is a great place to start

How to determine what early literacy looks like in another culture?

This morning as I couldn't sleep, I was pondering this question.  What will this look like for the children of Nabisooto?

One of the ideas that I had and have put into practice with my little ones on Molokai is reading a story and having the children draw a picture re-telling the story.  This idea was based on this book...

But it still left me needing other ideas of how to see if reading storybooks to children builds early literacy. 

So I went under ERIC and searched for "early literacy" to see what I could find.  Found a great paper entitled "Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel.  A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention." put out by the National Institute for Literacy. 

The techniques they recommend...

• one on one
• small group activities
• occur frequently
• adult directed

As mentioned in this paper, I plan to implement a pre- and post- test design of what the children know about books and the story before and after reading.  The responses will be videoed so I can later go back and analyze the children's literacy skills.  Some of the things I will be looking for include... concepts about print: knowledge of print conventions (e.g., left–right, front–back) and concepts (book cover, author, text) ... and oral language: the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language, including vocabulary and grammar.

I also plan on looking at the shared-reading interventions.  What is the child's reaction when read to?  Is the child interested or disengaged?  What questions do they ask in relationship to the story being read?

Tying reading into an oral culture and bringing in the families also interest me so I think having the children draw a story they have heard at home. And then writing on the picture their retelling of the story will be an interesting pre-test.  A baseline of how they tell stories within their culture.




 
SOURCE:

National Institute for, L., & National Center for Family, L. (2008). Developing Early Literacy:      Report of the National Early Literacy Panel. A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention. National Institute For Literacy,

Purposeful storytelling

I am a graduate student at University of Hawaii- Manoa working on an action research project.  This blog will follow my journey as I gather data.

 

How this all started??? 

 

The topic that I am looking at exploring is how sharing storybooks with children in Uganda effect their interest in reading and their pre-literacy skills.

 

Uganda is an oral culture with their stories being shared verbally. When I was in the village visiting in March, it caught my attention how interested Hannington (a 50 year old Ugandan father of five) was on a child's storybook. When I inquired about books within the village, they just don't have them due to cost.

 

 

Hannington

 

 

Due to moving down to Uganda for the next year this topic is relevant to me as I love books. From a very young age I was always seen with books so it is something that I am interested in because of my passion for the written word. As an early educator I find storybooks a vital part of how children are taught and I think that the findings of the research will be beneficial not only to me but my Ugandan staff as well as teachers in the Western culture.