Literacy Boost is an innovative, evidence-based approach to improving literacy learning outcomes, and is increasing the reading skills of underperforming children
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction Table of Contents Introduction 3 What is Literacy Boost? . 3 Research Principles for Literacy Boost .. 4 How does Literacy Boost work? 5 The Literacy Boost Program Cycle 6 1. Reading Assessments .. 6 2. Teacher Training .. . 8 3. Community Action .. 8 Who is Literacy Boost designed for? . 9 How do I begin? . 10 Literacy Boost and language 11 Figures Figure 1: Literacy Boost Program Cycle . 7 Figure 2: Multilingual Decisi on Tree, Teacher Training 13 Figure 3: Multilingual Decision Tree, Book Banks 14 Cover Photo : A Literacy Boost Reading Camp in Nepal. Photo by Susan Warner. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 2
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction Welcome to Literacy Boost! Introduction Literacy Boost is an innovative, evidence-based approa ch to improving literacy learning outcomes, and is increasing the reading skills of underperforming ch ildren in a growing number of program sites across the globe. This introductory document is designed to provide an overview of Literacy B oost prior to an in-depth reading of the three-part Literacy Boost Toolkit. Th e introduction will addre ss the following questions: General information: o What is Literacy Boost? Literacy Boost objectives and components The research principles that are at the foundation of Literacy Boost o How does Literacy Boost work? The five core reading skills The three program components The Literacy Boost program cycle o Who is Literacy Boost designed for? o Adapting Literacy Boost to specific country and community contexts Getting started: o How do I begin? o What language do I use? What is Literacy Boost? Literacy Boost is a program designed to guide scho ols, parents and communities to better support the literacy development of their children. It was develope d in response to growing evidence of gaps in basic literacy learning, which demonstrate a clear need to increase the effectiveness of basic reading instruction, including the promotion of good literacy practices in school and ou t. In order to improve literacy learning, Literacy Boost focuses on three areas: Reading Assessment: Literacy Boost practitioners asse ss children™s reading levels and evaluate their literacy learning needs based on those assessments. Assessments are used to inform school-based personnel of children™s strengths and we aknesses, and help staff and teachers tailor their lessons to meet children™s needs. Teacher Training: Teachers are trained to incorporat e skill-building into their regularly scheduled curricula. By focusing on five core reading skill areas throughout lesson planning and implementation, teachers ensure that children build a solid foundation for literacy. Ongoing assessments of student progress are used to guide teachers™ focus. Community Action: Quality teaching and learning enviro nments inside and outside of schools help all readers grow their reading skills. Th e Literacy Boost program guides parents and communities to support children as they learn to read and foster their love of reading. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 3
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction The first two components, Reading Assessment and Teacher Training, ar e focused in schools, while the third component, Community Action, is focused outs ide of the school environment with parents and communities. All three of the components are essent ial for increasing literacy learning. Literacy Boost cannot be implemented partially, with an y one of the three components missing. However, there is a great deal of flexibility within the Teacher Traini ng and Community Action components, which allows for adaptations to suit local contexts. In fact, th ese two components must be adapted to suit the targeted area in order for Literacy Boost to be successful. The program is outlined through the Literacy Boost T oolkit, a package of resources designed to support country offices to design and implement effectiv e reading-focused basic education programs. The Literacy Boost Toolkit guides practitioners through ea ch of the components, pr oviding lessons, session plans, and notes for facilitators, as well as handouts and additional materials. Research Principles for Literacy Boost Literacy Boost addresses four widely accepted research conclusions on literacy learning. Research Conclusion Programmatic Implication It is essential that reading development take place during the early grades of primary school; reading development entails the development of skills in five key areas: letter knowledge , phonological processing, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills (Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998). WE MUST DIRECTLY ADDRESS ALL FIVE SKILLS EARLY Reading is complex. It is a cognit ive, social and cultural activity. Its development leads to literacy, which is at once an individual competence, a social act, and a cultural tool (Wagner, 1993; New, 2001). WE MUST LINK READING MATERIALS AND ACTIVITIES TO LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM The real, predictive power of moti vation to read must be lit and sustained using child-centered an d active learning approaches that ensure progress to and success in higher levels of education (Pang, Muaka, Berhnardt & Kamil, 2003; Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998). Ensuring children™s active participation in classroom sessions and via practice in the ho me is essential to learning to read. WE MUST MAKE READING ACTIVE AND FUN, AND ENSURE THAT IT TAKES PLACE WITHIN AND OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM Children™s literacy development de pends on both teachers and parents (Goldenberg, 2001), and on finding the means to vary the kinds of reading materials and increase the quantity of reading materials in children™s lives , both at school and outside of school. For optimally effective programming, parents and teachers must collaborate both inside and outside of school walls. WE MUST ENSURE THAT CHILDREN HAVE ACCESS TO VARIED READING MATERIALS INSIDE OF SCHOOLS AND OUT © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 4
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction How does Literacy Boost work? All Literacy Boost activities are built around the aim of promoting five core reading skills: alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary an d comprehension. Some ac tivities focus on what teachers should be doing to build these skills in school, while others focus on what parents and other community members should be doing outside of school. 4. Vocabulary: the comprehension of a sufficient number of words to be able to understand text. 5. Comprehension: fithe process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with the written languagefl (Rand, 2002). 3. Fluency: the ability to read accurately, quick ly and with the correct intonation. 2. Phonemic Awareness: the ability to recognize and manipulate the phonemes, the fismallest units composing spoken languagefl (NRP, 2000). Literacy Boost Five Core Reading Skills 1. Alphabet Knowledge: recognition of the letters of the alphabet. The five core reading skills are the focus of all three of the Literacy Boost components. 2. Teacher Training: Regularly scheduled capacity-building se ssions designed to equip teachers to focus instruction on the five core reading sk ills within the framework of the government prescribed curriculum they continue to follow. 3. Community Action: Activities that bring reading outside of the classroom, focusing on varying available text and reading activities and on invo lving families in children™s literacy learning. Literacy Boost Three Program Components 1. Reading Assessments: Evaluations of children™s concepts related to print, their ability to identify letters and read and understand text. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 5
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction The Literacy Boost Program Cycle 1. Reading Assessments The assessment component is the first step in the Literacy Boost model. Assessments are conducted annually to collect student background information and establish student reading skill levels before and after the Literacy Boost interventi on. Assessments help implementers, school, and Ministry of Education partners identify strengths and gaps in students™ read ing skills and track progress as they learn to read. Additionally, assessments are used to compare the pr ogress of Literacy Boost students to the progress of those students who are not yet receiving Literacy Boost support. 1 Literacy Boost includes three types of assessment: a baseline prior to the start of interventions, assessments over the course of the school year, and an end of the year assess ment to determine child and school-level progress. Prior to the start of Literacy Boost interventions: An assessment of emergent and early reading skills takes place to provide information on children™s reading abilities, focusing on their strengths and weaknesses in the five core reading skills. Over the course of the school year: Teachers are supported with training and mentoring to conduct regular assessments, track students™ increases in skill proficiency, and adjust instruction to meet children™s learning needs. At the end of the school year: A summative evaluation determ ines children™s progress and school-wide progress. Literacy Boost practitioners collect data on children™s abilities in the five core reading skill areas along with background information related to their home s and families. When coupl ed with data on the surrounding literacy environment and tracked over time, this data demo nstrates the impact of Literacy Boost activities across a spectrum of literacy-re lated criteria. The Literacy Boost program cycle therefore begins and ends with an assessment of children™s reading skills, as s een in Figure 1. Step-by-step guidance on planning baseline and summative assessments is provided in the Literacy Boost Assessment Toolkit. 1 To date, schools participating in assessments as part of a control group have been included in the subsequent year of Literacy Boost programming. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 6
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction 2. Teacher Training Research shows that teacher traini ng is more effective when teac hers are trained on a regular, scheduled basis. Literacy Boost trains teachers slowly over the course of the year, allowing them to practice each individual skill in the classroom between training sessions, and to reflect on their successes and challenges together. Literacy Boost™s Teacher Tr aining component includes nine monthly sessions (see box), which are designed to equip primary school teachers with useful tools to effectively teach children how to read with a focus on the five key reading skills. Literacy Boost teachers obse rve, discuss and practice techniques for building children™ s letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension in monthly reflective training se ssions. During these sessions, teachers model how to teach key skills in the classroom and how to assess student progress on each skill, and discuss their successes and challenges when using each technique. In each session, trainers work with teachers in the same grade from their own and neighboring schools to devise lesson plans for use in their classrooms and follow up on the implementation of lesson plans developed during the previous session. Literacy Boost Teacher Training sessions are not designed to replace existing curricula. Ra ther, they are designed to enhance literacy instruction by using the government curriculum. Ministry of Educat ion representatives participate in training of trainer (ToT) se ssions in order to be able to lead teacher training them selves, thereby promoting ownership and establishing a base for sustainability and eventual expansion. 6. Reading Fluency 7. Vocabulary 8. Reading Comprehension 9. Conclusion Teacher Training Sessions 1. Introduction to Reading Development and Instruction for Young Children 2. Formative Assessment 3. Addressing Language Issues in the Literacy Classroom 4. Letter Knowledge/Alphabetic Principle 5. Phonemic Awareness 3. Community Action Encouraging literacy development outside of the classr oom is an essential component of Literacy Boost. This includes ensuring that children have access to adequate resources, both human resources and text- based resources, and that literacy activities take place outside of schools. Activities are designed to highlight and model the use of reading in daily life and foster a literate environment. By supporting the development of reading materials and promoting literacy and language activities in children™s villages and homes, Literacy Boost gives children more opportunities to practice reading skills outside of school. It uses fun activities that promote lit eracy and learning to motivate child ren’s participation and kindle their enjoyment of reading. The Literacy Boost Community Action component incl udes three action areas to support children in the early grades as they learn to read: 1. Parent activities, including workshops and strategies to help parents and other caretakers read with their children. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 8
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction For parents, Literacy Boost implements activi ties that engage everyone, regardless of their reading ability, in simple tasks to promote children™s reading sk ills and language development. Literacy Boost emphasizes that everyday activities have the potential to boost children™s learning of letters, sounds and words, and contribute to the development of their knowledge of the world around them. The Community Action co mponent includes seven session guides for conducting reading awareness sessions wi th parents. An accompanying flipbook, Community Strategies to Promote Literacy , supplements parent sessions. 2. Book Banks and the creation of materials. Ensuring that communities have a variety of readin g materials available is another essential part of Literacy Boost. In most communities, the only print material children typically see is a school textbook. Literacy Boost practitioners work with partners and communities to create engaging and relevant children™s print material for Litera cy Boost Book Banks, collections of 150 to 200 books and reading materials, in every village. With guidance on how to create age- and lang uage- appropriate materials locally, communities can produce reading materials themselves and take advantage of an enriched literacy environment. The Community Action section of the toolkit provides guidance on how to develop simple beginning reading primers and gu idelines for program staff on criteria to consider when selecting or developing reading mat erials for children across the stages of literacy development. Children borrow materials from Literacy Boost Book Banks and use them to practice reading at home, on th eir own and with their parents. 3. Reading activities outside of school, such as Reading Camps and Reading Buddies. Children need frequent opportunities to practice their literacy skills and to see reading as an enjoyable activity so that they are motivated to keep learning. Literacy Boost includes a variety of community-based activities for children, desi gned to complement school-based activities. These include weekly Literacy Boost Reading Ca mps, Reading Buddies, Reading Festivals and Story Time. The activities are ce ntered around the five core reading skills Š using songs, read- alouds, and games to help children practice thei r skills in fun ways. By drawing on community members to conduct these activities with childre n, Literacy Boost promot es the development of a community-wide reading culture. The most structured of the out-of-school reading activities included in the Literacy Boost package is Reading Camps. Reading Camps are afte r-school activities for children that promote good reading practices and make reading fun for children. The Literacy Boost Toolkit includes a Reading Camp curriculum and a detailed gu ide for implementing the curriculum. Who is Literacy Boost designed for? While it is beneficial for all of the stakeholders invo lved in the implementation of Literacy Boost to be familiar with all of the program components, certain t ools are more closely linked to the roles of certain actors, as outlined on the following page. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 9
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction Literacy Boost Component Description Key Actors Complete Literacy Boost Toolki t For these program designers and managers, the Toolkit lays out a wide variety of literacy- enhancing strategies, and a Literacy Boost program cycle in which to apply them. Designed for educators responsible for teacher training and/or community mobilization programs to enhance children™s education. Teacher Training The training component details nine teacher training sessions designed to enhance the teaching of reading. Trainers adapt and use the sessions to train and support teachers. Teacher trainers/supervisors within an NGO or government agency Teacher Tools These tools include lesson plans, assessment schedules, and recording schemes, organized by reading skill and designed for use in classroom activities. Teachers Community Action The Community Action component provides guidance on creating materials, mentoring, and raising awareness in order to broaden the opportunities and resources for children to practice literacy skill-building outside of school. NGO staff, government outreach workers, head teachers, School Management Committee presidents, community leaders and others How do I begin? The early stages of Literacy Boost implementation are outlined below. Implementation has proved more successful when practitioners are familiar with the Literacy Boost Toolkit prior to startup. All stages of implementation include significant support from tec hnical advisors initially, with particular support provided to assessments. Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the Li teracy Boost Toolkit Teacher Training and Community Action components. Literacy Boost implementers have had the greatest success when they have read through sections and discussed them in small groups. For example, three or four staff members form a group and determine how much of the content to cover; on the designated date, they come together to discuss what they™ve read, highlighting: What they find interesting or surprising Where they think challenges might arise © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 10
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Literacy Boost Toolkit Introduction Which activities they think might have es pecially high levels of impact, and why Step 2: Conduct a situation analysis for the target sites where you intend to implement Literacy Boost. This will inform the planning and toolkit adaptation processes prior to the actual launch of Literacy Boost programs in your sites. Step 3: Work with Literacy Boost technical advisors to discuss situation analysis findings , any questions you may have regarding the Literacy Boos t Toolkit, and to jointly plan for an in-country launch/program roll-out. The process of defining the interv ention components, developing or working from an existing reading assessment, as well as determining th e language(s), materials and approp riate partners in a target area takes several weeks. Once complete, Literacy Boost w ill be ready to launch at the start of the school year. Literacy Boost and language Literacy and language are inextricably linked. Oral language is the foundation on which literacy skills are developed. In most countries where we work, children have to contend with the fact that the language they are most familiar with is not the language used in school. In order for Literacy Boost to be relevant in the context in which it is implemented, and to build upon the knowledge that children already have, these language issues need to be carefully considered. The Multilingual Decision Trees for Teacher Training (Figure 2) and Book Banks ( Figure 3 ) are tools to assist you in determining which language(s) to use for these components, while this issue is addressed through a simple set of questions for the Communi ty Action component. The Assessment component will account for children™s home and school languages. Note that the language of Literacy Boost activities may not be the same for every component. For exam ple, the Nepal Save the Children team found that extremely low third grade reading results were related to the fact that nearly half of the children in the classrooms spoke a local language, and not the language of instruction, at home. So they looked more closely at the context to see how to support children learning to read in a second language, and were able to find partners who produced children™s read ing materials in their local language as well as partners who worked with adults on literacy skills in the local language. Language determination is a complex and someti mes volatile process. The central technical consideration that should remain the focus is: how w ill the children in our impact areas learn to read most effectively and efficiently? Research from across the globe makes clear that children learn to read be st in their first language, but it is not always feasible to support mother tongue lit eracy development. In dete rmining which language to use for Literacy Boost implementation, we must carefully consider elements as varied as what languages are present in children™s daily lives, assessment result s, alphabets, curriculum resources, political will and parental support. The Impact Area Language Situation An alysis gathers data to assist us in thinking this though thoroughly; examples of the kinds of questions posed are below. © 2012 Save the Children Do not reproduce without permission. 11
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