Learners achieve faster when the school is able to enter into an active, effective, partnering relationship with parents, carers, immediate and extended family members as well as community identities.

HELPFUL HINTS

• Involve parents in their child’s educational development, especially the mother or carer.
• Get to know the parents by name, their occupation, their interests, their strengths and special skills.
• Parents need to know what a child is being taught. They usually want to know.
• Extend the home into the classroom. Invite parents into the classroom.
• Extend the classroom into the home. Visit the home. Promote the speaking of English in the home with posters, magazines, comics, etc.
• Remember how important an extended family can be, the grandparents, the aunts, etc.
• Invite parents and relatives to talk to the class on subjects of interest, e.g. a particular sport; a place they have been to; a skill they have or just join in when they have the time.
• Involve parents who have English language skills as voluntary reading aides to assist in reading-related activities especially with learners who are finding reading activities challenging.
• Encourage parents to monitor, recognize, acknowledge and praise their child’s progress.
• Involve community identities in the teaching and learning process by contributing
their skills, knowledge and experiences.
• Make the community the classroom with excursions and planned experiences such as visits to places of educational relevance, e.g. a medical centre, the weather bureau, the police station, the local council office, art galleries, museums, etc.
• Keep parents informed in weekly newsletters, e-mails about “What we did today,” sending posters, photos, etc.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING SPEAKING IN THE HOME

Remember, good talkers usually become good readers and writers. At the dinner table, ask your children to tell the family about “a good thing that happened today” or “a highlight”.

Encourage your children to talk and think. Be an active, attentive listener, i.e. listen to what they say. Expand on what they have said. Ask questions. Offer distinct choices, e.g. “Would you like a red balloon or would you like a green balloon?”

“What fruit should we buy at the shop – bananas, apples or mangoes?”

Remember: Children are “copiers”. How you speak, what you say, the standard or quality of words you use, your idioms and colloquial speech, the grammatical errors you make, usually are copied and quickly become theirs.

When speaking to your child, especially when asking questions, endeavor to use “mature” words NOT “baby” words, e.g. What would you like for dinner? NOT “din-din”. Later, the word, “like” can be changed to “prefer” or “fancy”.

Encourage full sentence responses, not just one or two word answers, e.g. Q. Which book do you want to read now? A. “I want to read this one.” – NOT “This one.”

Encourage the use of different descriptives when speaking to describe people, objects, feelings, events, etc: tall man, huge tower, high wall, pretty dress, beautiful flower, delightful song, sad face, unhappy girl, gloomy weather, exciting day, enjoyable picnic, wonderful concert.

Scribe your child’s stories and ideas. Encourage your children to create and tell their own stories. Write what they say and then read their story back to them.

A SIMPLE ACTIVITY FOR THE CLASSROOM AND THE HOME

I Spy: The sound, symbol and word recognition activity known as I Spy, is an excellent way of teaching and reinforcing a learner’s knowledge of (a) the single sounds and symbols (letters) of the alphabet (b) the blended sounds and symbol combinations and, (c) initially developing word recognition,
pronunciation and spelling skills.

It is easier for young learners to commence with an initial alphabetical sound rather than a symbol (letter) that begins the name of “things” they can “spy” (see) in the immediate environment, i.e. pictures and things in the room, on the walls, on the desks, outside, through the windows.

Learners take turns to be the “Spy” saying, for example, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with the sound “b..” The other learners then have to guess what has been spied, i.e. book, biro, bench, basket, ball, etc. If someone guesses the correct answer he or she then becomes the “Spy”. If no one guesses the answer then the original Spy has another turn.

Later, words with single symbols and “blends” symbols are used, e.g. “I spy with my little eye something beginning with “d”, e.g. door, duster, desk, David, etc. black, clock, brace, etc.
(The author Keith W. Wright is a former politician, an educator and the director of the Australian International Language Academy. E-mail questions to Outreach Publications at contact@4sliteracy.com or youth@mb.com.ph).