>Still no good with things in the stomach! I woke up early again with a rush to the toilet, that is where this particular analogy will stop.
Whilst I was clearly upset with my physiological state, I was excited about the first day of the phonics intervention in the learning group. This essentially got me out of bed this morning. However, just before this started I ran over to the control group and completed the Schonell spelling test. I planned in advanced by ripping up bits of paper and writing the children’s names on the sheets on the way in the taxi to free up time. My bag weighed a ton as I had all of the puzzles and flashcards needed to deliver the programme. Also I had the various tests and other sheets such as registration and observation sheets, I’m a walking forest!
After registration, Michael and I entered the control group’s class and began to prep them about what will be happening. Much like yesterday they were all very keen and willing to participate and ultimately learn from the experience. The test began like before and certain children responded very well in their answers. However, the early indication is that most of the children, like yesterday are having similar problems with decoding and with individual letter sounds. The confusion is between the names of the letters (as far as I can see, taught by indigenous rote pedagogies) and the decoding of letter sound. We finished the test and had a brief break where we caught up with Ken. Michael was talking to a local and acquired a Fante book with letters and sounds. Ken joined in and explained that he was schooled in Accra and found it hard to translate, largely because in Accra they speak Ga. After our brief introduction to Fante, which by the way is also phonetic I got into the learning group and started the phonics while Ken, Jonnie and Michael were peeping through the window. I started by introducing the /a/ /h/ /e/ /d/ /o/ and /c/ sounds given the little time I have, which is just under 3 weeks. This is inevitably one of the limitations of the study as I won’t be able to complete all of the programme. It would be great to see a whole year using this approach, or even 6 months. Most importantly, it is about giving the children the means to experiment with letter sounds and essentially helping them with the foundations of language design and arrangement. The response was quite amazing, even after a pretty intensive 6 letter sound flash card scenario, the children responded by writing on the board and engaged vocally. After about 15 minutes we rearranged the classroom furniture and assembled it in a way that the children can benefit from peer-to-peer learning. I placed various learning materials on each of the tables. For instance, one
table was using letter stencils. On the other table were children using pictures as a way to sound. Ken, Jonnie, Michael and Fortune were also involved, circling around each table asking questions. The instruction was for everyone to get involved with an activity and reinforce meaning through pictures, drawings and games. The children were encouraged by the stencils and the piece puzzles to make a word and eventual picture. Great fun. This lasted about half an hour then we finished by revisiting the initial sounds and wrapping up. The session went well even under the strenuous circumstances. I’m more happy now that the programme has started and things will only progress from here.
We made the very well known journey back to the apartment after agreeing a price from the junction at Market street back to Kokrobite, which was eight cedi’s. We also bought some Lucozade to stimulate the lack of energy. In the end we got back, did our blogs and I crashed out, completely zonked!
Chris Counihan 