ATTACHMENT_J.1_National_Reading_Strategy_&_National_Reading_Assesment_2016.pdf

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Government of Malawi

Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST)

National Reading Strategy (2014-2019)

November 2014

ATTACHMENT J.1

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Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY i

1. Background and framework 1

2. Instruction 5

3. Assessment 16

4. Teacher preparation 19

5. Families and communities 28

6. Phases and timelines 30 Appendices

Produced with support from ii

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

One of the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MoEST) priorities is to ensure that children master essential literacy skills by the time they complete Standard 3.

The MoEST has been working toward addressing this goal through a series of initiatives including the implementation of sector plans. The current plan, Education Sector Implementation Plan (ESIP) II (2013-2017), includes the following outcomes:

• Increase in numeracy/literacy levels in early grades

• Increase in learning levels in junior and senior primary exit levels

• Increase in the proportion of students mastering higher order skills

• Increase in the number / proportion of children completing junior and senior primary exit grades

• Reduction in repetition rates & dropout rates

• Primary to secondary transition rates improve

An important step in ensuring the proposed outcomes are met is to enhance reading instruction in Standards 1-3. Ensuring that all children learn to read in the first three years of schools can serve as a catalyst for meeting the other outcomes because reading is an essential for all learning. Furthermore, there is clear research evidence that children who fail to learn to read early are likely to dropout without ever developing functional literacy skills. The National Reading Strategy (NRS) provides a framework for developing and implementing a cohesive, sustainable, reading program that can be implemented nationally with fidelity.

The National Reading Strategy is aligned with the priorities set forth in the ESIP II in terms of the focus, the outputs, and activities. It also incorporates the work that has been completed by various groups toward the creation of a National Reading Strategy. It includes recommendations and findings from the Regional All Children Workshop hosted by the Global Partnership for Education and developed by personnel from USAID, MoEST, MIE, and FAWEMA in February 2012, the National Conference on Literacy that was held in October of 2012, the National Reading Strategy Workshop held in November 2013, and the Reading Conference held in January 2014. The core components of the strategy are instruction, assessment, teacher preparation, and families and communities. While recognizing that the sections are interrelated, they will be addressed separately.

Instruction

Learning to read with understanding is perhaps the most critical skill children can acquire; it is necessary for all other academic learning. Successful acquisition of reading skills in the first three years of schooling requires specialized reading instruction. In the research literature there is consensus about the importance of instruction in the five components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and iii comprehension) in the primary grades. However, the relative importance of each of the reading components changes over time. In the first year of schooling, when children are learning to read, the focus of instruction is on the systematic and explicit development of basic code-related skills. Once children have mastered the code, they need opportunities to practice reading. During this phase, usually from Standard 2 on, the focus of instruction is on the development of vocabulary, academic language, and reading comprehension skills. Thus, a scope and sequence that spans Standards 1 to 3 is needed to make certain that the introduction of skills needed for the development of each component is systematic and, that planned reviews and progress monitoring are included to support the differentiation of instruction. Once a scope and sequence has been adopted and standards set, the curriculum, teachers’ guides, and student textbooks will be aligned to reflect carefully sequenced skill development in each of the components of reading.

Assessment

Baseline data has been conducted in Malawi and has served as the basis for establishing the need for systematic reform and a national reading strategy. An assessment plan is integral to any reform effort. Across the educational system, assessment data pinpoints instructional areas that need to be modified; identifies areas for teacher professional development; and highlights gaps in the delivery system. A comprehensive assessment plan allows for the alignment of data within and across standards. To ensure that assessment data is comparable, available data will be reviewed to determine whether (a) the most critical constructs are being assessed; (b) the tasks are predictive of later reading abilities; and (c) the tasks are standard/age appropriate. This approach will allow for a vertical function analysis of the system. Each of the proposed evaluations will make a unique contribution to the reform of the educational system.

Teacher Preparation

Many teachers in Malawi have an undeveloped understanding of teaching reading and writing because they have not been explicitly trained to teach reading. The Department of Teacher Education and Teacher Training Colleges will lead an evaluation and updating of continuous professional development programs for in-service teachers and pre-service teacher training programs.

To increase student achievement in reading, a comprehensive model is proposed.

Teaching children to read, like learning to read, is a complex process that requires specialized teacher training and appropriate materials. Teachers need two types of knowledge. Declarative knowledge is knowledge of the components of reading and the acquisition of reading. Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to teach effectively.

In the next five years, a concerted effort must be made to ensure that all teachers who teach in the first three standards receive focused professional development in the teaching of reading. Concurrently, the Teacher Training Colleges must ensure that all new primary teachers have that knowledge prior to graduating. This two-prong approach will ensure that within five years, all teachers in Standards 1-3 are certified teachers of reading.

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Families and Communities

Families and communities have important roles in education. A culture of reading can only develop if reading is an important activity in and out of school. Therefore, the first step is to develop campaigns that inform both parents and community members of the importance of their collaboration and of the many ways in which they can promote reading in the home and in the community.

The second step is to ensure that school personnel are willing and able to include parents as partners. Teachers may need professional development in ways that they can include parents in meaningful ways.

Finally, businesses and organizations in the community can provide support in building a culture of literacy in a community. Public-private partnerships are particularly helpful in the funding of libraries or supplying materials for teachers. These partnerships are also useful to improve the security and infrastructure of schools.

Summary

Much work has been done in the last three years to identify the challenges faced by educators and administrators. Results from the Early Grade Reading Assessment baseline conducted in 2010 made it clear that children in the primary grades were not learning to read. There have also been success stories. Projects in targeted areas have demonstrated that it is possible to change instruction and improve student outcomes. The proposed plan will allow the MoEST to systematically improve instruction throughout the country by implementing changes that are sustainable. This will require capitalizing on what is effective and strengthening those areas that are less effective while at the same time, recognizing that some components must be standardized and others will respond to the needs of specific communities.

1. BACKGROUND AND FRAMEWORK

1.1 Process

The National Reading Strategy (NRS) has been developed under the leadership of the chairman of the NRS Task Force Mr. Raphael Agabu, Director of Inspection and Advisory Services. The Task Force was co-chaired by a representative of USAID.

Members represented DIAS, DTED, DBE, DoP, MANEB, MIE, CERT, TTC, Development partners, and INGOs and NGOs working on reading. Appendix A lists the members of the Task Force.

The National Reading Strategy contributed to the concerted effort to improve reading instruction in the primary grades that has been part of the MoEST’s agenda. The National Reading Strategy is informed by the current MoEST policies and plans as well as the work of INGOs and NGOs who support education in Malawi. Background documents used for the NRS include:

• Discussion Paper on Competencies that Define a Qualified Primary Teacher (November 2011)

• Action Planning Matrix: All Children Reading Workshop (March 2012)

• Report on the National Conference on Literacy (October, 2012)

• Education Sector Implementation Plan (ESIP) II (2013-2017)

• Evaluation of the Teacher Professional Development Support Program (May

2013)

Feedback from workshops held in November 2013 and January 2014 also informed the development of the NRS. Agendas are included in Appendix B.

Thus the National Reading Strategy is the result of a consultative process. The NRS proposes a strategic plan for a comprehensive primary reading program that can be implemented nationally with fidelity.

1.2 Background

The need to reform the system is supported by results from the Early Grade Reading Assessment conducted in 2011. Findings indicate that less than 3% of Standard 2 children and 30% of Standard 4 children could answer a comprehension question about a passage they had read. Although the data indicate that children’s skills increase as they progress from Standard 2 to Standard 4, very few children are developing the reading skills they need to read independently and more importantly, to read to learn. To succeed academically past Standard 4, children should read grade level text with comprehension.

They should also be able to use the knowledge they have gained. Further, children who struggle with reading are less likely to read for enjoyment or to make reading a part of their daily life. Developing a culture of reading is challenging when the majority of the population does not have the skills needed to benefit from and enjoy reading.

Across all documents, there is consensus about the importance of ensuring that the five components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) are included in the National Reading Strategy. Additional literacy components that should be included are oral language development and writing. Oral language is important in bilingual contexts since children are likely to not be exposed to academic language outside of school. All of the components identified are essential if children are to develop grade appropriate reading skills by Standard 3. Additionally, vertical alignment of educational system components is needed. This will require:

1. A review of the current level of functioning with an emphasis on ensuring that sufficient time is allocated to the teaching of reading and class sizes, which are conducive to learning.

2. Standards that explicitly state what children will learn by the end of each grade level in each language.

3. A curriculum that is aligned with the standards.

4. Teacher and student materials that support student learning and the teaching of reading.

5. An assessment plan that informs the reform effort.

6. Teacher preparation and continuous professional development that builds teachers’ knowledge and skills to teach and assess reading.

7. Involvement of families and communities to foster a culture of reading in and out of school.

Of these, two are critical to a successful implementation of the NRS, sufficient time allocation and a reduction of class size. These two factors are critical because if unattended, they directly impact students’ opportunity to learn by reducing the rate of learning and the number and quality of opportunities available to practice new skills. In classrooms with large numbers of children and little instructional time, few children have the opportunity to engage with print. Why is engaging with print so important to learning to read? Even when children receive systematic instruction in the foundational skills of reading, the successful acquisition of reading skills and the transition to more complex skills is dependent on practice. The process of learning to read rewrites the organization of the brain (Fletcher, 2014). Exposure to print provides children the opportunity to develop the sections of the brain needed for reading because with every encounter with print, the areas of the brain required for reading are activated (Fletcher, 2014).

1.3 Framework

Four concepts serve as the basis for the framework for the National Reading Strategy.

These concepts sustainability and feasibility, negotiable and non-negotiable components, priority, and leverage guided the development of the NRS. At each decision point these four concepts were considered in decision-making. Although related, each contributes additional data in making decisions. For example, continuous professional development (CPD) is an indispensable component of the NRS. Therefore, its sustainability is non-negotiable for the successful implementation of the NRS. Providing CPD is feasible since the MoEST currently provides CPD yearly. However, adding CPD days or increasing the number of teachers who require CPD requires making a determination of its feasibility.

The feasibility is moderated by the availability of resources that can be leveraged such as CPD modules that were developed for a project, flexible timelines, or opportunities for supplemental funding. It also requires determining the importance of allocating funds to this process in light of competing priorities.

1.3.1 Sustainability and Feasibility

One of the critical characteristics of the NRS is the attention to the sustainability of all proposed activities and reforms. Malawi has benefitted from the implementation of successful reading projects such as Read Malawi, MTPDS, Literacy Boost Malawi, and Malawi Teach Training Activity in targeted areas. However, the objective is to reproduce successful programs’ results (Bradach, 2004). In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to articulate why a program worked and understand which activities are required to produce results. Once the key components are identified, they must be standardized to ensure fidelity of implementation.

Other factors that impact sustainability are longevity, effectiveness, and consistency.

Longevity refers to the length of time the intervention was implemented and whether or not the practices moved from innovation to general practice during that period of time.

Effectiveness and consistency refer to the obtained results. Were the results strong and were there consistently good results. In the absence of good and consistent results from the new practices, teachers are likely to return to the practices with which they are comfortable.

When projects are taken to scale, implementing all the components with the same rigor may not be feasible. Feasibility refers to the likelihood that the components can be implemented with fidelity. The two factors associated with feasibility are funding and capacity. To ensure sustainability and feasibility, the new practices must be more effective and efficient than alternative practices.

1.3.2 Negotiable and non-negotiable components

Evidence emerging from several countries that have sought to improve reading outcomes in the primary grades demonstrates that improved instruction results when teachers are knowledgeable about how children learn and how to teach children to read, they have materials that support teaching and learning, they have adequate time to teach reading, and they use formative and summative assessment to make instructional decisions.

Effective teachers are successful in educational systems that use assessment data to identify strengths and areas for development; ensure that there is adequate time for teaching---days in the year, hours in the day, and allocated time for reading instruction;

support teachers to continue to grow as professionals, and commit resources.

The NRS assumes that the following components are non-negotiable.

• Focus of instruction:

– The five components of reading

– Oral language

– Writing

• Quality of instruction

– Standards that explicitly state what children will learn by the end of each grade level in each language.

– A curriculum that is aligned with the standards.

– Teacher and student materials that support student learning and the teaching of reading and language development in Chichewa and English.

– Teachers who have the skills and knowledge needed to teach reading effectively.

1.3.3 Priority

Priority refers to the focus on outcomes that are of high value to implementers and direct stakeholders. In this case this refers to teachers and parents. Prioritizing non-negotiable is an obvious approach but variables within and across components must also be prioritized.

Although a component such as student materials may be non-negotiable, this refers to student readers. Other teaching materials, while useful may not be a priority in the first years but may be once the major components of the NRS have been implemented.

1.3.4 Leverage

In that last ten years there has been a large investment in education in Malawi as a result there are a number of materials that have proven to be successful in Malawi. The MoEST has many of the systems needed to improve instruction in place. As part of the implementation of the NRS several reviews will be implemented to identify the processes that are in place and identify gaps.

In addition to these four concepts the development of the components of the NRS is proposed in three phases: technical diagnostics, technical preparation, and implementation. Although some of the diagnostic work had been completed during the development of the NRS, more targeted diagnostics with concrete funding sources, deadlines, and lead implementers are necessary before moving forward. Once the diagnostics are completed, the designated lead departments will prepare the materials needed for implementation. Communication within and across departments and organizations will be emphasized to ensure vertical alignment of the NRS. Vertical alignment of the standards, curriculum, materials, assessment will promote cohesion and fidelity of implementation across the country.

The following four sections address the major components of the NRS: instruction, assessment, teacher preparation and families and communities. Each section presents current research, current status in Malawi, and proposed changes thereby integrating the four concepts presented in this section. The development and implementation of the proposed changes are further discussed in the Phases and Timeline section. In this section the major activities are categorized into one of the three phases. Finally, the roll out of the NRS is detailed in the timeline as well as the assumptions guiding the roll out.

2. INSTRUCTION

Before children start school, they are already developing a number of skills that will help them learn to read. Among them are: a well-developed capacity to hear phonological distinctions, phonological awareness from exposure to rhymes and song, knowledge of letter shapes and names, the experience of “reading” environmental print, several thousand vocabulary words, and understanding of the grammatical and discourse rules of the language (Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2005). Children who have not had the opportunity to engage with print will still have developed the oral skills listed above such as phonological awareness, vocabulary, and knowledge of the grammatical and discourse rules of the language. The introduction to letter shapes, names, and sounds, for most, will begin in school and will help children transform their knowledge of oral language to its written form. Unlike learning to speak, learning to read requires instruction, opportunities to practice, and engaging text. This section includes content and instructional materials.

2.1 Research

2.1.1 Content

Research in the last few years has provided the field with a common understanding of the reading process. Numerous reports (Adams, 1990; Donovan & Cross, 2002; National Reading Panel, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998) have concluded that key reading components such as phonemic awareness and phonics early in the development of reading with the early and ongoing integration of word reading, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension are associated with the development of reading success across a number of languages (Aro & Wimmer, 2003), and understanding and learning from text requires knowledge of words, interesting and engaging text, and opportunities to discuss texts with peers and adults.

The acquisition of reading skills is a cumulative process with more complex skills building on foundational skills. Comprehension, or the ability to understand, interpret, and use what is read, is the main goal of learning to read. Developing appropriate comprehension skills relies on all the other components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, fluency, and vocabulary. Therefore, a comprehensive reading programs has to include all five of the reading components.

Phonological awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate sounds and sound segments, appears to follow a language universal sequence (Goswami, 2006). Across alphabetic languages, children develop an awareness of larger units of speech such as syllables and onset/rime before they develop phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in words. The ability to move phonemes around in a word usually requires formal reading instruction (Adams, 1990, Goikoetxea, 2005) and is contingent on a teaching method that emphasizes letter-sound learning and decoding. This has been found to be true in studies that have examined the development of phonemic awareness within and across languages (Goswami, 2006).

Letter names are important because “a beginning reader who does not know the letters of the alphabet cannot learn to which sounds those letters relate” (Whitehurst and Lonigan, 1998, p.851). Instruction of both letter names and sounds is critical in the first year of schooling since it helps children learn to map sounds to print, a foundational skill in decoding. As they learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences, children are building an alphabetic map onto which they fit and store the letter/sound relations they know. They will draw upon and use this resource to read and write words. How long it will take for students to learn the alphabet will depend on the size of the alphabet and extent of internal confusability due to either visual or phonological similarities among letters. The relative orthographic consistency of the language and the basic phonological structure of the language will impact how long it will take children to learn all the letter/sound correspondences. Orthographic consistency refers to the relationship between letters and sounds. In a consistent orthography, like Chichewa, there is a one-to-one or nearly one-to-one relationship between letters and sounds. In less consistent orthographies, like English, more than one letter may represent one sound or one letter may have more than one sound or both. For example, the sound /k/ can be represented in words as k, c, cc, ck, ch, q, qu, or que. The letter c is pronounced as either /k/ or /s/ depending on the letter that follow it. Phonological structure refers to the rules for phoneme sequencing, the allowable combinations of phonemes for each language. The syllable mwa has an acceptable sequence of phonemes for Chichewa but not for English.

It is not necessary for children to learn all the letter sound correspondences before they learn to read words. Once children have acquired some letter or syllable/sound correspondences, they can begin to blend these to read words. That is why the introduction of letters in a productive sequence, a sequence that includes both vowels and consonants is recommended. As children add symbol/sound correspondences to their alphabetic schema, the number of words they will be able to read will increase. When combined with opportunities to practice their newly acquired skills in a variety of contexts children will transition from sounding out words to automatic word reading.

When children do not have to recode a word each time they see it, they have achieved automaticity. However, as children begin to encounter longer words, sounding out words phoneme by phoneme becomes less reliable in English and less efficient in agglutinated languages like Chichewa. Eventually, chunking words into syllable becomes a more efficient way of reading new words.

All children should learn to read accurately and without effort. Fluent reading, the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and prosody is essential to reading comprehension.

However, the relative importance of speed and accuracy is dependent on the consistency of the orthography of the language. Speed is more important than accuracy in consistent orthographies because the regularity of the symbol/sound relationship facilitates accuracy thus children who continue to have difficulty reading words accurately or who fail to develop automaticity are likely to need additional support and more time to learn to read.

On the other hand, accuracy is more relevant in less regular orthographies because children tend to be less accurate. This is an important distinction in Malawi because Chichewa has a consistent orthography but English does not. Therefore, the variable that is most important when assessing children’s reading fluency will vary by language.

Vocabulary refers to the ability to understand the meanings of words and to put those words into use. Receptive vocabulary includes the words we understand when we hear (listening vocabulary) or read (reading vocabulary) them. Productive vocabulary includes the words we use when we speak (speaking vocabulary), and those we use when we write (writing vocabulary). Usually, children have larger receptive vocabularies. The number of words children know, words they can read and for which they can provide the meaning, impacts their ability to understand text. When children fail to automatically identify the meaning of most of the words in a text, it is difficult to comprehend the text (Perfetti, 1985). That is why it is critical to teach children the meaning of words as they begin to decode, especially when they are learning to read in a second language. In addition, to vocabulary, back ground knowledge and the ability to use comprehension strategies can impact children’s ability to understand what they read. Therefore, instruction in the use of comprehension strategies is essential in comprehension instruction.

Cross-linguistic transfer theory suggests that linguistic knowledge is transferred from a first language (L1) to a second (L2) and that the transfer facilitates learning in the second language (Cummins, 1996). Transfer is facilitated when languages, such as Chichewa and English, share written systems (Bialystok, Luk, Kwan, 2005; Hornberger, 1989; Odlin, 1989). However, transfer is not automatic, the development of biliteracy requires the active transfer of knowledge, skills and the development and awareness of new linguistic components. Phonological awareness (Cisero & Royer, 1995; Durgunoglu et al., 1993;

Leafstedt & Gerber, 2005; Ziegler and Goswami, 2006), alphabetic knowledge, word reading, and comprehension strategies (Calero-Breckheimer & Goetz, 1993) are found to transfer well especially when the two languages are orthographically comparable. Further, having a transparent language as a first language and acquiring some reading skills in that language may facilitate the acquisition of L2 decoding skills (Lesaux et al. 2006). On the other hand, transfer of vocabulary/oral language is more variable and limited.

Children whose schooling is primarily in a language they do not speak, with little or no support in their mother tongue (L1) will have to acquire literacy and language skills simultaneously. No small task for anyone but particularly daunting for beginning readers.

While it is possible for children to learn to read in a second language, the process is likely to take longer. As mentioned previously, children use the oral language skills they posses to learn to read, However, they will lose that advantage if their initial reading instruction is in a language they do not speak. They will learn the sounds of the language and to decode words, but comprehension will be impacted until they have developed sufficient vocabulary to be able to access the meaning of the word when they read it.. For that reason, instructional time allocated to the development of language proficiency in the second language (L2) in addition to time devoted to literacy is critical. Instruction to develop language should focus on the development of vocabulary, learning grammatical rules for sentence production, comprehension, and the acquisition of pragmatic skills.

Children should also be given opportunities to write since this will facilitate the acquisition of the language structures of the second language. This will enable students to use language for cognitive tasks and interpersonal communication. Second language instruction should continue until students are proficient in the language of instruction.

Proficiency is defined as being able to speak, read, and write academic language at a level comparable with non-bilingual persons.

2.1.2 Materials

During the learning to read phase, children need multiple opportunities to read and to be read to every day, using a variety of texts. To build reading skills, and as a means for scaffolding instruction, texts should be matched to the lesson objective. As children develop reading skills, the type of text that is needed will change. Children will move through three types of texts as they develop reading skills. In addition to text type, to select texts that are appropriate, consider text difficulty, text genre, and text topic.

There are three basic types of texts used in beginning reading instruction that differ in their function and level of difficulty. The level of difficulty of a text is determined by a variety of elements (Graves, Juel, and Graves, 2004). The overall length of a text and the complexity of sentence construction are the most obvious in contributing to text difficulty.

When children begin reading, they need text with only a few simple sentences. As their skills improve, they will need longer texts with more complex sentences.

Decodable books help children apply the reading skills they are developing, reading materials that are aligned with their emerging skills are essential. The term decodable text is usually associated with the teaching of reading in less consistent orthographies such as English. In that case, it refers to text that include only or mostly words that can be sounded out. When used to teach children to read in consistent orthographies, which can in theory all be sounded out, it is used to refer to texts that include words composed of letters that have been taught and high frequency words. Thus, the scope and sequence of lessons in these books is driven by the systematic introduction of letters and their sounds.

The texts support children’s acquisition of reading skills by providing them multiple opportunities to apply the skills they are learning. As their reading skills improve, children will be able to generalize the use of those skills and apply them to other texts.

The text of an easy reader is less controlled in word choice and sentence structure than that of a decodable text. These texts provide children opportunities to gain basic word identification automaticity, to use chunking to read words with more complex spelling patterns, and use prior knowledge to construct meaning, and monitor comprehension.

Although, this type of text can be introduced before all the letters have been introduced to help children generalize their learning, they should be used as supplemental reading material initially.

In trade books, word choice and sentence structure are not controlled therefore, children have to use the strategies they have acquired to read and comprehend the text. Successful readers will need advanced word identification skills, decoding strategies, and comprehension monitoring strategies.

Primers often contain both decodable and easy text since children need a variety of texts when they are learning to read. If providing one book is the only option, then a primer is the best option.

Related to length and sentence complexity is the text structure. Text structures are determined by their purpose. There are two principle text structures: narratives and expository text. Expository text is also known as informative text. Although they differ in structure and purpose, both types of structure range from simple to complex. Children will need opportunities to read both types of texts to develop the full range of reading skills that they will need beyond Standard 3.

Finally, the vocabulary (Chall & Dale, 1995; Klare, 1984) and the topic alter the difficulty of a text. In order to understand what they read, children must know the meaning of 90- 95% of the words in the text (Nagy & Scott, 2000). Familiarity with the topic of the text increases the likelihood that the children will know many of the words and concepts included which in turn facilitates understanding (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005).

But to increase their background knowledge and build their vocabulary children need exposure to texts on a variety topics.

Trade books are best for read alouds because children are exposed to more advanced vocabulary, more complex sentence structures, and plot. These books are ideal for building children’s vocabulary and comprehension skills before they can read on their own.

2.2.1 Current Status

The current schedule allocates instructional time in 30-minute segments. Time allocation by language is seven periods for Chichewa and three periods for English in Standard 1;

nine periods for Chichewa and five for English in Standard 2; and seven periods for Chichewa and six for English in Standard 3. Within those periods, reading is not a subject but one of the four communicative skills taught. Therefore, the five components of reading are not taught in a systematic manner.

Currently, there is a process to review of the curriculum and the development of reading programs every five years. The current Primary Curriculum and Assessment Reforms (PCAR), uses a whole word approach to the teaching of reading. However, curricula developed for MTPDS and Literacy Boost both use phonics to teach reading.

There are a number of reading materials available for the teaching of reading. Read Malawi developed trade books that can be used by Standard 1 teachers for read alouds and by Standard 2 and 3 children who are reading independently. The Malawi

Timawerenga! literacy improvement project developed decodable readers. Decodable readers can be used to supplement the primers in Standard 1 and to support children in Standard 2.

The materials that have been developed can be used as part of the NRS.

2.3 Proposed Program

2.3.1 Content

The development of proficient reading skills requires that adequate time is devoted to the teaching of reading. As a minimum, reading instruction should be 60 minutes each day.

To ensure that children acquire the reading skills they need, instruction will focus on the five components of reading. Time will also be allocated to oral language development and writing. These two skills will help children develop reading skills and will be instrumental when they begin to read in a second language. The amount of time allocated will vary by grade to reflect the developmental nature of reading acquisition and research evidence.

Table 2.1 Time Allocation across Standards 1-3

Standard Phonemic Awareness

Phonics Fluency Vocabulary and Oral Language

Comprehen sion

Writing

(60 min.

daily)

5 min.

Focus on identificatio n, blending and segmenting

15 min.

includes practice with decodable text

5 min.

Letter, word, sentence level

10 min.

based on read aloud text

20 min.

Listening comp tied to read aloud text

5 min.

linked to phonics lesson

(60 min.

daily)

5 min.

If needed

(for digraphs, or other elements that have not be taught)

5 min.

Paragraph level w/graded materials

10 min.

based on textbook reading or leveled reader

30 min.

Reading comp tied to read aloud text

10 min.

linked to reading

(60 min.

daily)

5 min.

Paragraph level w/graded materials if needed

10 min based on textbook reading or leveled readers

40 min.

Reading comp tied to read aloud text

10 min.

linked to reading

Further, to ensure that children develop appropriate skills over time and that skills are developed systematically, a three-year scope and sequence of skills that are expected in Standards 1-3will be developed. For the phonics strand, a productive sequence of letters will be identified to ensure that children can begin to blend letters into words within the first two week of beginning reading instruction in first grade. The mapping of letters as well as other relevant linguistic elements will continue until all have been included.

Chichewa may require only one year. English requires two years of phonics instruction.

However, if children have had reading instruction in Chichewa, this time may be reduced since instruction will review and teach children to transfer those linguistic elements that exist in both languages, and more time will be used to emphasize those linguistic elements that exist in English but not Chichewa. Comprehension instruction will introduce comprehension strategies gradually.so that students will have a set of comprehension strategies at their disposal by the time they complete Standard 3. In the event that these are not specified, comprehension strategies will be distributed across the grade levels.

Additionally, the introduction of language and literacy within and across languages will need to be determined both in terms of content and specific skills. Children only need to learn to read once because learning to read is similar across languages, children that know how to read in one language can leverage that knowledge in learning to read a second language. The reading program will attend to the similarities as well as the differences between Chichewa and English to help children transfer the knowledge and skills they possess from one language to another.

Table 2.2 Distribution of Time Allocation across Languages

Grade 1 2 3 4 5 6

Language of instruction and percent* of time allotted to literacy and language instruction

Chichewa 90% literacy 10% language

90% literacy 10% language

95% literacy 5% language

100% literacy literacy

English 5% literacy 95% language

10% literacy 90% language

30% literacy 70% language

40% literacy 60% language

50% literacy 50% language

70% literacy 30%

The percentages represent the percent of total time allocated to each language in a week.

In Standard 1, 7 periods are allocated to Chichewa and 3 periods are allocated to English.

Of the 7 periods allocated for Chichewa, 90% of the time will be spent on the literacy skills identified and 10% will be allocated to language development. Similarly, during the English periods, 95% of the time will be devoted to oral language development and 5% to beginning literacy such as phonological awareness and letter knowledge. These percentages may vary by region or even school depending on the student population.

Features of Standard 1 reading instruction

In Standard 1, the reading block will be divided into two sections. The first will have an emphasis on ensuring children learn to decode and the second will focus on building children’s comprehension skills.

During the code-based section, there will be a focus on children’s acquisition of alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, and decoding skills through the systematic introduction of letters and their sounds. Phonemic awareness is an important skill in Standard 1 especially if students have not attended ECD. However, no more than 5 minutes of instruction is needed daily. Activities for phonemic awareness tasks, letter-sound association, blending of letter sounds, word and sentence reading, and writing will be based on the letter sequence. Writing will be used to reinforce the acquisition of letter/sound correspondences and to build fluency in writing. Additionally, through daily opportunities to write, children will develop pencil control and hand/eye coordination.

In addition to direct instruction of letters, sounds and word reading, practice activities that will help children apply and generalize the skills they are developing are needed.

Time for practice will be factored in during the development of the scope and sequence.

During the meaning-focused section, shared reading activities will provide children exposure to written language, concepts of print, vocabulary, and meaning making through the introduction to and application of listening comprehension strategies. Early literacy skills such as concepts of print, visual discrimination and vocabulary are best learned when they are integrated into meaningful activities such as read alouds. Initially, the teacher will do all reading in this section. As children’s decoding skills develop, graded storybooks will be introduced along with selected textbook lessons.

Vocabulary and comprehension instruction is based on the text. Words for vocabulary instruction are drawn from the story selection. Each day 3-5 words will be selected for pre-teaching. These words should be words that the majority of children do not know and are central to understanding the story. A sample routine for teaching vocabulary includes the following steps:

Figure 2.1 Sample Instruction of Explicit Vocabulary Instruction

Instructional Objective

Procedures

Pronunciation 1. The teacher shows the written word and pronounces the word. The students repeat it

Word consciousness

2. The teacher asks students to raise their hand if they have ever heard the word.

3. Then she asks those students if they can say something about it.

Word meaning 4. The teacher provides a student friendly definition and discusses it with the students.

Word processing 5. The teacher engages students in 1-2 activities to process the word such as identifying examples and non-examples or completing semantic word maps.

Application 6. The teacher tells students to listen for the word as he/she reads the story.

7. After reading the story discuss the meaning of the word

Generalization 8. Provide students opportunities to use the word in a discussion, writing, or other activity.

Comprehension strategies

There is a difference between teaching comprehension and evaluating comprehension.

Comprehension instruction takes place at three moments during instruction: before, during, and after reading. At each time point, children will use comprehension strategies to organize the content of the story. Strategies are cognitive processes that help children remember and use what they have heard or read. Children will need instruction in the use of each strategy.

Figure 2.2 Instructional Activities for Comprehension in Standard 1

Before During After Before reading prepare students by activating or building background knowledge;

asking them to make predictions about what they will learn.

During reading, ensure they understand the story by verifying predictions

After reading check understanding by asking questions;

asking them to retell 3-4 main events in the story;

engaging them in a discussion

Features of Standard 2 reading instruction

Standard 2 is an important transition year in which children consolidate the skills they developed in Standard 1. If phonics instruction is still needed to complete the introduction literacy elements, it should continue until all elements are introduced.

Although phonemic awareness is an important early skill it is not necessary to continue to teach it explicitly beyond Standard 1. Students will continue to develop phonemic awareness through reading and writing activities.

Fluency is critical in Standard 2. At this point children should have enough knowledge of sound symbol relationships and an adequate number of sight words. Practice reading a variety of texts to build automaticity and to generalize skills is essential. However, 10 minutes daily of practice building fluency with leveled text is sufficient. Other practice should be with narrative and informational texts to expand their vocabularies and the use of comprehension strategies.

Vocabulary instruction for Standard 2 will be similar to that described for Standard 1.

However, in addition to the direct instruction of vocabulary, instruction in the use of strategies to help student determine the meaning of unknown words will be included.

Many are dependent on the structure of the language but others such as using context clues are not.

In Standard 2, the comprehension strategies that were used to develop listening comprehension during read alouds, will be used for reading comprehension. This shift may have to be made explicit to the children. Also, at this point they will need to learn to monitor their understanding as they read. Although teachers may skill guide comprehension instruction, it will be important for children to begin to use and internalize the use of comprehension strategies.

Figure 2.3 Instructional Activities for Comprehension in Standard 2

Before During After Before reading prepare students by activating or building background knowledge;

asking them to make predictions about what they will learn.

During reading, ensure they understand the story by asking them to determine whether they have understood the story so far;

asking them to verifying predictions

After reading check understanding by asking questions;

asking them to retell or summarize the story;

asking them to generate questions;

engaging them in a discussion

Writing instruction should focus on composition, writing for different purposes and using a variety of genres. Reading and writing have a reciprocal relationship therefore, aligning reading and writing tasks will help children become better readers and writers.

Features of Standard 3 reading instruction

In Standard 3, instruction will focus on building children’s academic vocabulary and use of comprehension strategies. To facilitate the generalization of skills, children need access to different types of texts. Vocabulary instruction will be similar to that described for second grade. Writing instruction should focus on composition, writing for different purposes and using a variety of genres.

Figure 2.4 Instructional Activities for Comprehension in Standard 3

Before During After Before reading prepare students by activating or building background knowledge;

asking them to examine text structures to anticipate what they may learn

During reading, ensure they understand the story by asking them to determine whether they have understood the story so far;

asking them to summarize what has happened;

asking them to verifying predictions

After reading check understanding by asking questions;

asking them to retell or summarize the story;

asking them to generate questions;

engaging them in a discussion;

use of graphic organizers

2.3.2 Materials

Curriculum analysis is an important component when enriching literacy instruction. The curriculum serves as a bridge between standards and the teachers’ guide and learner materials. It operationalizes the standards by defining the content and sequence that is to be used to ensure that standards are met. Therefore, to identify strengths and gaps in instruction, an analysis of the curriculum is necessary. The goal of the analysis is two-fold: to determine the fitness of the curriculum to serve as the basis for textbook development and to identify additional materials that would be compatible with the framework.

To accomplish this, an analysis of curriculum is conducted by first examining the scope and sequence within and across grades with attention to the overall organization of the content, the rate of introduction, the degree to which each reading component is covered, the integration of the components, and the delivery of instruction.

2.3.2 Classroom Level Materials

Previous work groups identified the need for instructional support materials to facilitate reading instruction and to provide students the opportunity to practice their emergent reading skills. The need for additional reading material can be addressed through the development of grade level readers for classroom use and the development of school or community libraries to increase the accessibility to print and to promote literacy and literacy related activities in the community.

Students

Across the primary grades, students will need different types of texts to develop appropriate reading skills. Emergent and early readers need text that helps them build their reading skills gradually. Established readers need a variety of texts that expose them to various genres. Wide reading is critical in developing grade appropriate vocabulary, content knowledge, and comprehension skills.

The primer should provide children with daily reading and writing practice. Further, because children need to practice the skills they are developing, it is essential that reading materials be aligned with their emerging skills. The scope and sequence of lessons in the text is driven by the systematic introduction of skills.