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National Framework for the Teaching of Reading in African Languages in the Foundation Phase
The framework recognises that although learning to read is very similar across languages, differences in the way languages are structured and in their writing systems (orthographies) influence the reading process. The Framework seeks to help teachers and curriculum specialists understand that the reading approaches and methods on how to teach reading in African languages differs in some ways from English, especially with regard to the early stages of learning to read when children learn how to link letters to sounds, and to use this knowledge to read words (decoding). Currently, the influence of reading approaches used in English is so strong that it overrides the development of reading methods and pedagogies that are appropriate for African languages. The Framework unpacks the teaching of decoding skills (phonological awareness, phonics) and dense morphology that pose challenges for young children in the early stages of learning to read in African languages. The Framework emphasises that the morphological, phonological and orthographical features of African languages should be factored in the design of reading curricula, the development of teacher training programmes and assessment for African languages.
New Readers Publishers - easy readers for adults
New Readers Publishers develops and supports adult literacy and basic English Second Language skills by producing easy to read books in all South African languages for the entertainment and education of adult new readers. Many of the books are also read and enjoyed by children. New Readers Publishers is a non-profit publishing project originally started in 1991 and housed by the Centre for Adult Education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, until 2014. It is now an independent initiative which has made digital versions of all of the New Readers Publishers books available online. The use of these e-versions is free for non-commercial purposes via a Creative Commons Licence (Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivates 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) International licence). New Readers Publishers retains the copyright. The books can be downloaded, printed or read online in pdf format.
PrimTEd Teaching Reading study guides
This is a set of draft study guides for students who are training to teach reading and writing in Primary Schools. They can be used as self-study material and all include study short self-tests for each unit in each study guide. The full set is still in development and six study guides are currently available.
Primary Teacher Education Project Teaching Reading study guides
This is a set of draft study guides for students who are training to teach reading and writing in Primary Schools and particularly in the Foundation Phase. The guides can be used as self-study material and all include study short self-tests for each unit in each study guide. They are written in English but two of the guides, based on Sesotho and IsiZulu Reading Project material, make extensive reference to these two languages.
Reading fluency [PrimTEd Teaching Reading study guide 4]
This is a short introduction to the development of reading fluency in initial reading teaching. It describes the components of reading fluency and methods for developing and assessing it. The use of fluency norms and benchmarks in the South African context is outlined as are ways of testing oral reading fluency (ORF) in the classroom.
Introduction to teaching reading [PrimTEd Teaching Reading study guide 1]
This is a short introductory overview of the teaching of reading. It introduces some of the terminology and key concepts associated with literacy and the teaching of reading. Outlines are provided of the key processes in learning to read and of the necessary components of effective reading instruction programmes. It includes short self-tests for each unit in the Guide. As an introductory overview it does not provide specific instruction on the techniques used in teaching reading and writing, whether for home language or in a first additional language.
Vocabulary [PrimTEd Teaching Reading study guide 6]
This is a short and basic guide to the development of vocabulary knowledge and use in the primary school.
Decoding in reading [SIRP/PrimTEd Teaching Reading study guide 3]
This study guide is about decoding – about developing the ability to transform written text into spoken words in order to gain access to the meaning of a text. Unless a child is able to convert the written text into spoken language, she or he cannot decode the message behind the words. Children are not born with an innate ability to read and write, they have to be taught to do that. To decode a text means applying a knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly sound-out and pronounce written words. In other words it is deciphering the alphabetic code into language. To encode is the reverse process of converting spoken words into written text. This guide provides an introduction to the key elements of decoding in reading, namely phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, phonics, morphological awareness and oral reading fluency. Note that this study guide has focused on decoding in Sesotho and isiZulu, though it will be useful for all teachers of literacy in South Africa's official languages. The study guide is an adaptation of Sesotho and isiZulu Reading Project (SIRP) material
The Department of Basic Education Literacy Workbooks
Since 2011 the Department of Education produced free Literacy workbooks in all the home languages for all primary education school grades R to 6.
Zenex Fundamentals in Early Childhood Development – Communications
Zenex Foundation materials designed by SAIDE and Woz’obona on Fundamentals for Communications at NQF Level One, in English. It uses a problem centred approach. The materials were originally designed for ECD practitioners studying at NQF Level 1 (meeting the requirements of five NQF level 1 unit standards to gain a qualification in Communications (Unit Standards 12462, 119641, 119631, 12469, and 119636) to gain a part qualification in Early Child Development at NQF Level 1). The course comprises learner and trainer materials.
Zenex The Expert Reading Teacher course materials
A set of materials designed to teach Foundation Phase teachers how to teach reading. They are high quality materials developed by academics in collaboration with teachers. This collaboration resulted in materials that are highly structured, using a systematic approach to the teaching of reading. The materials address various aspects of the reading process, including language concepts and vocabulary building. They are written in English, but include a comprehensive list of literacy concepts explained in three languages, namely, English, isiXhosa and isiZulu.
Reading comprehension in high-poverty schools: how should it be taught and how well does it work
A description and appraisal of a reading comprehension programme that was aimed at Grade 6 learners and teachers and implemented in different ways in two high-poverty primary schools where reading levels were very low. The results of the comprehension programme for the learners' reading abilities in their home language, Northern Sotho, and in English are reported and lessons learned identified.
What we have learned in the past decade: RTI’s approach to early grade literacy instruction
A paper describes the core elements that we have found to improve early grade literacy instruction and learner outcomes: the approach to teaching, the availability of quality, relevant learner materials, the effective use of instructional time, the use of formative assessment to guide instruction, and provision of instruction in the most effective language. This paper focuses on the acquisition of literacy in alphabetic and alphasyllabic languages in the early primary years (most typically, academic levels 1 through 3) and the kinds of exposures, instruction, and support learners need to become fully literate. These are the elements of a literacy program that can be taught, that should be present in teaching and learning materials and in teacher trainings, and that relate specifically to what happens in a classroom.
What we have learned in the past decade: RTI’s approach to early grade literacy instruction
A paper describes the core elements that we have found to improve early grade literacy instruction and learner outcomes: the approach to teaching, the availability of quality, relevant learner materials, the effective use of instructional time, the use of formative assessment to guide instruction, and provision of instruction in the most effective language. This paper focuses on the acquisition of literacy in alphabetic and alphasyllabic languages in the early primary years (most typically, academic levels 1 through 3) and the kinds of exposures, instruction, and support learners need to become fully literate. These are the elements of a literacy program that can be taught, that should be present in teaching and learning materials and in teacher trainings, and that relate specifically to what happens in a classroom.
A history of disputes about reading instruction
Discusses the disputes internationally and in Australia on how reading is taught and raises the important issue of the lack of impact of research on teaching practice.
Literacy acquisition: Some general findings from recent research
A summary of a key chapter on literacy acquisition from Helena Abadzi’s well known book.
“Sixty words per minute for all”: Why this goal for the early grades?
Short paper arguing that failure to learn reading is the primary reason for repetition in the early grades. Students cannot learn from books until they can read fluently, and they may even be unable to solve verbal problems written in maths books. Abadzi argues that by by the end of grade 1 students should be able to read very common words, albeit haltingly. By the end of grade 2 at the latest, students should be reading simple texts fluently, at a rate of at least 60 words per minute.
Reading in English as a First Additional Language. An annotated bibliography 2007-2021
This annotated bibliography was compiled by Claire Biesman-Simons and Kerryn Dixon with Elizabeth Pretorius as part of the Primary Teacher Education Project (PrimTEd). It gives a summary account of South African research that has been done on reading in English as a First Additional Language from 2007 to 2021. It comprises a set of annotated entries, mainly research articles from accredited journals and also lists several other sources closely related to reading in EFAL. Originally compiled in 2018 and 2019 and then revised in 2021, it is designed in such a way that new entries can be added to it as new research emerges.
Illiteracy: The neuropsychology of cognition without reading
This literature review records that learning to read reinforces and modifies certain fundamental abilities, such as verbal and visual memory, phonological awareness, and visuospatial and visuomotor skills and that that literacy and education influence the pathways used by the brain for problem-solving. It includes an interesting finding that learning to read in adulthood is a process supported by different brain structures from the ones used when learning occurs at the usual age in childhood.
Why can’t a teacher be more like a scientist? Science, Pseudoscience and the Art of Teaching
The article provides a useful examination of the distinction between science and pseudoscience, outlines the characteristics of good educational research and exposes that much educational thinking, including much special education, exhibits the core values of pseudoscience. It provides some interesting examples from Australia in the field of reading instruction.
The illiterate brain: Learning to read and write during childhood influences the functional organization of the adult brain
Study showing that literate people have a different functional organization of the human brain and that learning the visual representation of language (and the rules for matching phonemes and graphemes) develops new language processing possibilities.
Are we country of cognitive genocide?
Full version of an article published in a condensed form by The Conversation on 26 February 2018 as "South Africa’s reading crisis is a cognitive catastrophe".
Initial Teacher Education Research Project
The ITERP project – a collaboration between the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the Education Deans' Forum, and JET Education Services – was to gather up-to-date information on the state of initial teacher education (ITE) in South Africa and to examine the extent to which the ITE programmes offered by universities are adequately preparing teachers to teach in South African schools.
My fish died and I flushed him down the toilet”: Children disrupt preservice teachers’ understandings of “appropriate” picture books for young children
A study of the relationship between pre-service teachers’ conceptions of children and of picture books in the context of little material on picture books in curricula for teacher education.
CITE-ITEL
CITE-TEL is a web-based resource, the Critical, Interactive, Transparent & Evolving literature review in Initial Teacher Education in Literacy, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. It seeks to list the research literature that is focused on initial teacher preparation in literacy and provides a forum for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to engage with this growing body of research.