“I don’t know the sounds that the letters of the alphabet make.” This is a statement we have heard over and over again in recent years. However, you may be surprised to learn that this sentiment has not come from students, but rather, from the teachers themselves!
In fact, the prevailing approach to teaching reading in most local schools in the local West African context where we work involves using only the names of alphabet letters without ever actually teaching the sounds. As a result, many students go through school having never learned the sounds or been exposed to the notion of phonetics. They instead learn whole words through rote memorization. The fact that many French speaking countries in Africa are counted among those with the lowest literacy rates in the world make the shortfalls of this approach evident.*
In response, over the past several years, our team has been working with teachers to integrate their current teaching approach with phonetics and visual support. Teachers who have implemented this strategy have been surprised to discover how quickly their students picked up reading skills.
“I did not know that simple and affordable approaches to teaching reading could make such a significant difference in such a short amount of time. From now on, I am going to shift my school’s approach on teaching reading to this model. Thank you so much! Would the Teacher’s Garden be willing to go over this workshop with my entire school faculty? I want to send them here to learn for themselves what I just saw!”-Roy, Elementary School Principal, West Africa, February 2020
*https://www.uscareerinstitute.edu/blog/which-countries-have-the-highest-and-lowest-literacy-rates