STIR Education Micro-Innovations that raise results PHONICS ON A MOBILE PHONE

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1 STIR Education Micro-Innovations that raise results PHONICS ON A MOBILE PHONE

2 FOCUS: STUDENT SUCCESS PHONICS ON A MOBILE PHONE STIR EDUCATION At STIR Education, our belief is that the best way to improve the quality of education is to empower teachers and principals. As the people closest to the challenges of providing all children a high quality education, teachers and principals are uniquely placed to lead change in the education system. STIR has two very simple ideas about how to do this: 1. By identifying the teachers and principals who have created successful, innovative practices what we call micro-innovations to improve education in their schools and recognising their efforts publicly. 2. By creating an ecosystem that enables those micro-innovations to be shared with other teachers and schools through partner organisations and teacher networks and that encourages and inspires the development of additional micro-innovations SADAF MEHNAZ AND BAB-UL- ULOOM SCHOOL Sadaf Mehnaz is a teacher at Bab-ul-Uloom School. She is a new teacher and, being from the community in which Bab-ul-Uloom is located, she is very dedicated to her students. She believes strongly in teachers continuing to develop and challenge themselves and enjoys the supportive environment at Bab-ul-Uloom. Bab-ul-Uloom is a new school that is based on Madarsa in Seelampur, East Delhi and serves the children of labourers, small shop owners, vegetable vendors or rickshaw pullers; all the children are first generation learners. By identifying teachers innovations and building the STIR network of teachers what will become India s most creative community of teachers - our aim is to improve the quality of education for over 1 million children in the next three years. This guide introduces just five of our micro-innovations: We hope that it inspires you to introduce a similar idea in your classroom, to share your own micro-innovations with STIR and to join the STIR network of innovative educators! Sadaf Mehanaz receiving her STIR INNOVATION award

3 HOW CAN I SUPPORT MY STUDENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR PHONICS PRONUNCIATION? Teaching students to read is critically important to enable them to access the rest of the curriculum and to learn effectively. This is a particular challenge for students who are not supported to practice reading at home. Sadaf had received some training in using the phonics approach to teach reading but lacked the funds to purchase expensive learning materials. She knew that teaching students to pronounce sounds correctly was very important for the phonics method to work properly and wanted to make sure that students hear the sounds correctly. DO THESE CHALLENGES SOUND FAMILIAR? Sadaf developed a SOLUTION that was both COST EFFECTIVE and helps PUPILS to PRONOUNCE SOUNDS correctly I was aware of the importance of children learning to read properly. I needed a way to make learning phonics both fun and effective without being too expensive. SADAF S SOLUTION: TEACHING PHONICS THROUGH A MOBILE PHONE To help ensure her students learn to pronounce sounds and words properly during their phonics lessons, Sadaf has loaded Phonics songs (which are free to download from the internet) onto her mobile phone and plays the songs in class using low-cost speakers. Sadaf received some training in teaching phonics and now uses the songs to enhance her ability to teach the sounds and words effectively. Using audio requires students to listen very carefully to the sounds and words they are required to learn and provides an interactive means for them to remember the sound. teaching phonics

4 Could you play phonics songs through your mobile phone to help enhance your teaching of phonics? How else could you use low-cost technology and information that can be downloaded onto mobile phones to support student learning? You could introduce phonics on a mobile phone in exactly the same way the Sadaf has (see Step by Step guide below) or you could introduce your own technique to use technology to enhance learning. Either way, a focus on teaching reading is very important! playing the songs will mean children are learning it is important to integrate the use of the technology into carefully thought through lesson plans. 2. If you have not had the opportunity for training in phonics, speak to your principal to see if it might be possible to access some training. 3. If you have some teachers in the school who have had phonics training, work closely with them to learn the techniques, observe their classes and plan lessons with them whenever possible. SADAF S ADVICE: The reason that Sadaf s use of a mobile phone to teach phonics is effective because she recognised that she could use an easy technology solution to enhance her teaching of reading and make it more effective. Sadaf suggests the three following key pieces of advice for people considering teaching phonics through mobile phone / technology: PHONICS ON A MOBILE PHONE STEP BY STEP GUIDE PREPARATION AND RESOURCES REQUIRED To introduce the teaching of phonics using a mobile telephone at your school in the way that Sadaf has, follow the steps below: 1. CREATE LESSON PLANS THAT MAKE CAREFUL USE OF SONGS THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD. MAKE SURE YOU USE SONGS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO YOUR STUDENTS LEARNING STAGE. 1. Using the mobile phone is really useful to ensure that children hear the sounds they are learning to pronounce correctly. It also allows songs to be played to help children learn the sounds. However, teachers should not think that just

5 2. DOWNLOAD THE RELEVANT PHONICS SONG ONTO YOUR MOBILE PHONE (OR A COMPUTER IF AVAILABLE). 3. DURING THE LESSONS, PLAY THE SONGS USING THE MOBILE PHONE OR BASIC SPEAKERS TO ENSURE STUDENTS HEAR SOUNDS BEING PRONOUNCED PROPERLY. 4.GRADUALLY INTRODUCE LETTER SOUNDS ONE BY ONE (USING APPROPRIATE SONGS) AND TEACH THE STUDENTS MORE AND MORE WORDS WITH THE SAME SOUND SO THEY PRACTICE USING THE SOUNDS IN CONTEXT 5. OVER TIME, ALL OF THE PHONICS SOUNDS WILL HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED WITH SUPPORT FROM THE SONGS PLAYED ON THE MOBILE PHONE. WHAT DO OTHER TEACHERS SAY? POSITIVE BENEFITS: Using phonics songs has really helped me to make the learning of sounds interesting for children and to make sure they hear really good pronunciation. CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME: It can be hard to make sure that children learn words to use the sounds as well as just the sounds in the songs. I am working on helping them to do that now.