SJKT Jasin Lalang

Greetings from SJKT Jasin Lalang,

Here in Jasin, Melaka we've started a peer assisted reading program. The aim of the program is to help bridge the gap between the strong students and slower students in years 2 and 3. During these years, we see the gap widen between the faster and slower. The slower students need extra attention to keep up; we want to prevent the slower students from becoming too frustrated (and giving up and/or getting further behind). Teaching basic reading skills enables the target students to be able to follow along much easier in class and will also increase their independence. Building confidence and self-esteem will also be an objective of this program. All of this will be done using fun, student centered activities.

How the program works: Teachers run an initial diagnostic test and select participating students based on results. Students are then put into small groups; strong level two students are matched with slower year 2 & 3 students in groups of 3-5. Level two students receive training on how to properly mentor and facilitate learning activities.

The program centers on phonetically progressed readers. Each week the target students will hopefully graduate to a new reader in the series. The curriculum consists of a 5 day cycle with each session 20 minutes in length:

Day 1: This day focuses on phoneme introduction. Mentees make word family flowers with mentors and paste them into their books. The mentors practice the pronunciation with mentees and read the story for the first time.

Day 2: Mentees review the new sounds by segmenting and blending. The focus of this day’s session is word recognition and pronunciation. Mentors facilitate the first activity called ‘Smack It.’ In this activity, one student will start the game by reading a word while the others smack the word card on the table. The first student to smack the word takes a turn as the reader.

Day 3: Phonemes and words are reviewed again quickly before the activity starts. The aim for day 3 includes form and vocabulary meaning. Mentors ask mentees to spell the new words with mini whiteboards. The mentees then match the words to the correct flashcard on the table.

Day 4: This day starts off just as the previous few as the mentors will review the words and phoneme sounds before beginning the day’s activity. The aim on day 4 is reading comprehension. Mentees receive a series of pictures and sentences from the story. They must match and sequence the two to form the entire story. They will then read the story together to the mentor.

Day 5: This day reviews all 3 activities. Each group will cycle through the activities while the teachers call students up one at a time. The students will read the story to the teacher and the teacher will determine if the student graduates to the next reader or stays on the same reader for another week.

The target students are encouraged to take their readers everywhere with them and read them in their spare time. Any good learning habits are praised and rewarded with stickers on a chart. Students can receive stickers for reading independently, reading to mom/dad, always bringing book, etc.

Each sticker represents a ‘guess’ towards winning a jar of candy. This merit system is in place to help praise and motivate the students.

So far the implementation of the program has not gone exactly has drawn up, but that was to be expected with tight schedules and other conflicting obligations. Nonetheless, the program is doing what it has intended and that is improving reading skills.

I will keep you posted on the program’s progress and report findings during the presentation on August 26^th. See you all there!

Best Regards,

Jesse Jack