Success Stories
A Refreshing and Rewarding Approach to Teaching Literacy
A language tutor from the OLA College of Education, Cape Coast, was selected to receive training as a member of the National Resource Team for the Literacy Support Initiative – the team that delivered literacy training to all teachers in Ghana on the introduction of the Let’s Read and Write literacy program. Below is his testimony:
“The opportunity I had to train as a member of the National Resource Team for the Literacy Support Initiative has brought profound changes to my approach to literacy instruction. I dearly cherish the new learning I was exposed to at the training workshop. During and after the training, I realized that the Let’s Read and Write approaches were refreshing, rewarding and exciting. The varied strategies I was introduced to clearly demonstrate how children can effortlessly be placed at the centre of teaching and learning.
The gains I made at the training so enthralled me that, I was intrinsically motivated to employ some of the literacy strategies in my lessons at the college. Now my students read around topics for lessons knowing very well that I may employ the ‘KWL strategy’ that will require them to state what they already know about the topic. This remarkable change is making my lessons more participatory and information on given topics more extensive.
My six-year old daughter, who is in primary 1, is another reason for my confidence in the Let’s Read and Write approaches. At home I decided to test the effectiveness of the literacy instructional approach on my daughter. Within a short time my daughter started reading words by using a combination of ‘phonological awareness’ and ‘phonics’ approaches to literacy. My wife was very amazed at the dramatic change in her performance.
I sincerely believe that with the right commitment of our classroom teachers to the Let’s Read and Write approach, this country will witness an upsurge in literacy levels in our schools.”
Mr. Godfred Amoako Atta
