21 July 2011

Coach-a-coach Extensive Reading Assistance Plan: Putting common sense to reason

A REMEDIAL, INTERVENTIONIST METHOD AND CONTENT  LESSON PLAN CALLED CERAP



















Preface

Reason for specific learning difficulties among schoolchildren, reading disability.
Reason for reading disability among schoolchildren, non-reading.
Reason for non-reading among schoolchildren, not asked to read.
Reason schoolchildren not asked to read, not part of the examination business.
Reason reading not part of the examination business, teachers lack time for it.
Reason teachers lack time for it, they don't make time for it.  
Reason teachers don't make time for it, reading not part of the examination business.
Reason reading not part of the examination business, our lack of common sense?

SO WE SAY,
WHERE ARE THE READERS UNLESS WE PRODUCE THEM;
PRODUCE A READING COACH AND YOU PRODUCE A COACHING STATION; AND
PRODUCE A COACHING STATION AND YOU PRODUCE A READING HABIT.


1. Introducing CERAP
[Note: Cerap bahasa is Malay for 'mind your language']

Coach-a-coach Extensive Reading Assistance Plan, CERAP, is a method and content solution for English language teaching and learning. It is designed as a supplementary remedial cum enrichment programme to fill the gaps found in the present taught curriculum, for experience has taught us that one of the main reasons why students fail in learning is their lack of reading skills. The present method of
language teaching and learning presupposes the ability of students to obtain input for acquisition, and hence usage, of a second language via the formal intensive method. The present method of English language teaching and learning also dispense with the need for 'sound' or PROOF OF READING FLUENCY even for teachers!


This lack of reading skills is rooted in learning discrepancies acquired by students' in the rush by Malaysian schools to complete the curriculum, or to target a specific examination. There are too many instances of slow learners who are left behind whilst exceptional, gifted ones are ignored. Only the “average” ones are led along to go through this system of learning, which may or may not produce students of an acceptable standard.

An early CERAP experimental programme conducted by Terrabaca Management (in Terengganu and in Pahang between 1996 -2001) proved beyond doubt that students who have an early initiation in proper reading skills using interesting books in a non-threatening environment improved their learning capacity by leaps and bounds within a short period of time. We feel that there is a need to further develop this into a remedial cum enrichment "interventionist" method syllabus using a more structured reading skills approach which will uplift reading standards as well as improve students’ general academic achievement in schools.
 

The selected modules could be run as an English Coaching Games for the primary school students preparing the UPSR year-end written examinations, running it from February to April. Schools will have the advantage of lifting their takeoff value from a higher level, and producing students who enter secondary school with functional and usable English. It helps correct the 'anomaly' of L1 and L2 national grade average as it levels the playing field and jumpstarts reading.
 
This coach-a-coach approach not only enhances general reading skills, but have an in-built scheme whereby more coaches are trained internally as the programme develops. In this way the programme feeds itself without the need for onerous funding and training programmes for teachers. 

 
An interesting spin-off - from our experience - is that teachers as facilitators, and coaches themselves improve their own language skills along the way in the course of implementing the programme. We have also seen how delighted the students were with their new-found skills and also their new-found love for books that many offered to stay on as coaches beyond the designated time, creating an almost instant shift in their outlook to learning.

 
We have tested this peer coaching method, albeit on a small scale at primary, secondary level (1996-2001) and post-SPM and university level (2002-2010). We now feel that there is a need to incorporate this dynamism into the present school system so that low achievers will not fall by the wayside while their better classmates are being dragged more and more into complex IT-based learning methods, with the goal that the number of quality students coming out of the system are increased whilst the late-bloomers are catered for. 
The B.I.L.A.S  module is perfect for implementation at the community college level (Basic PMR or SPM with low English language exposure). An enforced literacy programme such as CERAP is able to raise literacy and the appreciation of the written word, allowing learners to acquire a sustainable second language leading to Intermediate mastery before leaving school.
 
Low achievers can be taught to excel by the simple approach of enhancing their reading skills and also by boosting their interest in learning with suitable supplementary modules. And for low achievers, we discovered, there is more pleasure for them to be coached by their peers, to be huddled together whilst the head coach cues correct pronunciations, or spelling, or assist them as their written work are being done.
These modules could also cover the core areas of science or mathematics without the need to change the tools of instruction, or the medium. This is where a creative school might want to add the science and mathematics textbooks as reading materials, to ensure that each student who competes would end up reading the whole book before June. From June onwards revision and remedial exercises follow, and the other like could be scheduled.

 
The programme that we envisage, and whose worth has been proven in our rural and suburban 'laboratories' (research done in Terengganu and in Pahang from 1996 to 2001, and amongst university students in 2002-2010) basically underline basic aim of CERAP; to enhance/boost/ supplement/develop reading and learning skills among low achievers in English (especially among students whose academic records tend to veer downwards), via an approach to pedagogy that is simple, practical and yet effective. And more importantly, to ensure that the high-achievers be put on an extensive enrichment practice, for it is from their lot that the quality coaches come from.

2. Reading Method Solution

 
The method solution lives out the philosophy of "Blessedness in Togetherness" (Muafakat Membawa Berkat) and the basic Malay adage on a life of learning as encapsulated in the “Buah Cempedak Di Luar Pagar” pantun - the philosophy of a more caring, cheaper and better learning strategy through a simple student-centred approach.

 
One of the 4 objectives of the KBSM English language programme states thus:
“At the end of the secondary school English language programme the students should be able to read and understand prose and poetry for information and enjoyment ".

For this to happen under present English teaching and learning circumstances, the Ministry has once published a Compendium Bahasa Inggeris KBSM outlining, inter alia, on the need to introduce Class Readers, suggesting that one-fifth of the teaching hours be slotted for this. And to date, that suggestion has remained in the Compendium.
 
The number of class students and the lack of time, books and competent teachers plus general apathy to anything which is not examination business have turned reading into a foreign element in the educational and teaching process. And the price for that could be seen in the fall in the standard of language fluency and proficiency, thus perpetuating learning disabilities. What is most troubling is the sure prospect of a continuous 'tikus baiki labu'
(literally, like mice repairing the gourd, which means to worsen a situation) scenario in the attempts to remedy the situation.
 
We have looked at the reading disability problem in the schools at close range, and have drawn certain conclusions that coincide with the comments made in the Compendium. It is the taught curriculum (English as taught) that compounds the problem and breeds learning disability, and not the quality of the official curriculum or the various suggested tools of instruction available. Language is not taught as language is to be taught.

 
But more importantly we have found a method solution for English language teaching and learning in schools, which in a manner of speaking, is a method of 'down-right-sizing' the logistics for implementing the recommendations of the compendium and beyond. We have tested the method, obtained paper proof of results rating and now seek the attention of all concerned parents and teachers alike to hear us out on the proposed method and observe its practical implementation on the school system.

 
The method module is called in layman's jargon, the Coach-a-Coach extensive reading assistance programme, or CERAP, and its implementation calls for the involvement of another form of PTA's or P.I.B.G. i.e. PELAJAR, INSTITUSI, BAPA & GURU in a concerted, fun-filled competitive environment, an outcome-based approach aimed to ease language acquisition process whilst conditioning the learning activity to be more humane, with a sense of camaraderie and peer respect.

 
3. The Method Content Module

 
The content of the module is a selection of materials designed with a remedial cum enrichment approach that seeks to screen students in the four areas of language skills, i.e. listening, reading, writing and speaking. It is an "interventionist curriculum" to ensure all the gaps in skills, gaps produced by the examination/testing approach in schools, are now filled. It basically employs a student-driven, peer learning approach geared to solve the stuck on the language malaise that is the product of years of distorted language teaching.
The method module for school implementation in turn is designed to resolve classroom problems in teaching English to a big and mixed ability crowd of 40 students by using the big numbers to advantage. The key idea behind the method is firstly, to get the students to read as many books as fluently as possible via a graded reading programme consisting of books and audio-cassettes. It is an enforced reading programme conducted on a regular basis by 4 coaching teams per class under the teacher's supervision.

 
The method of coaching is called coach-a-coach because it is peer teaching with effort as part of the evaluation and grading component. The reading practice is conducted by groups of ten students on a read aloud take-a-turn reading, with the coaches continuously correcting each and every mistake. The stress on frequency for fluency, or fluency from frequency, produces the necessary reinforcement needed for retention of subject matter in a tongue-tied environment prone to the disincentives caused by the rule of disuse (lidah dah berkarat) and issues of cultural permission (kaffir language) of the English language.

 
And with the daily diet of written exercises completed in each session, to be peer marked and corrected on the spot, parents need no longer worry about present state of affairs where teachers are too busy to mark and supervise pupils’ written work, and where mistakes get uncorrected and undetected for life, and achievement level frozen up to tertiary level. We have tested students from primary to university level using Oxford's Test yourself, and unsurprisingly the grammar skills of a graduate is approximate to that of any primary school advanced pupil. The same applies to most language teachers tested.

 
In a CERAP programme, the assigned teacher/facilitator will be supervising 4 coaching teams, each team ensconced to a component of the content module, competing to complete and then move on to a higher level, or switching to a different component, say from reading to storytelling to writing mode. The flexibility is there to maintain group dynamism by allowing students to excel by having games and competitions, using the underlying content-woven 3000 keywords corpus target.

 
We propose a minimum of 2 sessions per week, each lasting 90 minutes (1 hour of reading + 30 minutes of writing, spelling & other exercises per session), so that each student does 6 minutes of reading while being read to for the remaining 54 minutes, strictly speaking. Thus on a weekly basis, each student would have actually read for 12 minutes and listened for 108 minutes, making a 2 hour weekly diet of ongoing reading practice and 1 hour reinforcement activities. Compare this to virtually zero hour reading in most schools, where language is taught sans the sounds!

 
Non-English teachers or even volunteers from amongst parents (e.g. where it is done off school hours) could conduct the supervision of the coaching. Thus from one perspective the method should be able to produce a pool of English para-teachers who would have acquired enough reading skills to be able to run the programme from constant repetition and contact with the language.

 
An interesting spin-off could be an impact on the tuition business run by teachers in their spare time as there are bound to be parents prepared to pay for private tuition operators simulating the CERAP programme. It is important that the capacity building path of obtaining input for skills acquisition be addressed first before students are able to handle the 'communicative' aims of the second language syllabus.

 
Since the nature of the coaching sessions require actual reading and active participation, the excitement and joy of competition provide the impetus for students to excel. This we have been able to observe at close range, the paradigm shift produced by the CERAP way. Compare that to the staid, passive and multiple-choice rote manner English is being taught!

 
The proposed content modules consist of 4 components; each component complements the other, being tools for the main method component, which is practice. The books and audio may be sourced as meets our initial requirement on quality and practicality. The internet has vast materials for the creative web-miner. What is most important is to be able to assemble a group of 10 coaches to compete in a CERAP English Coaching Games, each coach willing to push the group to the finals, so to speak.

 
Students are put on a 3-stage reading programme. The stages are tagged Remedial, Enrichment and Further Reading for students from Primary Four to Secondary Three category. This is an important grading element for the home tuition part, i.e. for sibling coaching. There will be instances where siblings from different grades end up with same module level and this acts as a catalyst for the elder one to remain ahead, or else be coached by the younger brat, so to speak. The Further Reading stage would include read aloud sessions using science and mathematics textbooks, which will eventually generate enough interest matter in the subject.

 
Presently the teaching of mathematics and science though officially in English are not so taught in the 'taught curriculum'. It could instead be designed to run as an ongoing coach-a-coach book club/class library scheme so that students who have achieved progress post-CERAP do not wane on their reading. Recorded versions of Best Reader, or students’ reading selected for in-house use for new entrants to the programme, provide ample opportunity for the creative to put up online blogs or to ‘youtube’ it, and also to record progress in a group email alert.

 
The other element suggested by CERAP is the passing out in June/December where awards will be given to the best reader, best coach, best coaching team, best storyteller, best speaker, best speller, best effort etc., which needless to say, provide the impetus for the progress and success of the students. As a highlight, a state-wide competition could then be held after the UPSR and PMR exams where selected students represent their respective school before the school year-end. Scenes of students whiling and idling while waiting for UPSR and PMR results will be a thing of the past as schools could put them to good use as coaches to run ongoing CERAP activity.

 
4. CERAP tools

 
The four content components – sets of books selected and used for CERAP activity are meant to cover the following areas of activity:
1. Basic Literature in storytelling mode (designed to detect listening skills problems and to determine suitable materials to overcome difficulties)
2. Graded readers / keywords in read aloud mode (reading for grammar skills enabling students to master through practice diction and correct grammar)
3. Grammar Practice/structural words and sentence patterns ( writing skills using structured materials leading students to confident composition writing or prose)
4. Conversation practice (include speaking skills and formal English usage using graded materials leading to confident usage)

 
5. CERAP THROUGH BILAS FIRST

 
We mentioned in our earlier posting tools used in our proven research amongst pupils from Malaysian schools. In most rural or semi-urban setting schools are rushed in completing the 'testing' or 'examination' curriculum so that the taught syllabus distorts the necessary lesson requirement, both in content and pedagogy. Therefore we introduced the term BILAS, (adopting the Malay word bilas for 'rinse'), to propose that pupils go through a language rinsing process before the move to secondary education. Our BILAS or Bahasa Inggeris Latihan & Ajar Semula  [English Language Refresher & Practice] tools refer to books that could be used as practice sets. These are recommended supplemental materials other that the present books used by teachers as practice-for-examination sets.

 
We recommend a foreign set here, as we believe that the transition from foreign language to second language mode can only be achieved once pupils have gone through enough drill practice and structured usage. In the present learning environment pupils' only contact with the language is from the adhocism generated by lessons meant to beat the examination system, which produced dysfunctional English for the majority. The better ones manage due to exposure from usage at home or because their parents introduce them to correct practice at an early stage.

 
BILAS 1

 
Basic Literature in Storytelling Mode

 
We have experimented using Ladybird's Favourite Tales & Classics Collection for Remedial and Enrichment (for listening skills) in rural Malay schools effectively. The book and audio segment, the logistics nightmare, as some teachers put it, has to be addressed. For a basic reading room what is needed is a cassette player and either a Japanese table (UPSR) or a table to fit 10 chairs (PMR). Most schools have media rooms but for the creative, sessions could be held under the tree in the school garden.
This is a most effective component, as pupils tend to progress rapidly once they recognise sounds from words they are familiar with but never asked to say out loud. This familiarity is now enforced through constant writing, through copying of all words pronounced, through spelling drills etc..
The storytelling mode draws out students from their shell of "abashment" and brings out the “literary types” where fluency is concerned. This component is to fill one of the missing gaps in language teaching-the development of listening skills leading to reading skills, leading to fluency. There are abundant photo-copiable materials from the web for the creative school to compile a set of class readers.
 

BILAS 2
 
Hidden Grammar - Key words in Read aloud mode

 
By using Ladybird's Key Words Graded Readers series, we are then able to place each student in his or her respective level, or to use present teaching parlance, to discover their take-off-value. This grading enables the teacher to arrange the team according to achievement, thus having 4 teams made of A, B, C and D ranking. The team members are encouraged to vie for the A team to qualify as coach to be assigned to the other 3 teams. Here the class is involved either in remedial stage (Book 6 below) or enrichment (Book 7 onwards). In a dream setting, a teacher supervises the ongoing practice of 4 teams, one doing the storytelling component whilst the other 3 the Hidden grammar component. It is possible to bring down each team's voice level so that the humming is at the same sound level.

 
We have experimented with this using Ladybird's Key Words reading scheme as a grading and grammar automatization set, and found that it is designed for just this kind of logistics, besides having been in the market for more than 20 years. The formula to note here is that using a 3000 word corpus as a target, the drill and practice requires a constant brush of these first 1000 crucial words; with learning outcome credo requiring students to read aloud, spell and write them, and eventual USAGE (ability to produce written essays or speak the language when required).

 
The reading practice helps students understand and master the school English language syllabus more easily. We gauge this against the official school examination, and discovered that students who are able to read Book 6 fluently eventually are in the top spot. The progress to a second language mode, we notice, is faster once students go through a foreign language approach in language learning i.e. through an enforced reading programme. Thus as a supplemental programme it does not interfere with the ongoing lessons and reduces the exam-phobia and “examicide” of English.





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