Post-Assessment

The semester came by too fast.

Half a school year's work culminated during the post-assessment. This session was the least session with our kids, and consisted of a basic assessment packet, very similar to the pre-assessment packet.

I've been worrying about Arvin's performance, but deep inside I knew he would do great. His reading comprehension, as well as following basic instructions and diction had all improved, and I felt so proud as he answered ore than 90% of the questions correctly. At first I didn't think much about it, but when I was compiling all of the lesson plans from this semester, I saw his pre-assessment packet last (my lesson plans are arranged chronologically, with the pre-assessment packet on the bottom) and I saw how from barely 13 letters of the 28-letter Filipino alphabet, he was able to write almost all of the letters in his post-assessment test.

This was his biggest improvement of all.

I couldn't have been more proud as I reverently placed his post-assessment packet in my clear book.

This semester was a very hectic semester, but it was worth all the effort.

Thank you, Literacy Training Service Program, for making me feel like a teacher for just a semester.

Lesson Plan 9

March 3 was a big day for everyone in the Literacy Training Service (LTS) Program. That day's session was to be our last session with our kids, and the final two meetings (on the 10th and 17th) were to be devoted to post-assessment. Post-assessment, if you will recall an earlier post about pre-assessment, is pretty much the same thing. We're even using the same pre-assessment packet to evaluate our students' reading and comprehension capabilities, except we'll be using a different story. But more on that on another post!

For the final session, my student Arvin and I tackled the letters 'N' and 'U', bringing our total letter count to 12 out of the 28 Filipino Alphabet letters.

"The Roadtrip"

To say that this session was memorable would be an understatement. This was the day we happened to catch two of our classmates riding with our professor (they had just gotten on when we spotted them) and our professor invited us to ride with her, too! (Hello, saved 7 pesos on jeepney fare!)

I took this video to immortalize that instance forever.

Bingo

The day's activities consisted of letter bingo, where I showed him different pictures, arranged randomly on a pile, and gave him a goal of forming at least one straight line. When I showed him a picture, his task was to identify the first letter of the word and tick it off on the paper.

As you might recall from my earlier posts on evaluating Arvin, he is a very fast learner and grasps new concepts easily, his one weakness is his rashness and carelessness. When I showed him a picture of a bird, which in Filipino is ibon, he was supposed to tick off the letter 'I' on his bingo card, but instead ticked off the letter 'E'. I pointed to him and asked why he chose that letter, and immediately noticed his mistake. In this I am very lucky, as he grasped how to identify and differentiate the 'E' and 'I' sounds quicker than the other students in the program.

Narda at Nanding and the Wordless Picture Book

This session's stories consisted of the story of Narda and Nanding, two siblings who live in a nipa hut and go to their aunt's backyard to play, but end up getting caught in the rain and catching a fever. Arvin and I tackled pronouncing and writing the letters 'N' and 'U', with words like 'nipa' (nipa palm), 'ninang' (godmother or aunt), 'nanay' (mother), 'ube' (purple yam), and 'ubas' (grapes).

For the wordless picture book, Arvin was showed a story of a boy who witnessed the logging of a forest, and as a result, when a typhoon hit their community several houses were destroyed and damaged. I was surprised, when, after letting him narrate, he used the example of Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) as the typhoon in the story.

This week we repeated last week's routine of making our own picture books, even Arvin. I made him draw two scenes from a reading activity and write the corresponding sentence on the blank space provided.

Preparation

Next meeting, on March 10, will be the beginning of Arvin's post-assessment. I'll have to start preparing the lesson and the assessment packet. Wish Arvin luck!

Lesson Plan 8

February 24's lesson plan tackled the letters 'K' and 'E'. I'm thankful that the letters 'I' and 'E' were tackled separately. This lesson gives me the chance to ease in the letter 'I' and to better explain the difference between the two.

Si Ebang Engkantada

This session's story book was the first that we had to make ourselves. Normally our professor would e-mail us a scanned story that was drawn by her son, and that we would cut into fours. Being an arts student I was excited to do the story book, and thank heavens my requirements for my other subjects were light and afforded me the time to make the illustrations.

Back to the story.

Si Ebang Engkantada is a story that revolves around an engkanto, or an environmental spirit. More of the nymph in Greek mythology, except an engkanto is more anthropomorphic, so to speak. The engkanto's name is Eba, and she resides in a forest with several animals who are also her friends.

One day, a group of loggers come to Eba's forest and begin cutting down the trees. This scares the animals, and prompts them to leave Eba's forest. Saddened by the departure of her companions, she begins crying, and is noticed by one of the loggers, Enteng. When Enteng asks her why she weeps, she tells him the reason and Enteng goes back to his companions, scaring them of fabricated ruses that makes the group leave the forest, giving the animals the opportunity to return and thereby appeasing Eba.

We reviewed words beginning with both 'K' and 'E', like engkantada, Eba, 'elepante' (elephant), 'kuneho' (rabbit), 'kuwago' (owl), and 'kahoy' (wood).

...In my head, the final scene where Eba sits in full glory with her companions was very Katy Perry-esque (thanks to her music video Roar).

Phonological Awareness 

I taught my student Arvin the proper pronunciation of the letters 'K' and 'E', and how to properly write them. Our next activity was photo matching, wherein I would place pictures in a grid on the floor and ask him to place them on a column with the corresponding first letter of the word.

Being a fast learner, he didn't have any problems finishing the exercise given a few minutes.

Arvin's Wordless Picture Book and the Renewal

This week, I introduced Arvin to a new activity: making his own picture book. I asked him to select two sentences from a reading comprehension activity we did and had him draw and write these two sentences on a piece of paper.

Ever since my professor made him write full sentences, the activities have been easier for him, I guess it was a major boost in his self-esteem, and small accomplishments for us like these are what make me very happy and thankful that I'm part of this program. It gives me a renewed sense of purpose, and a determination to prepare Arvin for his post-assessment in a few weeks' time.

Lesson Plan 7

February 17. My student Arvin and I tackled our second set of two letters: 'T' and 'I'.

Ang Tanghalian nina Teresa and the Wordless Picture Book

A very light story, Ang Tanghalian nina Teresa narrates Teresa's and her family's lunch, prepared by her father.

My student Arvin and I went through the words that began with the letters 'T' and 'I', such as Teresa, Isabel (Teresa's cousin), 'tanghalian' (lunch), 'tatlo' (three), 'talong' (eggplant), 'ipis' (cockroach), and 'itay' (father). Arvin and I have formed a little game: after I let him read the session's story aloud, I let him guess what our two new letters for the week are. I think that this additional exercise will do him a lot of good.

When we were through, we moved on to our next story, the wordless picture book entitled "Ang Bertdey Keyk" (The Birthday Cake).

Phonological Awareness

For this session, I set out an almost-identical activity as the previous session's photo matching. And I was pleased and impressed at Arvin's speedy work. He quickly and correctly identified and matched all the pictures laid out for him, and even remembered the Filipino term for bear! ("Oso"; If you will recall the previous post, he had just learned it last week.)

Worksheets

That day, we also had two worksheets to let our students accomplish. The first was a simple matching activity. Given a batch of pictures, Arvin had to identify the first letter of each word and place the picture in the corresponding column with that letter.

The second was a bit trickier; it consisted of five items, each item comprised of a sentence and an incomplete picture that he had to finish according to the sentence. He breezed through the first three items, but got confused with the instructions on the last two items. This is when I established that although he is a fast learner, Arvin also has a tendency to be careless in his activities. I pointed to the item and asked him why he answered so, and he immediately identified his error.

Hopefully, he will grow out of his careless; he is a smart kid, after all!

Lesson Plan 6

February 10's session came as a bit of a surprise when we received our e-mails the Saturday evening before. All of our lesson plans before tackled only one letter of the Filipino alphabet at a time (with the exception of the review lessons where we went on and on with the letters 'M' and 'A'). If what I gather from our professor is correct, this is also the first time in the Literacy Training Service (LTS) Program that the tutors will do two letters at a time. Honestly, when I first read the e-mail I was nervous on whether I could keep this up until the end of the semester.

To start the session, I had a little review with my student Arvin. I asked him what letters we had previously tackled, and he was able to name all four. ('M', 'A', 'S' and 'L')

Ang Kaarawan ni Ola

This session's story was entitled Ang Kaarawan ni Ola, or "Ola's Birthday". It's a very light story about a girl named Ola, who wakes up on her birthday and receives a gift each from her parents, and breaks fast with them.

The story did a very good job of incorporating the two letters of the lesson. After asking Arvin a few reading comprehension questions, I decided to change the routine a bit. Instead of introducing the new letters like I had in the previous weeks, I had him guess what the new letters were. (I told him we were tackling two letters a session, of course.) As the answers to the reading comprehension questions are words that generally start with the new letter of the session, identifying two was a bit tricky for Arvin. Some of the words were 'Ola', 'opisina' (office), 'Oktubre' (October), 'bibingka' (a type of rice cake in the Philippines) and 'berde' (green).

After some encouragement and a few tries, Arvin got the letters. (In case you haven't, they are 'O' and 'B')

Phonological Awareness

After tackling the story, we moved on to a few more activities. One of them was the photo matching, where Arvin was given a batch of pictures and a batch of name cards. He had to correctly match the pictures and names. He took a bit longer as compared to similar exercises in the past, probably due to the sudden increase in words available for the activity. That day, he also learned what the Filipino word for bear was ("oso").

When we had packed up, we had a short comprehension activity, wherein I read him five short sentences and asked him about them. He was able to answer the simple ones, but when it came to some of the questions, he could not correctly state the answer. I guess this is forgivable, he must also be adjusting to the two-letter-a-session approach just as we volunteer tutors are.

Lesson Plan 5

For the first lesson in February, my student and I tackled the letter 'L'.

Game of Pairs/Memory Game

As a review of the previous letters tackled ('M', 'A' and 'S'), I had Arvin play a memory game, where he had to find the corresponding pair of a picture, all of which were upside down. After he found a pair, though, he had to identify the word, and tell me the letter with which it starts and the sound that the letter makes. I think this type of game is a very effective way for the child to remember letters and sounds.

Si Aling Lani and the Wordless Picture Book

This lesson's stories included "Si Aling Lani" (Aling Lani), which tells the story of a laundry woman who is famous in her community for washing away any stain at all, including the sauce of litson or roasted pig.

The Wordless Picture Book, entitled "Ang Bagong Kaibigan" (The New Friend), which illustrates how a schoolgirl overcomes the embarrassment of slipping on a swing through the encouragement of a newly-made friend. Some of the words that helped ease in the lesson of 'L' were 'Lani', 'litson', 'labandera' (laundrywoman), 'lampin' (swaddling cloth) and 'labakara' (face towel). I had my student Arvin repeat the words to get the sound right, as he slurred the 'L' sound a bit.

Phrase Reading

One of the last activities was Phrase Reading. Here I had Arvin read a few short sentences, with words that began in 'M', 'A' 'S' and 'L' were typed in bold. After which I asked him a few comprehension questions. He missed a few details and mixed up some names, so I'll have to be sure to help him focus more in the next sessions.

Lesson Plan 4

The last session for January was the letter 'S'.

Chocolate Rain

No there was no rain.

To start the lesson, we tutors usually sing a song. Of late, none of the songs were really noteworthy (hence the exclusion from the blog entries) but this lesson's song was extremely helpful in cognitive learning. Some of us may remember the nursery hymn If All the Raindrops, and this lesson's adopted a Filipino version. I'll put it here, together with a very rough translation.

"Kung ang ulan ay puro tsokolate (If all the raindrops turned into chocolate)

O kay tamis ng ulan (Oh how sweet that would be)

Ako’y lalabas at ako’y nganganga (I'd go outside with my mouth open wide)

A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a (A-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a )

O kay tamis ng ulan." (Oh how sweet that would be)

This song served as an aid for reviewing past sounds ('M' and 'A'). Now I was able to give the letters another layer of meaning for my student Arvin. The 'M' sound would henceforth be known as the "eating sound" ("mmm"), and the 'A' sound would likewise be the "rain sound" (named after the song; "a-a-a...-a"). This gave me an idea for the session's lesson, 'S', whose sound I called a "snake's sound" (fo when a snake hisses; "sss").

Kapag Sabado and the Wordless Picture Book

This lesson's storybook was entitled "Kapag Sabado" (When It's Saturday). This story tells us of a boy named Santino who eats food that begins with the letter 'S' on Saturdays.

The wordless picture book, "Masayang Maglaro sa Ulan" (It's Fun to Play in the Rain) illustrates how a schoolgirl gets caught in the rain, decides that it's fun to play in it, and gets down with a fever as a result.

After reading the story, I had Arvin answer a few reading comprehension questions, all of the answers began with the letter 'S', to better help in remembering the sound. Some words used to help with the lesson were 'Santino', 'Sabado' (Saturday), 'saging' (banana), 'sardinas' (sardines), and 'sorbetes' (ice cream).

Phonological Awareness

Another activity we had that day was a vocabulary-development exercise. I printed and pictures of objects that started with the letters 'M', 'A' and 'S' and stuck them on the six faces of a cube made of illustration board. The rules I gave Arvin were simple: He had to roll the die, select a picture on the face that was right-side-up, and place it in a column that was labelled with the three letters. Before placing the pictures on the corresponding columns, I had him tell me what the picture was, to be sure we were on the same page.

Our last activity was similar in nature. There were two piles of cards: one pile was a pile of pictures, and the other was a pile of labels of the pictures. Arvin had to identify them and match them together. Some words were repetitive, to better remember the past lessons, like the worlds 'sama' and 'sama-sama'. Both words mean 'together', the former denoting at least two people, and the latter denoting a much larger group.

Lesson Plan 3

January 20's lesson plan was a review session for my student Arvin. We tackled the two letters we had already covered, 'M' and 'A'. More than a review session, however, this lesson introduced the concept of blending sounds together. The sound 'ma-' is very common in the Filipino language. It denotes a variety of adjectives such as "malungkot" ("ma-" + lungkot or sad), "masaya" ("ma-" + saya or cheerful), "matakaw" ("ma-" + "takaw" or gluttonous).

Maliit na Maya and the Wordless Picture Book

The stories I let Arvin read consisted of "Maliit na Maya" (The Small Eurasian Tree Swallow or Maya Bird) and a Wordless Picture Book entitled "Nang Sumakit ang Ngipin ni Mando". Maliit na Maya tells the story of a girl named Maan and a small tree swallow she encounters in a mango plantation.

Nang Sumakit ang Ngipin ni Mando illustrates the story of a boy named Mando who eats too much candy and suffers a tooth ache.

After the reading activity, I asked Arvin a series of reading comprehension questions, all of which began with the "ma-" prefix. Some of the words in the story used included 'Maan', 'maya', 'mangga' and 'manggahan' (mango and mango plantation, respectively), and 'maliit' (small).

Letter Hanger

One of the more fun activities I prepared for Arvin was the 'letter hanger'. Basically, pictures of words beginning with the letters 'M' and 'A' are strung and hung onto the hanger, allowing them to dangle, almost like a toy mobile.

Arvin's task was to take the pictures that started with the same letter and group them together. This activity is both a fun and effective educational experience for the child. They get to connect the sounds, letters and words together and understand the lesson; all without boring the child out and frustrating them to learn something.

Tachistoscope

A new teaching tool was introduced to us: the tachistoscope.

The tachistoscope is basically a piece of paper with windows and adjustable letter cards. Each letter card consists of at least two or more letters that can be adjusted upwards or downwards, forming a variety of combinations and helping the child learn blending letters to form different words.

Other Activities

Aside from the ones mentioned above, our professor also prepared three activities for the kids. One of them had a set of pictures with blanks, and the child had to correctly identify the word from a bunch of scattered letters (mostly 'M's and 'A's). The other activity was pretty much the same, but the child was made to write the word down on the worksheet. The last one was a variant of the memory game. Here, the child was given two piles: a pile of pictures and a pile of name cards, arranged randomly on the floor. I had Arvin play the game, to help him correctly match the words with the pictures.

Lesson Plan 2

For January 13's session, my student Arvin and I tackled our second letter in the Marungko approach: 'A'. This was the first time for the new year that we saw each other again, so this lesson plan was a great way to review our previous lesson, the one on the letter 'M'.

Isang Mainit na Umaga and the Wordless Picture Book

This session had two stories. Isang Mainit na Umaga (One Hot Morning) is told from the first-person perspective and features food eaten on a hot day. The Wordless Picture Book, Ang Bisikleta ni Alon (Alon's Bicycle) illustrates the story of a boy named Alon who takes a ride on his bike, and gets a flat tire.

Some of the words that were used to help with the lesson were 'Alon', 'atis' (Philippine sugar apple), and 'apa' (ice cream cone).

Phonological Awareness

One of the activities we engaged in was a ready-set-go sort of game. In this activity, I laid down a batch of pictures whose first letters were either 'M' or 'A'. About four feet from that, I laid down a sheet of paper marked 'M', and another marked 'A'. Arvin's goal was to grab a picture and run to the sheets of paper and lay down the picture to its corresponding letter.

This game also served as a review for the previously tackled letter, 'M'.

Coloring Activity

Another activity of note was the coloring activity. I gave Arvin some crayons and an activity sheet where he had to color the pictures whose words started with the letter 'M' in yellow, and those that started with 'A' in red.

Mid-Semester Evaluation

Our very first session for the year, January 6 was not spent with our students. Instead, we held an evaluation of the Literacy Training Service (LTS) program in the College of Education, the home college of the program.

The session lasted from 8:30 until around 11 in the morning. Here we convened with the other LTS team, the Balara team, as well as our professors. It consisted mostly of us sharing experiences and problems that we've encountered so far, and our professors advising us on possible solutions and troubleshooting steps.

We shall resume our sessions with our students the following week, with our second lesson plan.