Reading for life! · This Teacher’s Handbook “Reading for Life” aims to contribute to the...

Reading for life!

Teacher’s Handbook of Educational Strategies

FIRST GRADE1

CREDITSReading for life! First Grade Teacher’s Handbook of Educational Strategies

© 2016, Bluefields, RACCS

CARS/USAID:Richard Fisher, DirectorHenry Myers, Sub-directorMelvin James, Education SpecialistSara Carter, Reading FacilitatorMirna Villalta, Reading Facilitator

Author:Jacqueline Sánchez, Education Strategies Expert

Edition:Víctor del Cid

Translation:Lisette AnzoateguiJose Saballos

Photography and layout design:Francisco Saballos

The photographs used in this handbook were taken at the Andres Castro School, community of Haulover, Pearl Lagoon.

Illustration:Alvhents Rodríguez

USAID-Nicaragua Representative:Alicia Slate

The purpose of this Teacher’s Handbook of Ed-ucational Strategies “Reading for Life” is to con-tribute to the improvement of the performance of primary education’s first grade teachers.

This document was made possible by sopported from the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by DevTech Sys-tems, Inc. for Community Action for Reading and Security under contract AID-524-C-13-00001. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of USAID and/or the U. S. Government.

CONTENTS

1 2

1

2

3

Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Learn, Practice and Apply (APA) Methodology: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Components of Reading . . . . . . . 11

Alphabetic Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Phonological Awareness . . . . . . . . . . 11

Reading Fluency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Reading Comprehension and Writing . . . . 12

Vocabulary Development . . . . . . . . . . 12

3 4 5

4

5

Educational Strategies . . . . . . . . 13

Strategy 1: Who am I? Where do I live? For prior knowledge and readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Motivational topic 1: Playing with letters . . . . . . . . 14

Motivational topic 2: How is my body? . . . . . . . . . 18

Strategy 2: I learn to read, write stories and riddles . . . . . . . . . . . 23Motivational topic 1: Playing with letters . . . . . . . . 23

Motivational topic 2: I read and have fun . Initial reading using syllables, words and sentences . . . . 28

Motivational topic 3: I like to create stories and fables . The use of capital letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Strategy 3: Guess guesser . . . . . . 35Motivational topic 1: How fun are riddles and jingles! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Motivational topic 2: Let`s interpret messages – Being heard and oral comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Motivational topic 3: Let`s write rhymes and riddles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Strategy 4: Narrating personal experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Motivational topic 1: Our local stories–Conversations, narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Motivational topic 2: Let`s write short texts . . . . . . 47

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Presentation

This Teacher’s Handbook “Reading for Life” aims to contribute to the improvement performance of first grade teachers in primary education, mainly

by focusing in the area of language and literature.

This handbook will enable teachers to develop innovative, dynamic and participatory pedagogical practices according to the needs of students. In this way, they will experience significant learning through reading using the Learn, Practice, and Apply (APA) methodology, having the student become the protagonist and not a mere subject.

The Community Action for Reading and Security (CARS) is an activity funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It has established coordination and communication with officials of the Min-istry of Education and the Regional Secretary of Education of the Caribbean Coasts Autonomous Regions, and local non government organizations with the aim of working together to improve the results of early grade and con-tribute to the reduction of citizen insecurity.

This handbook includes teaching and learning strategies for reading and writing to support teacher performance. However, it is also flexible material in that it allows teachers to further include their own strategies based on her or his experiences to give greater relevance.

First Grade Teacher’s Handbook of Educational Strategies 5

Learn, Practice and Apply (APA) Methodology

In recent years, USAID Nicaragua has funded projects and materials based on the Learn, Practice, and Apply (APA, for its Spanish acronym) methodology to ensure compliance

of goals 1 and 3 of the USAID education strategy. The APA methodology consists of strategies to:

Teach to develop skills and values, how students learn, for what they learn, and the teacher’s role guide autonomous and cooperative work. At the same time, the methodology includes specific activities that consider the characteristics of students and their educational needs. Therefore, these activities cannot be disordered and unarticulated, but should have an order, a process that integrates knowledge, forms of knowing, forms of teaching to think and ways of knowing to be.

This methodology promotes comprehensive education and transforms content as a means and not ends. One of the main characteristics of the APA methodology is that it pro-motes logical thinking skills and the social construction of knowledge through group work, while allowing the develop-ment of educational skills such as oral and written expression, listening and reading comprehension. It includes activities to be developed individually, with peers, family relatives or in the community, aiming to become an active subject in the construction of significant learning.


The structure of the APA methodology is organized into three parts (Araquistan & Saldaña, s. f)1:

Learn:

This methodology assumes that learning does not begin in school. It is about generating a network of reflections toward the prior experiences and knowledge of students, which will be the basis for the generation of new learning.

The development of learning is the central step in the Learn aspect. It is formed by a set of structured learning activities that provide opportunities for students to manipulate, observe, and listen. Through their personal experiences complemented with peer interactions, students establish relationships, associations, make their own hypotheses, create questions and express interest in solving them using research.

In this process, every teacher is very important because she or he stimulates and guides students to enhance their interactions. It takes into account that although learning is the result of an internal process that no one can do for someone else, you can learn through others, because contact, dialogue and joint activity require testing knowledge and skills at all times, enabling to further improve and expand them.

Practice:

This process aims to prepare students to act according to the new knowledge, attitudes or values. This is why many individual activities are proposed taking into consideration that although the construction of knowledge is social, its ownership is individual. These activities help integrate theory and practice, exercise and cor-roborate that each student possess new learning.

In the case of consolidating the learning acquired in Learn, students get involved in creative thinking, reasoning, remembrance, social interaction and problem solving.

Apply:

This is about students being able to apply learning in specific situations in their daily lives within their family, community and other settings. Activities are proposed to

1 Araquistain, F. & Saldaña, J. (s. f). Módulo 3: Estrategias Educativas que Contribuyen al Desarrollo de la Escuela de Excelencia. Proyecto Alianzas II. USAID-Fundación Zamora Terán-RTI International. Pág. 29.

8 Reading for life!

2. LEARN, PRACTICE AND APPLY (APA) METHODOLOGY

help students use knowledge to solve problems or answer questions. This is the step that allows a high degree of autonomy, because students can choose and implement activities and projects that are important to them and productive for school, family or community.

They also exert autonomy to deepen their knowledge on their own from other sources such as the library and institutions in their community.

In the Ap p l y, the relationship between the school knowledge and the knowledge of the community is also strengthened, allowing use of strategies to learn to judge, discuss, confront ideas with others, cooperate with the group, learn to value, respect individual differences and, consequently, have adequate levels of tolerance within a group.

Reading

Reading is the process of obtaining meaning and understanding of any information and/or ideas stored in a media and transmitted through some kind of code, usually a language, that can be visual or tactile (for example, the Braille System). Other types of reading may not be based on language such as notations or pictograms.

Weaver has stated three definitions of reading:

• Know how to pronounce written words.

• Know how to identify words and the meaning of them.

• Know to extract and understand the meaning of a text.

Mechanics of Reading

• Physiology permits the understanding of the human capacity to read from a bi-ological point of view, thanks to the study of the human eye, the field of vision and the capacity to stare.

• Psychology helps define the mental process that takes place when reading, either at the stage of decoding characters, symbols and images, or the phase of association of the visualization with the word. Psychological processes of reading were studied for the first time in the late nineteenth century by Emile Javal, who was the director of the ophthalmology laboratory at the Sorbonne University.

• The clinical pedagogy deals with educational aspects regarding the teaching and learning of literacy, specific reading disorders and skills needed for an effective reading process.


Components of Reading

Alphabetic Code

It is the set of letters (graphemes) and rules that allow the written representation (graphic) of spoken language. By learning the alphabetic code, we learn to establish the relationships between phonemes (minimum articulation of a vowel and consonant sound) and graphemes (minimum unit of writing of a language, cor-responding to the letters) and existing agreements or rules use for writing words.

Learning the letters of the complete alphabet is done at the end and not at the beginning as is done in traditional methods. When working with a constructivist approach, the first letters that students learn are those of their names and others that have great meaning to them.

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is the capacity that makes students recognize, identify and manipulate the sounds that make up words. It is the relationship between sounds and letters. The graphemes and phonemes form voiced and written units, which allow the building of a meaningful word.

Students have limited awareness of the sounds of language. It is difficult for a student to understand that the letter is called one way and pronounced another. For example, F is called ‘ef ’ and pronounced ‘fffff ’ . . . The teacher must recognize phonological simi- larities and differences. It is important to consider the development of this cognitive capacity as an essential first step before formal teaching of the alphabetic code.

To analyze the sounds of a word, it is individually separated with a slash.


Example:

• Charles C/h/a/r/l/e/s

• Maria M/a/r/i/a

• John J/o/h/n

The sounds of a language are written between slashes, , for ex-ample /a/.

Reading Fluency

Reading fluency only applies to reading out loud, by contrast si-lent reading is no longer called reading fluency, but is referred to as reading speed (rs). This capacity develops when students increase their level of word recognition. Therefore, fluency is necessary for a proper understanding of the text and to develop a love for reading.

Reading Comprehension and Writing

Reading and writing are complex processes that go beyond simple decoding. It is an act of communication that allows a meeting between reader and author of the text. Reading opens the doors to the world and knowledge. It will allow the reader to enjoy, have fun, laugh, mourn, admire and research. Reading and writing are activities with which we build and expand our knowledge of the surrounding world. To acquire reading and writing skills is to promote new and effective channels of communication between students and their social and cultural environment.

Vocabulary

It is a learning strategy applied through a process of correspon- dence of the graphemes and phonemes. The process consists of each teacher presenting the phonetic part verbally and sharing the acoustic image through writing or the grapheme.

It is also a writing procedure by which the student listens first to a certain number of words, retains them in his or her memory and then writes them down immediately.

12 Reading for life!

3. COMPONENTS OF READING

4

Educational Strategies


The story of my name

• We recommend students to consult with their family regarding the reasons for their given name:

» Why were they given that name?

» Who decided on that name?

» Who else in their family has the same name?

» What are the names of the adults in their home?

» Do they have any siblings? What are their names? Why were they given their names?

• Invite students to share in small groups the story of their names and encourage them to feel proud of their own name. We recommend ask that they listen carefully to their classmates when they speak.

Learn:

Strategy 1: Who am I? Where do I live? For prior knowledge and readiness

Motivational topic 1: Playing with letters

Purpose:

The student identifies sylla-bles and words through rid-dles; Practices pronunciation and listening.


Practice

¡ Remember:

1). An individual’s name is important because it serves a number of functions: It recognizes the right to have an individual name that distinguishes one person from another. 2). It enables a person to assume and become responsible for their identity.

• In plenary, guide student to repeat their name and share how they felt while telling the story of their name. As each child states her or his name, write it on the chalkboard. The names should be organized into groups beginning with the same letter, for example:

Raul

Ramiro

Roxana

John

Jessica

Joshua

Manuel

Minerva

Melvin

Peter

Pedro

Paula

• Once they have all stated their own names, ask for volunteers to identify their name. Afterwards, they write it down on a piece of paper.

• Continue the discussion with the students using the following questions:

» What would happen if one of us did not have a name?

» Why is each person’s name important? Which of your friends’ names do you remember?

» Discuss with the group about the importance of having a name, which rep-resents for a person a human right, a sign of identity and gender expression.

Let’s play cards with our own names

• Prepare cards with the students names.

• In small groups, draw the cards one by one, read the names out loud and ask students to recognize whether the name belongs to someone in the classroom.

• Ask student to select five cards each to read out loud when they are in the large circle.

• In plenary, each group reads the names on five cards.

• Demonstrate how to write the names on the cards on ruled paper for each small group. Indicate the letters that are written above and below the lines of the ruled paper.

• Ask for several volunteers to identify their name by drawing a circle around it.



Decorating our name

• Encourage student to say their name and observe how it is written.

• Read the names that are written on the pages (without spelling them out) and explain that their name is written there.

• Ask each student to write their name on a sheet of paper, decorate and paint it. Place the decorated name in a visible location in the classroom, or tapped onto the student desk.

• Continue learning with names: Invite student to answer the following questions, “Is your name long or short? What other names in this class begin with the same letter as your name?” And so on.

Name Fishing

• On a card or other material, draw the shape of a fish with the students’ names inside.

• First, build fishing rods with the help of students in the upper grades.

• Afterwards, organize the name fishing. With the support of the teacher, students read the name written on the fish.

• The other students listen attentively to know when their name is fished.

• For example, if the card that says Amalia is fished, the girl to whom the name belongs to is identified and then the following is said, “She is a girl. ” You can add attributes, for example, Amalia is tall, smart, funny, etc.

• Take this opportunity to familiarize the students with spatial concepts: Fish in the water, fish out of water, names deep in the water, names at the top of the water, etc.

Read the following text:

A name represents a reality for each person. The written name is a meaningful linguistic unit that allows student to start a natural process of learning written language.

A name of a child, written by her or his teacher in their presence, is the beginning of a reflection about the written language, because it gives the opportunity to focus on the production of a text. Student can also recognize from the beginning that writing is a process where the letters are written in a linear way starting from the left side, that words such as their names are made of letters that relate to speech sounds.


4. EDUCATIONAL STRATEGIES

ApplyInventing rhymes

• Ask student to search for names that rhyme, helping stu-dent to place emphasis on the sounds that are repeated at the end of each name.

• Encourage student to repeat the rhymes and create addi-tional rhymes with their names. For example:

Alberto

Rigoberto

Roberto

Andrea began to clap then put her

Abran lost a ring on the swing .

I am Alberto and I play with Roberto. My name is Erica and I live in Central America.

• Encourage the student to create rhymes in teams and to dictate them to the teacher to write them on the board. In this way, they will began their experience as produc-ers of texts and familiarize themselves with the basics of written code.

• Another game is to form stairs of words with the names of classmates or relatives. The only condition is that now they must think of new names or new words that begin with the last letter of each name written. For example:

• We recommend showing the invented rhymes to the students’ family members.

l o r e n armando s c a r

aúl



Motivational topic 2: How is my body?

Purpose

• Students identify the dif-ferent parts of their body and its proper care for health

• Carry out pre-writing ex-ercises, muscle relaxation and agility of different body parts.

Learn:

Recognizing our body

• Organize students in pairs or teams to draw a human sil-houette on a flipchart paper (in each team, one child lies down on top of the flipchart paper which is placed on the floor while another child traces their contour).

• Then, using the silhouettes, they label the different body parts by writing the corresponding name near the part. Work in teams so that those who can read help others, or if needed you can assist.

• The silhouette can be drawn with other material at their disposal such as crayons, chalk, wool, straws, pebbles, corn, leaves, and seashells.

• Another variation of this activity is to bring a doll to identify the human body parts on it.

headneckchest

shouldersarms

hands kneeslegsfeet



I have two on my face and if I close them, I cannot see . What are they?

(Eyes)

With these, we can walk, run and jump . What are they?

(Legs)

It is a small box that opens and closes and inside it has a tongue . What is it?

(The teeth)

¡ Remember:

The walls of the classroom should be decorated with images of the human body labeled with the names of its different parts.

• When students have completed their work, take the opportunity to talk about the body parts and how the health of each individual is important to sustain life.

• Discuss with student hygiene habits that should be practiced daily. Then, stu-dents can draw objects used in the community that can help us stay clean and healthy. Also, discuss nutritional food that they should eat to grow strong and healthy, such as seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Saying riddles of the human body

How do we move? – Getting to know the joints of the body

• Organize the student in small groups to perform various movements by flexing their knees, elbows, one foot, then the other foot, and their head to one side, forward, back, down, up, etc.

• Ensure that the students follow the movements as directed, correcting them when necessary.

• Later in plenary, continue with questions to share how they felt during the ex-ercise and discuss the joint functions. They can also do other familiar activities and games.

What is missing?

• The activity “What is missing?” utilizes worksheets or assembled index cards to talk about the parts of the face.

• We will continue to explore the body putting together puzzles and identifying body parts.

• As supporting material for the activity, you can show a drawing of the face with its parts.



Practice

Doing exercise helps us

Take the opportunity to conduct pre-writing exercise activities for mus-cle relaxation, developing muscle tone and agility for arms, hands and fingers with games such as:

• Walk following a rhythm, and stay motionless when the music or sound stops.

• Then, students play by mimicking a statue of iron or plastic which has its arms raised. At every step students follow commands such as, “The head has melted” then the student drop their head forward, “Now the hands have melted” the students let their hands fall, keeping raised arms, “Now the arms have melted” then students drop their arms. After repeating the exercise two or three more times, give the following instruction, “Now the body melts” the students let their upper body drop slowly forward as if they were deflated, made of rubber or cloth.

• Continue exercising body parts by rotating wrists mid-air, shake both hands behind you, flipping them and repeating this several times.

• Afterwards, begin exercises that are essential to prepare for writing, such as:

» Squeeze and release a rubber, paper or cloth ball several times.

» Create movements to mimic molding dough.

» Tap fingers hard on the table as if to play a piano or use typewriter.

» Join all the fingers together and then separate each finger one by one, keeping the other together.

» Press the thumb and index finger together like tweezers.

» Paint an invisible wall (make a movement as if we are painting the wall with a brush).

» Circular movements.

» Brushstrokes or drawing in the air.

» Strokes or patterns in the air.

• Take advantage of the physical education class to develop spatial orientation, reflex exercises and games.



¡ Remember

The basic concepts and skills introduced during the period of readiness will continue to be strengthened throughout the year, until each and every student achieves good development.

¡ Remember

Everyone is different and has different tastes, interests, physical characteristics, religion, ethnicity, language, feelings and other particularities. But, we are all people with rights and duties, Nicaraguans, from the Caribbean Coast.

I am Nicaraguan, I am from the Caribbean Coast

• To strengthen the identity of students, handout sheets of paper with drawings and figures displayed below. They can draw or write with the help of another person.

What things make me feel:

Happy

Secure

When I feel better?

Where I live:

The planet. . . .

The country. . .

The region. . .

The neighborhood or community…

• Ask student to model different representative ways of being: sad, happy, serious and angry.

• Request that they express on sheets of paper how they feel and the name of the place where they live. They may obtain assistance from someone else in the class or the teacher.

• The classroom walls should be decorated with maps of Nicaragua, and the Caribbean Coast Region. Also, the walls can further be decorated with faces expressing happiness, figures of students, adolescents, adults and student’s rights in a graphical form.

After students have worked individually and in pairs, encourage student to discuss the activities they participated in. Invite student to discuss what is common between everyone and what makes us different.

Mark with X what I am

GirlBoy



Apply

I know my rights and duties

• Present to the student a poster containing graphics on children’s rights.

• By asking questions, urge student to express everything they know about their rights.

• Ask for their opinion about the fulfillment of their rights in their family, commu-nity, and school.

• Invite students to give suggestions on how to fulfill these rights.

• Help student write words about children’s rights, for example, health, education, having a name, a family. At a later time, they can write complete sentences with these words.

• Finally, write on the chalkboard a list of words and phrases about their respon-sibilities. For example, I must:

• Behave well at school.

• Behave well at home.

• Always tell the truth and keep my promises.

• Do my homework.

“As a child I have rights, but I also have responsibilities”



Learn

Strategy 2: I learn to read, write stories and riddles

Motivational topic 1: Playing with letters

Purpose:

The students identify syllables and words through riddles and practice pronunciation and lis-tening.

Riddle Guessing

• Ask student to listen carefully to the riddle that you will read.

• Encourage students to repeat individually and collectively the text through play until they learn it.

• Analyze the content of the riddle. Lead the exercise in a practical way, step by step.

• Give student time to try to guess the answer.

• Play to “read” and “reread” the riddle, for instance someone points to the words as they are pronounced.

• After reading the text, ask the students to select a word, for example, climb.

• Analyze its meaning with student.

• Give real examples of the action to climb: Climb the stairs, climb the roof of a house, climb a tree, etc.

• Teach student how many syllables the word climb has. To do this, pronounce climb several times.

• Request that they work in teams to build other words with the syllables found and to study their meaning. Make sure they begin to use the new words in ev-eryday speech.

• Repeat the previous exercise with other texts like the one shown in the boxes.

• Next, have the students listen carefully to the following riddles:

When I climb up, you go down . If you go up, I go down . We can both never be at the same height .

(The seesaw)


• The best guess is the guesser. Can you guess the letter?

I was your first sound, when you started talking and I am the first letter in the alphabet .

(The letter a)

I am a very straight stick and in the head I have a dot .

(The letter i)

I have scales, but I am not a fish I have a crown but I am not a king . What am I?

(The pineapple)

Discover children’s rights

To be a girl or boy

To special cares

To grow free

To a family

To an identity

To a good education

To not be abandoned or

abused

To health

To protection and development

To not be discriminated



Playing with sounds

• After guessing the riddles, invite students to say other words that begin, end or contain the letters mentioned above.

• Write the letters on the chalkboard and pronounce its phonemes, circle or underline these letters.

• Organized in teams, students mimic the sounds that some animals and nature make. For example: a bird, dog, other animals, rain, wind, thunder, etc. Have student try to guess what each sound is from. This activity can be carried out along with a poem, story, completing phrases or sentences to retain motivation. For example:

The Wandering Turtle

Every morning on the riverbank you could see the wondering turtle walking

and walking.

…woof woof… good day… said the puppy.

…meow… meow… it is not here … the kitten said.

…cheep…cheep…hey, are you going to school? Asked the chick and every morning the turtle and friends walk singing a happy song:

¡ Remember

These games help us become familiar with the use of naturallyoccurring sounds and the correct pronunciation of phonemes.

Practice

Let’s talk about the image:

• Let’s look at this image. In advance, copy the image on a flipchart paper, and place it in a visible location in the classroom . Students should learn to recognize the letters shown in the drawings . We used the let-ters d, n, t, as an example .



• Invite students to give names to the characters shown in the figures using the letters presented. Have student decide if the character is happy, sad, upset, if they are in one place or walking. Ask student to imagine what the first character is carrying in the bag and where it is going. Why is the second character raising its hand? And the third character, what is it doing?

• Have student learn through long-lasting visual posters that these are the letters in their normal writing. Then, identify capital letters for the writing of proper nouns.

¡ Remember

Long-lasting visual posters are practical tools for facilitating learning. They are placed in visible locations in the classroom to support the assimilation processes through constant contact. Useful poster subjects include the upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet, sheets, drawings related to the topic being developed.

The little boat activity

• In teams, students play to practice graphemes (letters) and phonemes using sentences and words. For example, “I have a boat loaded with. . . (insert words that begin with n or t). ” Simulate the movement of the little boat.

• Open a drawer with objects that begin with the letter n or t. Ask student to take out the objects one by one. A facilitator should indicate whose turn it is. Read the name of the object and write it on the chalkboard.

• Support students to identify where the letters n and t are found in these words.

• Underline and pronounce its phoneme. These exercises can be made with all the letters.

• Individually, students write in their notebook words with the letters n and t. For example:

night

nothing

nose

Thelma

Tito

tongue

• Along with the students, read slowly and with clear pronunciation the following riddles:

The tallest letter I am, Also I am the thinnest, Love and life have me .

The wind never sees me .

(The letter l)

I am first on the mountain

And I do not exist on the beach .

The mango and the moon have me, The air never sees me .

(The letter m)



• Take into account the answer to the previous riddles. After guessing what the letters are, practice the corresponding phonemes. Trace letters or graphemes in the air, on the board and in their notebooks. Mention other words that start with these letters.

lemon

leaf

lion

Lidia

milk

Memo

moon

mosquito

Melisa

Read fluently

You are the rainbow, you are my moon, honey and laughter .

• Make student recognize in these words the letter i and n.

• Ensure that they pay attention to the following comment as you read it aloud: If someone says “You are the rainbow” or “You are my moon, ” What does this person mean?

• To find the answer, ask student to remember what is a rainbow and how the moon shines.

• Together, as a class, write other phrases and short sentences with the words rainbow, moon, honey and laughter.

Examples:

That bird looks like a rainbow.

The moon shines like a mirror.

¡ Remember

Reading fluently is the ability to read a text quickly, accurately and with appropriate expression.

Apply

Sharing the riddles with our family

• Tell the students to share the riddles with their families and ask their family members to share some with them too. Then, they can bring them to class to read to their classmates.



Learn

Motivational topic 2: I Read and have fun . Initial reading using syllables, words and sentences .

Purpose:

The students identify vowels, consonants and syllables in the reading and writing of words and sentences.

What does the picture tell us?

• Ask students to observe pictures such as the following (the picture can be re-placed by another that corresponds to the reality of their community. Alternatively, you can draw pictures together with the students, parents and other volunteers.

¡ Remember:

Avoid the continuous hypenation in the reading of words, phrases and sentences.

Ask students:

• What caught your atten-tion in the picture?

• What do you know or remember from the pic-ture?

• Can you state the names of things that you saw in the picture?

Strategy 2: I learn to read, write stories and riddles.


Practice

• Write the names mentioned on the chalkboard.

• Support the students in building simple sentences with the words.

• Write and read them, for example: The landscape is pretty.

• Discuss the meaning of the sentences.

• Use with the word pretty, written on the chalkboard, as an example.

• Identify with student how many syllables the word pretty has. To do this, repeat-edly pronounce the phonemes (sound) of each syllable: /pre/ /tty/.

• Pronounce the word pretty several times and orally express other words that include the syllable pre or the p consonant .

• Combine the syllable studied (pre) to form new words, for example: pretty

Using textbooks, posters or sentences create different exercises to look at the use of syllables and formation of new words to help students study their meaning and use them in sentences . In this way, they will enrich their vocabulary .

Have students listen carefully to the following text:

The heron and the frog

“You have very long and slim legs, ” said Bill the frog to Martha the heron,, while resting near the river shore. “I do not deny it, ” Martha the heron answered, “…but even with their ugliness, they help to keep my plumage clean. And I’ll confess one thing if I did not have whiteness to take care, I would not mind having legs like yours to walk freely through the mud. ”



Remember that to understand a text, it is necessary and important to carry out the following steps:

• Ask students to listen to the title of the reading and express what they imagine the story is about. This can also be done by examining the illustrations.

• During the reading, constantly ask about what is being read.

• Motivate student to predict as the story unfolds, to express their ideas about how the story will continue.

• Have students pronounce the phonemes that make up the names of the characters and write them on the chalkboard.

¡ Remember:

• Use capital letters at the beginning of a proper name. • The visual learning aids that are visible in the classroom should be

consistent with the text. • Student should repeat the story in their own words.

We can do different exercises with words and sentences, for example:

• Read names, phrases or short, medium and long sentences, written in pieces of cardboard or other material.

• For example, “the heron”, “the frog” and “the heron has long legs”. Ask students to differentiate according to the length of each sentences heard.

• Then, student choose words contained in the sentences read. Together with the students, breakdown the words into syllables, combining them with other syllables to form new words and sentence.

For example:

Bill the frog said.

Bill- the- fr-og- sa-id

• On small cardboard cutouts, separate the words of a sentence and ask students to listen to the reading of the whole sentence.

• Then, reorder the cardboard cutouts with the written words to form thesen-tence they heard.

• Finally, the sentence is read clearly and with intonation.



Apply

What we do at home

• Encourage students to share which activities family members do at home.

For example:“Maria and her brother Juan do different activities to maintain the house and patio clean .”

• Build sentences with the students according to the activities carried out by Maria and her brother Juan, for example:

• Juan sweeps the yard .

• Maria picks up the garbage .

• Maria organizes her toys .

• Maria and Juan remove the puddles of dirty water .

• Juan cleans his room .

• Comment on the good work done by María and Juan and the benefits of keeping our homes clean.

• Select words from the sentences above, for example water and garbage.

• Breakdown these words into syllables:

• Pronounce them: /wa/ /ter/ /gar/ /bage/

• Have students repeat the pronunciation for water and garbage. Use them in other sentences.

• Remind students to share these sentences with their family.

• Request that at home they play “Who says more words” with the syllable /wa/ and the syllable /gar/.

• Students write the words in their notebooks with the help of siblings.

• They can also get help from their parents.

• In school, they share the words that they wrote down with the rest of the class.



Learn

Motivational topic 3: I like to create stories and fables . The use of capital letters .

Purpose:

Students predict the content of stories and fairy tales through posters and drawings.

Analyze the story “The Water Spirit”

(Told by Vernan Ramos – Orinoco)

• Read the title of the story and ask students about what they believe the story “The water spirit” is about.

• After a few students participate, read the story out loud:

Toño usually fished in a kayak in the Pearl Lagoon . He fished at night in a place called Lauba . One night while in his wooden canoe, he heard a noise and saw an object approaching . It looked like a large candle . He heard a voice asking him to warn the people of the lagoon banks not to throw garbage in his home . Toño asked, “Who speaks?”, and the voice answered, “I, the one who looks after all these waters . ” Toño then panicked and ran to tell others what had happened to him .

• The questions are not only about what is written, but also to help student un-derstand what is not written, that can be deducted or inferred. There are also other evaluative type questions.

» What characters are mentioned in the story?

» Where did it happen?

» What happened?



Practice

» What was Toño’s reaction?

» What was the request of the water spirit?

• Encourage students to orally tell the story by asking one of the students to begin narrating the story again. Another student then follows until the entire story is retold.

• Give students the opportunity to express their ideas about the message con-tained in the Water Spirit story. Mention various ways of taking care of waters.

• Ask students to write the name of the place mentioned in the story and the character’s name. Request student to observe the capital letters of these words and try to write it in the air, with their fingers, tracing all of these capital letters. They then write these words in their notebook doing their best to write the capital letters.

Let`s read the fable “Lala the Hen”

One day a hen named Lala and her chicks were walking in a field. They were playing and looking for worms in the ground. Suddenly, a hawk named Picón passed by and seeing the chicks, he wanted to eat them.

Lala realized what was happening and ran to defend her chicks by crowing very loudly and quickly moving her wings. Picón was frightened, could not eat the chicks and flew to find food elsewhere.



• Discuss with students in plenary who are the characters in the story, their names (animals), the transmitted message (in this case: love and responsibility) to de-termine the characteristics of the fable.

• Organize students into teams to give a new ending to the story heard.

• Then, the teams share the new ending of the tale with the other classmates.

• At the end, work with the group to act out the story, mimicking all the move-ments of the story.

Apply

Let`s invent a fable

• Orally create a fable with characters such as a rabbit and a butterfly or a bird and a dove, etc. Students give names to these characters.

• They identify the initial uppercase letters in the writing of these names.

• Then they share this story with their family and their classmates.

A fable is a short tale, whose characters are animals but acquire human characteristics such as speech, thinking and feelings . The fable always has a moral message that must be extracted and commented .

• In advance, prepare a flipchart paper with the story (text and illustration) and place it in a visible place for the class to see.

• Encourage student participation to read the story out loud.

• Organized in teams, students resolve the star exercise by putting the corresponding parts of the story on the star points.

Following the story of The Hen, students orally complete the different parts of the star .

problem

place time

characters

solution

Title of the

fairy tale

• n



Learn

Strategy 3: Riddle Guessing

Motivational topic 1: How fun are riddles and jingles!

Purpose:

Each student identifies the syllables that make up a word, recognizing capital and lowercase letters.

Recall the riddles we know

• Organize students in teams to talk about what they know about riddles.

• Ask students to recall the riddles they remember.

• Put these riddles in a visible place on cardboard or flipchart paper.

• Encourage students to pay attention while you read the following riddles.

I’m white as chalk, everyone knows how to open me, but nobody knows to how close me .

(An egg)

After being crushed, they throw boiling water at me .

People often drink me, when they do not want to sleep .

(Coffee)

• Let students debate about the meaning of the above riddles.

• Tell students to find the word ‘me’ in both riddles and working in teams, look for other words that begin with the letter b.

• Have students practice the sound of b /b/.


• Write on the chalkboard other words that start with the letter b: boat, battle, best, bananas, Bayardo, Benito, Byron and Bryant.

• Invite students to read the words and to copy them in their notebook.

• Discuss the foods that appear as answers in the riddles and how they are prepared at home. Urge students to respect speaking in turns.

Practice

Reading riddles about animals

• Foster observation of the illustrations among them and ask which drawings contain the riddles.

• Bring drawings of the animals in the riddles on pieces of paper to school. Students can color them, as they prefer.

• Practice reading fluency by repeating the riddles to them.

• Ask about the names of the animals that appear in the riddles. Pronounce the names and make the student copy them in their notebook.

• Let each student expresses how important are the animals in the riddles to humans.

• Write other animal names that begin with the letter r, for example rat, rabbit and rhinoceros. Also with the letter a, for example: ant and ar-madillo.

¡ Remember

Riddles contribute to the development of mental abilities, the process of concept formation, stimulate imagination and the overall process of association of ideas. There are also useful to increase vocabulary.

I have four legs .

I’m very smart and I like to play .

I like to smell things . I can wag my tail .

What am I? (A dog)

My skin is green .

I have four legs and I eat bugs .

I can swim under water and hop on land .

What am I?

(A frog)



Apply

My skin is green and slippery .

I have four legs and webbed feet .

I eat bugs and little fish .

I can swim under water and hop on land .

I am a . . .

Birds of a feather flock together

A tidy tiger tied a tie tighter to tidy her tiny tail

All’s well that ends well .

Learning sayings

• Read with students what is written in the boxes and discuss the meaning.

• Converse what the saying expresses. Each stu-dent should share what he or she understands from each one.

• Go around the circle, repeating the sayings. Stu-dent must recognize the sounds of the letters c, l, s and others you deem appropriate.

¡ Remember

The sayings are verses that are used for different situations of everyday life such as playing. They belong to the oral tradition. People love their sound, rhythm and ingeniousness. With the repetitions, harmony and rhymes, it is possible to entertain the students that are practicing language. Some sayings are also tongue-twisters.

• On a piece of cardboard or paper write the following sentence: A tidy tiger tied a tie tighter. As a group, read it several times, and then have student write it in their notebook.

Sentences begin with a capital letter

Come out to Play

Girls and boys, come out to play,

The moon doth shine as bright as day; Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,

And come with your playmates into the street . Come with a whoop, come with a call .

Come with good will or not at all . Up the ladder and down the wall, A half-penny roll will serve us all . You find milk, and I’ll find flour,

And we’ll have a pudding in half an hour .

• Organize the students in teams to read the riddles and sayings that they liked and discuss its message.

• With all the students, review a popular rhyming saying from a popular Nicaraguan children’s song.

• Support student to read fluently.



Motivational topic 2: Let`s interpret messages – Being heard and oral comments

Purpose:

Students identify communi-cation messages.

Learn

Practice

Reading the signs

• Read with the class the reminders below displaying them on cardboard or paper. Comment on what the messages convey.

• Organize the class into pairs to discuss the importance of washing their hands and teeth several times a day.

• In plenary, conclude that washing several times a day prevents diseases.

• Recommend that they talk to their family about the importance of personal hygiene and cleanliness.

What does the sign say?

• Ask the students to listen carefully to the content of the signs.

• Then, they discuss the contents.

• As a group, read the signs that appear on the following page.



• Repeat the signs. Discuss in plenary the meaning they convey.

• Ask for help from some of the students’ families to make signs with content relating to cleanliness and good health.

• Ask students to bring the signs to the classroom so they can share their messages with the rest of classmates.

Communicating with images and symbols

• Identify images or symbols that express important messages and organize the students in pairs to comment on them.

• Write on the chalkboard the meaning of each symbol.

¡ Remember

Symbols are signals that visually express important messages. Quickly, they allow the information receiver to decode, interpret and understand its meaning.

Cross the street with precaution .

We sell coconut bread

I like to study . I brush my teeth every

day .

Pati for sale Respect older people .



• Together with the students, generate messages and symbols that connect them with everyday situations such as: danger, toxic substances, road crossings, do not litter.

• Build messages with other images, read and interpret them.

• Support students to write a sentence with the content of the signs discussed earlier. They can write them on the board.

• Tell students to copy the messages into their notebooks.

• Finish by describing some signs that have positive messages.

Apply

Knowing riddles about food

• Read fluently the riddles and discuss the use-fulness of coconut in preparing the typical food of the region:

» Rondon.

» Rice and beans in coconut milk.

» Fish soup with coconut milk.

• In teams, students draw the answers of the riddles and color, and put them in a visible place in the classroom.

• Write the meaning of the riddle and create sentences, for example:

Coconut water is very delicious .

I like coconut cake very much .

• Write sentences on pieces of paper. Repeat the sounds.



Motivational topic 3: Let`s write rhymes and riddles

Purpose:

Students use words that rhyme in their oral expres-sion.

Learn

Reading rhymes

Rain-rain go away, Come again another day;Little Johnny wants to play . Rain, rain, go to Spain, Do not show your face again .

One for the money, and two for the show, three to make ready, and four to go .

Listen to the big clock . Tick tock, tick tock . Look at its hands move round and round Listen to its bell chime . Ding dong, ding dong .

• Ask the students to copy the words in the sentences that rhyme and repeat them.

• Encourage students to make small rhymes and play a repetition game, trying to guarantee that most students participate.



Practice

• Prompt the students to complete the rhyme using the following words:

cake

bake

lake

Sista the snake lives near a ________

and eats ________

• Encourage the use of imagination by working with riddles. To find the answer they must look it up in the same riddle by putting together some phrases.

Sky on top, sky underneath and in the middle is a lagoon .

(A coconut)

Whistle without a mouth, runs without feet, hits you in the face and you do not see it .

(the wind)

I am small and shy . I have eight legs .

I eat bugs .

I catch them in my web . I am a . . . (spider)

I carry my home on my shoulders, walk with one leg, and I mark my footprint with a thread of silver .

(a snail)

• Form various teams to draw and color: a spider, wind and a snail.

• After they draw, ask student to pronounce the names of what was drawn and colored.

• Encourage students to form oral sentences with the above words.

• Read the riddles fluently.

• Write an oral sentence using the words in the riddles such as mouth and home.

• Ask student to find words that rhyme and to copy them.



Apply

¡ Remember

The rhyme is considered an important element that gives rhythm to apoem. It is defined as a repetition of sounds of the last vocal of each verse.

Remember that some riddles also have rhymes .

• Search for other phrases that also rhyme.

• Ask students to identify the upper and lowercase letters in the riddles and paint them in different colors.

Making rhymes with our family

• With the help of their families, students search for sentences that rhyme.

• Request the rhymes to be written on a piece of paper to share with classmates at school.

• Together with the other students, publish the material brought from home on a

• mural of rhymes.



Strategy 4: Narrating personal experiences

Motivational topic 1: Our local stories, Conversations, narratives

Purpose:

Each student expresses ideas and thoughts related to their personal and social experiences.

My community’s celebrations

Begin an oral discussion based on the following questions:

• What is the name of the place where you live?

• Which are the happiest festivals celebrated in the place where you live?

• In which of them have you participated? Which ones do you like most? Why?

• Ask student to listen carefully the reading “My people are very happy!”

Before reading, encourage student to predict by:

• Have students pronounce with intonation the title of the reading.

• Have students express if there is relationship between the slide and the title of the text.

• Have students express what they think is going to be the content of the text.

Learn


Practice

• After the reading, ask the following questions:

» What city is mentioned in the text? What celebration is mentioned?

» In which month does this celebration take place? In what ways do people have fun during this celebration?

» Do you like this celebration? How do you feel when you see the happiness of the people involved in the celebration?

Reading fables

• Prepare in advance a slide with the text and drawings of “The Tiger and the Monkey”

• Encourage prediction by reading the title and helping students through the fol-

lowing questions:

» Is this a fable or a story? Why?

» What is this fable about?

» Who are the characters?

» Where does the fable take place?

My people are very happy!

In Bluefields, there is a celebration called “The Maypole” which takes place throughout the month of May . It is very happy, people dance throughout the neighborhoods of the city .

The most important days are the last days of May, since a traditional food contest, parade, dance competitions and the crowning of the queen of the festivities takes place then . On May 31, at night, a parade called “Tululu” takes place, where people dance to the rhythm of drums and trumpets along the main streets of Bluefields .

¡ Remember

To promote reading comprehension among students, read a story, but before, you present illustrations or the title, and invite to answer questions that stimulate their imagination.



• The Tiger and the Monkey

There was a time in the Atlantic Coast, when it rained so much that all fields flooded . The animals did not have solid ground under their feet . The tiger was in a desperate situation, and only saw the happy monkey on top of the tree .

The tiger yelled, “Brother monkey, help me! My legs are buried in the mud . ”

The monkey said, “How do you want me to help you, if you are very heavy? I cannot get you out of there . ”

The tiger replied, “Call your brothers to help you, together you are strong . ”

The monkey said, “Okay,” but he went from branch to branch and never returned .

The tiger waited for the ground to dry, crack and then was able to get his paws out .

• Encourage student to answer the following questions about the fable heard.

» Where was the tiger? Where was the monkey? What happened to the tiger?

» Who asked for help?

» What did the monkey do? Did the monkey help the tiger?

» What did the tiger do?

• Let student voluntarily give their opinion about the characters of the story and then ask:

» Do you agree with the attitude of the monkey?

» Do you think what the monkey did was right? What would have you done instead?

• In teams, students talk about why they think the monkey did not help the tiger.

» Because of: respect, responsibility, fear, disinterest, humility, revenge. They comment.

» Ask student to create a drawing that represents the tiger and monkey.

Writing fables!

• In teams, ask students to create a fable.

• Then, they present in plenary the fable to the rest of class.

• Together we explain why the fables are good.

• They read the fable to their family and ask their opinions.

Invite the students to ask each other questions and discuss among themselves .

Apply



Aprendo

Motivational topic 2: Let`s write short texts

Purpose:

Students write short texts in-creasing their vocabulary.

Singing is cheerful!

• Sing the song “The Six Little Ducks. ”

“The Six Little Ducks”

Six little ducks that I once knew

Fat ones, skinny ones, fair ones too . But the one little duck with the feather

on his back .

He led the others with his quack, quack, quack .

Quack, quack, quack-quack, quack, quack

He led the others with his quack, quack, quack .

• Discuss the contents of the song with the whole group .

• Ask student to find words that rhyme and paint them in different colors .

• Then, write these words on the board for the students to copy in their notebook .

Our Caribbean culture represent us

We promote our culture

In the Caribbean Coast we have

We like our songs and poems



Practice

Singing the verses of the song

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sun

And dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the kitchen wall Swoosh! went the fan

And made the spider fall off went the fan

No longer did it blow so the itsy bitsy spider back up the wall did go

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the yellow pail in came a mouse

And flicked her with his tail down fell the spider

The mouse ran out the door then the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the pail once more

The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the rocking chair up jumped a cat

And knocked her in the air down plopped the cat and when he was asleep the itsy bitsy spider

Back up the chair did creep

• Repeat the words that rhyme with the whole group.

• Write rhymes on the chalkboard and copy.

¡ Remember:

Rhyme is the repetition of a series of sounds



• Read the story “The Golden Fish” to the students, ask them to practice good listening.

The Gold fish1 (Fragment of the story)

There was a ragged fisherman . He liked to fish and went out everyday, bringing the fishes he caught to sell them . One day, he went fishing and did not catch anything . Five days of without catching anything went by until he caught a golden fish .

And, the fish told him, “Throw me back into the sea!” further adding, “I will give you a reward!” So the old man grabs the fish and throws him back into the sea . When he returned home, his wife said to him, “What did you catch?” “Hmmm . . . ” he says, “Wife, I only caught a gold fish . ” “Then what did you do with it?” He replied, “The fish told me to throw him back into the sea and he will give a reward . ”

“Nothing . And now, ” the wife asked, “you know that our cupboard is empty . We do not have a piece of cheese or a piece of bread to eat . Go back and tell the fish we do not want our cupboard to be empty . ” The fisherman went to the sea and said, “Head in the air and tail in the sea, fish, fish, listen to me . ” The fish came out and says, “What do you want?” “My wife wants to tell you that our cupboard is empty . We do not have a piece of cheese nor a piece of bread . ”

The fish answered, “Go home . ” He returns home discouraged because he did not received a reward . He returned home and saw that his wife was happy, so he called her and, surprisingly, the table was set up well . They sat down and had fun .

• Ask students to use the content of the story to draw and color a scene.

• Talk to student about what they liked about this story.

• Request student to write the word fish and then write sentences with the word.

1 Hoim, J. (1987). Wani # 6, CIDCA. Transcripción verbal. Cuento adoptado al creol.



Apply

WHAT A SMILE CAN DO

A smile is costless, but productiveIt refreshes the ones to whom it is given . Although it doesn’t last for hours, but maybe a minute .

It gives a sensation like a particle of heaven . A smile consoles the sadden heart . And can be compared to a perfect piece of art . It brings hope to the hopeless . Rest, peace and joy to the helpless .

It sweetens the life of those who receive it, And serves as a symbol, or tie of true friendship . A smile is like a natural antidote for the afflicted;meanwhile it’s an insult for the haunted and the wicked .

Since afflictions go beyond the surface of the skin,

Read poems with the family

• Ask students that with the support of their family they read the poem of Erna Narcisso, Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast poet.

A smile refreshes the inner person within . Don’t be among those who need therapy to smilebe like a happy energetic child . Smile! you aren’t too poor you cannot give it, neither too rich that you do not need it .

• Begin a discussion with the opinions they received from their families about the poem.

• Write the word smile on the chalkboard for student to write in their notebooks.

• Organize teams to write about the smile.

• They present their writings in a plenary.

• They draw conclusions, write on pieces of paper and put in visible places. Example: Children learn to smile from their parents.




Bibliography

Bluefields Indian & Caribean, University. (2011). Antología Poética Afrocarinica. Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur. Bluefields. Recuperado de http://memoriacen-troamericana. ihnca. edu. ni/uploads/media/Afrocarinica. pdf

Montenegro, M. (2013). Historia de dos sapos. Fondo Editorial Libros para Niños.

Arias, A. K. (2011). Aprendo con mi nombre. Guía para enseñar a leer a partir del nombre propio. Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo. México, D. F.

Proyecto Excelencia. MINED/USAID. (2009). Expresiones significativas. Leyendo y Escribiendo para Aprender: Proyecto 1: El Nombre Propio; Proyecto 2: En bi’0’’la Venta se Compra, se Vende y se Conversa; Proyecto 3: Orgullosamente Nicaragüense; Proyecto 4: Plantas y Animales de mi Comunidad.

USAID/AMCHAM Nicaragua. (2012). RTI Internacional. Desarrollo de competen-cias lectoras en educación Primaria. Primero a tercer grado. Módulo I. Material de Formación Docente. Managua.

USAID. Fundación Zamora Terán-Miembro del grupo LAFISE- RTI Internacional. Módulo 4 – Lectura. Construyendo Nuevas Rutas de Aprendizaje Para El Desarrollo de la Fluidez y Comprensión Lectora con la XO. Una Apuesta al Futuro para los Tres Primero Grados de Educación Primaria.

USAID. Ministerio de Educación. (2011). El vuelo de la imaginación. Cuentos de niñas y niños Dominicanos. República Dominicana.

http://enciclopedia. us. es/index. php/Refran

http://tuspreguntas. misrespuestas. com/preg. php?idPregunta=5636

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