Teachers hone reading education skills
It’s no secret that over the last quarter century Belize’s literacy rate has taken a nosedive. But it’s equally obvious that educators are fighting to reverse that trend. Patrick Jones reports.”
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Keeping in mind the adage that “good teachers are costly; but bad teachers cost even more,” the Anglican Diocese today opened a one-week workshop designed to help teachers fine-tune their skills. Close to a hundred teachers from Anglican Schools countrywide are learning new techniques for the teaching of reading. General Manager for Anglican Schools, Carol Babb, says that while there are trained teachers in the system the results in the classroom tell a different story.
Carol Babb, General Manager, Anglican Schools
“We recently did a literacy test and we knew all along that reading was a problem, but we have no concrete evidence to show that it’s a major problem. And I think it’s not only a problem in the Anglican schools, but we are aware that we have an issue, a challenge before us and this workshop is to help our teachers, to equip them with the appropriate skills and knowledge to address the problems that we are experiencing.”
While experience is not in short supply in the classroom, these teachers are hoping that the next five days will help them to discover new ways of making reading more attractive. And to help them tap their creative talents is international literacy advocate Dr. Lorna Bennett.
Dr. Lorna Bennett, Workshop Facilitator
“Today we are starting with looking at the kinds of difficulties a child can have that would create a reading problem; so that’s what we are doing today. And then we will be doing phonics and trying to model how we can teach it to a variety of kids. In other words this group have this need, this one has a different need, the other group has a different need, so how do you vary your teaching so that all kids get taught no matter what their problems are.”
Deputy Prime Minister John Briceño says his government is aware that there is a problem with literacy and embraces efforts such as this one by the Anglican teachers.
John Briceño, Acting Prime Minister
“For us to be able to combat poverty and the crime situation, the social problems that we have, is through education. But it’s not just education for education sake, but with the foundation, for them to be able to read, to be able comprehend, to be able to express themselves properly with English. The workshop that the Anglican diocese they are doing, we want to commend them and we are supporting them in every way possible for them to have a successful workshop.”
Briceño encouraged the teachers use the weeklong course to advance their skills so that when they return to their respective classrooms, they can make reading more exciting to their students. But reading is not an activity confined to the classroom.
Patrick Jones
“We’ve recognized that there is a literacy problem, our children are not reading the way they should. How do we get them interested and hooked on reading?”
Dr. Lorna Bennett
“I think reading is like running; you practice it, you get better at it, you see others doing it, you want to do it. Based on my experience, in a classes where teachers read to kids everyday, where in the homes they are read to… now I am a Belizean, I wasn’t read to in my home, but I saw my grandmother read the newspaper, so to me that was my modelling. Today we stress more that parents need to read to their kids, take them to the library, share books. You don’t have to have a lot of books, what you have to do is show an interest in books and allow children to read. If they read a poster, if they read a cereal box, whatever it is, reading is all around us, it’s not just in a classroom. And that’s the awareness that we have to give to kids and the importance of it. Because if you are a non-reader, you are not a member of society.”
Patrick Jones, for News 5
Funding for the workshop was provided by the Canadian government through the Canada Fund.
