"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free..."

This week’s email comes from Bertha Phiri, our Curriculum Coordinator. She highlights the work of the Catch-Up program in Zambia, which is being rolled out across a number of provinces, with support from the Ministry of General Education, VVOB, and TaRL Africa.

Febby was a dedicated and well-mannered student in the third grade with good attendance. She always wanted to do well and submitted all of her assignments on time. Despite liking school very much, she had challenges with reading and writing. By grade three, she was required to deal with some complex paragraphs and stories, but she could only identify letters and sounds. As her teacher, I always had thoughts of how I could help Febby catch up with her peers in class, but it was a challenge. With the introduction of new “Catch-Up” program, I see now how we can better help students like Febby.

Students in Sinda play a reading hopscotch game during Catch-Up.

Catch-Up is an educational program being piloted in Eastern and Southern Provinces in Zambia. At Impact Network, we have embraced the Catch-Up model for our schools this year. Catch-Up is one period of the school day in which students in grades three and higher are grouped according to their literacy skill level rather than their grade level. This means that a grade 3 student like Febby can be in a group with other learners from older grades who need additional practice reading letters and words. Meanwhile other students from upper grades who can read words and sentences but struggle to read and understand paragraphs can be in a different group and work on activities that are at just the right level to help them improve. Teachers from all grades and subject areas lead the groups, ensuring the students who need the most help have a small group and a lot of attention from the teacher.

Teachers practice Catch-Up lesson activities during teacher training.

Once the teacher assesses students and groups them according to their skill level in literacy, a varied course with exciting activities then waits for them. All in all, we try to boost literacy so that they can improve their reading and writing skills which are the basis for all other subjects as well. In Catch-Up lessons, we integrate learning with play. This means that we use a lot of activities to make teaching and learning very active and interesting in order to enhance the student experience. For example, we use hopscotch and treasure hunt activities outdoors. In hopscotch, the teacher makes the students to play a game by hopping the syllables to make the word at the end. This game is being played on the floor or ground were the hopscotch is drawn. The teacher also uses treasure hunt games to teach students how to read words or sentences. The treasure (words or sentences) on cards are hidden in the classroom and students are asked to find the cards. When they find the cards, they practice reading in pairs and later read it before the teacher. Afterwards, the treasure card is re-hidden for other pairs to locate it. This act goes on and on until the end of lesson.

All learners are given a simple, brief reading assessment to determine their group for Catch-Up time.

At Impact Network, we implement the Catch-Up program in order to produce good readers among learners. This program helps to bridge the literacy gap between novice and expert readers, making the learning and teaching process easier. Now, students like Febby have a greater chance of changing their trajectory in school.

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. ~Frederick Douglass