April was a busy time, much of it spent developing content for our Teaching Comprehension training. This took place at the beginning of May, with over 35 teachers in attendance from both our Chibanja and Chikondano school networks. The purpose of the training was to equip teachers with ways they can help their students to comprehend what they are reading.
We introduced techniques such as reading aloud to children and asking engaging questions, teaching new vocabulary through books and literacy lessons, and modeling 4 comprehension strategies that a reader can use - predicting, self-questioning, making connections, and summarizing.
Chibwe introducing teachers to the concept of Teaching Comprehension.
During the training, we used breakout sessions for the first time where teachers were split into 3 groups to learn and practice each comprehension strategy. In each group, they learned one strategy and many different activities to use to reinforce the strategy. This proved so effective that one participant, Raphael, was prompted to say, “This is the best training I’ve ever attended by Impact One. I give it an A+.”
By the third day, all the schools agreed that they would like to send books home with their students, something they had been hesitant to do in case they got destroyed or lost. But as Matthew said, “When I came to Impact One on Community Day, I saw that they give books to community children who they don’t even know well. I thought what of us who know the students and where they stay?”
Our hope is that as teachers begin implementing these comprehension strategies, students will be able to understand the Bible, stories and other texts they read, and through this become aware of the love of God and how He is working in their lives.