Posts made in September 13th, 2011

Phonics

Posted on Sep 13, 2011 in India | 6 comments

Phonics in India One of our main jobs at Shunem is working with the kids on their English reading skills. We recently introduced a new phonics program with the kids.  The odd thing about learning to read in India is that it is all about memorization. In school the kids will simply repeat “c-a-t cat” until they memorize how to spell it. The kids who are particularly good at this can read fine, and the smarter ones even figure out some letter sounds. However, most kids have no idea what to do if they encounter a new word. The common practice upon seeing a word they haven’t memorized is simply guessing a word that might be in the story. For example, if they are...