The Shine Centre
- Bringing literacy and language enrichment to school children with reading difficulties
Cape Town, South Africa
LIST OF PROJECTS
Literacy Hour
We offer a multi-sensory intervention programme twice weekly to all grade 2, 3 and 4 learners who are not reading at the appropriate level. Located in the African Moon Room, we have four rotating stations. There is Shared Reading (reading a book to the children), Group Reading (the children reading one on one to you), Games (focusing on 100 most common words) and Have a Go Writing (creative writing).
There are between 16 and 20 children during this hour and they participate at the stations for 15 minutes each.
These are the results from Grade 3 as of June 2008:
- In 2007 56 needed support in Grade 2
- 19 of these children need support in Grade 3
- 10 are ‘poor’ ie no more then 7 months below reading age, 9 are ‘at risk’
- 31 children out of 80 are reading 1 to 3 years above the reading age which is 8 years 5 months and 20 are at the average they should be.
Grade 4 Creative Writing Stories
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Swap Shop
We are on a continual quest to stockpile second hand story books for our swap shop, which is open four days a week. A foundation phase learner owns the first book handed to them, with the knowledge that they can choose to keep the book or swap it once they have read it. We find that this is an efficient way of encouraging children to take reading books home, especially in cases where the school does not have a library.
Children enjoying their books after visiting the Swap Shop.
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Parent Workshops
We hold two to three parent workshops a year, where we cover topics such as nutrition, stress management, the importance of story book reading, and ways in which to help children overcome learning difficulties.
Go to Literacy Hour
Book Club
We equip Grade R and Grade 1 classes with 50 multicultural story books, book bags, and parent packs, with the aim of getting more books into the home environment, and encouraging parents to read to children. This goes further than instilling a love of reading. It gives parents an additional way of spending quality time, bonding with their children, and embarking on a journey of discovery with one another and with the wider world.
Book Buddies
In August 2008 we piloted a Book Buddy programme where a Grade 7 learner reads with a Grade 4 learner before school. They were instructed on how to be a helpful listener and an encouraging ear to their younger partner.
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