Monday, April 21, 2014

Literacy-It's Important

Prior to coming here, I had not realized how much my daily life is affected by the fact that I am literate. Sure, I knew that if I was illiterate, I wouldn't be able to read intellectual books or books for pleasure. I knew I would not have written research papers about “Promoting Prosocial Behavior in Young Children” or “The Causes of the French Revolution” in college. But these things are only important because I am a teacher or because I live in the developed world, right? It’s not like the woman farming groundnut in Ngayen Sanjal would really see a change in her daily life if she could read, right?

Wrong. I didn't think about the ability to read the names of my contacts in my mobile phone. I didn't think about the ability to read over important documents from the health clinic or local government concerning identity papers. I didn't think about how often I write notes to other people or even to myself as a reminder. I recently watched 3 illiterate people divide responsibilities and money to prepare for a workshop. They couldn't just hand over a list with the prices budged down. Each individual had to remember exactly which items and how much of each to buy. It was a long list-not easy.

Obviously, literacy is a big deal, and it is a top priority for  Peace Corps The Gambia. To celebrate Worldwide Read-Aloud Day, I participated in a literacy bike trek. With three other volunteers, we biked to five schools in different villages to give a training on how reading aloud to students in a class can build their own reading skills. 

The bike-trek was successful and many teachers said they feel better equipped use books in classrooms to build literacy. But literacy is a high hurdle to jump. I spent 4 years studying in a university to get a reading endorsement with my teaching license. A day-long training is not going to eradicate illiteracy in The Gambia, but it can help. That's why I'm posted in a school for daily mentoring, co-teaching, and advising to teachers looking for more training on the subject. Still not over the hurdle, maybe, but closer.

Another thing that helps build literacy is a school-library. If you want children to be able to read, give them something to read. Unlike the developed world where we help our children learn by reading road signs, advertisements, and bedtime stories, my village has nothing to read. A few months ago, my school received a donation of books (about 10 boxes containing hundreds of books) to put in our school library. Upon my arrival, the school had a library, but it was in need of repair. The vast majority of the books were either destroyed by termites or entirely irrelevant (my favorite irrelevant books are a book of Irish Baby Names and Their Meanings and a Field Guide to the Birds of Great Britain-how these books got to West Africa I do not know). When the new shipment of books arrived, my headmaster decided that we could use an empty classroom as a temporary library while we wait for the repairs in the library to finish.
So I set to work color-coding the books based on reading level and topic. It took several days, but I’m happy to say that the library is now up and running and children are excitedly checking out books to read at home. The books are still not to the ideal level of cultural relevancy, but it's one step closer in the work to create a literate Gambia.

Board Books and Book Return Cartons
Fiction and Literature

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