Rotary Manningham City is one of a number of contributors to the Grade 1 to 3 Teacher Literacy Enhancement (Read Aloud) Project. This project is funded under a Rotary Global Grant. The project is located in Quezon Province of the Phillipines, approx. 270 km south-west of Manila.
In a World Bank 2022 Report, the Philippines ranked 90.9% (among the lowest in the world) in children’s ability to read age-appropriate texts by the age of 10. This project relies on advanced teacher training skills of qualified Filipino national specialist teacher Ms Chona Lagoutte and current and former literacy experts from The Reading Association of the Philippines (RAP). Ms Lagoutte led two Read Aloud teams under GG2011998 (Muntinlupa) and GG1526985 (Pasay City) with measurable progress in student reading ability where an estimated 75% of Grade 1 students read independently against 25% of students prior to the teachers implementing Read Aloud Methodology.
The main objectives of this project are threefold: 1) introduce the teachers to the 5 pillars of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension; 2) supply teachers at each participating school with Big Books to ‘Read Aloud’, Poetry Tarpaulins for Shared Reading and Leveled Books for Independent reading; and 3) create libraries of Leveled Books in each school (levels A to E) to encourage independent reading.
The methodology to expand the Read Aloud program to teachers in more remote parts of the Philippines has emerged following the successful delivery of GG2011998 under Covid-19 restrictions which lead to innovative ways to conduct hybrid teacher training creating 45 minute webinars, online teacher training reviews, mixed with in person classroom teacher assessments by the Support Team over a period of 18 months.
Since its inception, the Read Aloud program has ‘upskilled’ 350 teachers who in turn teach over 13,000 students to read independently in Pasay City and Muntinlupa school districts, each year with a new cohort of students added.
Explanatory Note Relating to this Project
RC Manningham City (D9810) and RC Makati-Rockwell (3810) have established a strong inter-country working relationship having completed 2 previous BEL Global Grant Projects - GG2011998 (Muntinlupa) and GG1526985 (Pasay City).
The two Clubs will continue to use our specialised (unique) BEL Project Team comprising a Filipino Project Director and 3 support members (Dip Ed Supervisor), and 2 other current or past representatives of The Reading Association of the Philippines. While the project is located in District 3820, Quezon Province (identified as needing significant BEL assistance), our two clubs have developed administrative and operational skills that would be difficult to replicate in D3280, with the nearest Rotary Clubs 4 - 5 hours from Narciso School Districts.