Detailed Description

In the begining reading program, peripheral perceptions are used very effectively. Children learn to read with the help of artistically painted picture posters. The picture posters depict animals and people who are characters in a story that the teacher relates to the students over a period of 3 or 4 days.

1) From the very first day of school about half of the picture posters, with the words (i.e. the name of the character or animal) written underneath them and the first letter of the respective words half-concealed in the pictures, are hung as decorations in the classroom. The entire alphabet is given in this way and also the more difficult letter combinations. Some posters also have sentences printed at the bottom. The posters are placed in the students’ field of vision. They are left hanging for two days, without the children’s attention being drawn to them. During these two days the teacher tells interesting stories which relate to the picture posters.

SNOWMAN

2) On the third day, the pictures are covered, leaving only the words and sentences revealed. Games and riddles follow, using the revealed vocabulary. For example: “It runs in the attic; it eats cheese; what is it?” At first in chorus, and then individually, the children point to the word ‘MOUSE.’ “What is the first letter? Have we seen it before?” They point to another word beginning with the same letter. From the beginning, the whole word is taught, together with its elements (letters and their sounds), with the emphasis on the sense-bearing word.

3) The other half of the posters are hung in the classroom for another two days. Then the teacher proceeds in the same way with them as she did with the first half. It is obligatory to realize all this in the atmosphere of a game.

4) All the words and sentences contained on the posters are written separately without the pictures. They are to be read quickly in random order by the first grade group, first in chorus, and afterwards separately by each child.

5) The words and sentences already learned are combined in short new sentences, each with one new word. The sentences are connected in a plot, and they are read in chorus and from time to time, by individual pupils. The children are not allowed to read separate letters or syllables. Only the whole word is read, or the whole sentence. However, the teacher does suggest in passing, that the words are composed of letters, yet one does not stop to dwell on the letters when reading. Here, too, the teacher goes on to the quick reading of words and sentences and quick-reading contests are held.

ELEPHANT

6) Next is the theatrical performance, sometimes filmed or videotaped. Some of the words already learned, and also some new words, are given in the performance as a way of unravelling the most interesting parts of the plot. All the children join in the chorus and thus ‘help’ the actors who suggest that reading is pleasant and easy. The same performance comprises some mathematical material. The previous day a book with illustrations containing the play of the same performance was read by the children.

7) Small songs and poems already learnt by heart by the children and made up primarily of words already familiar and of a pleasant nature are sung or read in chorus and individually. The children must follow the place in the text with their index finger even when the word is unknown to them. Note that the whole of the above described stages takes about ten days.

8) The reading of the first entertaining book - the suggestopedic primer, specially worked out on the basis of the picture posters and containing mainly words already known, is now introduced. When the book is first distributed, the teacher announces, “This is one of the happiest days of our lives, for today we are learning to read.” Teacher and children scan the book discussing the pictures as they relate to the children's real life experiences. For the next several days songs, games and poetry are intermixed with both chorus and individual reading of the first book.

9) The reading of other booklets, adapted to the level of knowledge of the children and containing both familiar and unfamiliar words, is the next stage. The reading is in chorus, but the teacher stops from time to time and waits for the children to continue alone. Sometimes the teacher only lowers her voice, then raises it again as soon as she notices that the children need her support. The text books should be short, emotional and rhythmical. The speed of the reading should increase gradually, but steadily. The aim is to teach the children how to read quickly, fusing the short words with the long ones and avoiding breaking the words up into syllables. At given moments, the chorus reading is switched to individual reading. Each text is read, at the most, only twice. Thus, the pupils are prevented from memorizing it. After they have read the text, the children re-tell, very briefly, what they have read in order to avoid mechanical reading. There should be no reading of texts without a plot and positive emotional quality.

After reading the beginners’ series of booklets, with texts adjusted to the children’s capability, books, like those available in book stores, are read. The aim is to read in chorus and individually as many books as possible. The children’s attention is not kept fixed on one book for any length of time and the teacher keeps going on quickly to the next one.

Conditions are created for bringing more variety into the repetition by the continual introduction of more and new material for reading. Those students who are already well advanced can be left to do quiet individual reading of more difficult booklets, the contents of which they can narrate afterwards to the class. Meantime, the class continues to read one new book after another in chorus. A transition is gradually made to increasingly expressive and artistic reading.

KANGAROO