I started working with Mihlali at the start of 2005 and what a journey it
has been for both of us. She was really struggling with her reading and at
the start of our journey could hardly read a simple story book. She
struggled with the letters and her spatial awareness was not good (top,
bottom, left and right). We started very slow and back at the beginning and
it is a testament to her courage, motivation and enthusiasm that she has
come so far. So it seems fitting to write this story at this point in our
journey when our time at the Shine Centre is almost up and she is able to
spread her wings and soar with her journey in education.
Mihlali has a dream to become a teacher and whether she does or doesn't it
not the issue, she is already teaching the children in her neighbourhood
with her blackboard and her story books. So let me talk to you about our
journey and perhaps I will get her to write something for herself so that
you can read about her journey from her perspective too.
I quickly realised that Mihlali was really struggling and that the best
place to start was at the beginning. So that is what we did. We started
learning to draw each letter of the alphabet as I realised she did not know
the flow and where to start and finish each letter. I smile as she still
writes an 'f' from the bottom no matter how many times we have practised the
'right' way! But I have chosen to let this one go... We practised the sounds
and writing each letter and each week I would read a story with her and she
would follow as best she could. To be honest this felt like a waste of time
and I really wasn't sure if it was making any difference at all. But the one
thing you realise is that you have to persevere and that we did.
We then spent time with matching cards (cards I made in pairs with various
shapes on each) comparing shapes and position of shapes on the cards to
practise that sense of top, bottom, left and right. I had a strong sense
that she was not reading at the start and only looking at the pictures and
guessing the story line and this was hard to understand where to intervene.
Then an old teacher friend (as I am not one!) said to me to build a pattern
in Smarties and ask her to copy it and watch the process. This is what I
did. It was for me my 'light bulb' moment in understanding how I could
unlock this potential. As I watched she started building the pattern from
right to left and this most certainly would make reading from left to right
tricky. I now knew how she was approaching the challenge of reading and it
would have been challenging with this approach!
So we carried on with the paired reading, re-reading books from the previous
weeks and included in our regime an attempt at conquering the 100 sight
words. I thought we were never going to make it. But we soldiered on and
each week we had a challenge and started with only 10 words for quite a few
weeks until Mihlali mastered them and we were able to add a few more. I made
flash cards with each of the words and once again made pairs of each word
and initially I asked her to match the pairs visually and then we would talk
about the word, what it means and say a short sentence including this new
word. So each week she slowly improved and then it felt like we reached a
plateau and once again it was frustrating as I thought we were not making
progress.
Then one day I decided to throw the entire 100 sight words at her and run
through the lot and see how she handled it, as I figured as we read each
week we were learning more and more and being exposed to many in the little
books we were reading. So off I went. I thought I would throw caution to the
wind and jump right in and to my surprise she knew about 60 of the 100
words! I was over the moon with her progress and more importantly her
courage to try and give it a go. I was bowled over with surprise!
So each week we would wiz through the 60 she knew and we would persevere
with the others that were harder. And as she mastered them so they were
added to the pile that said 'know'. And each week the 'do not know' pile got
smaller and each week the 'know' pile grew bigger. Then Mihlali reached that
magic day when she knew all 100 sight words. This was a major breakthrough
and one that helped the paired reading a great deal.
All along the way we have read each week and each week we also played some
games. Picture memory games were easy for Mihlali and this reinforced which
of her strengths she was relying on to get her through. We then started
practising writing the 100 sight words, focussing on the sounds and blending
sounds and also making sure each week she retold each story we read to
improve her comprehension ability and once again get her confident speaking
the language. In addition I would sometimes read a story to her and ask her
to tell me about the story once I had finished reading. This was helping her
to fine-tune her auditory skills.
At the start of my journey with Mihlali I was also keen to get to know her
better and try to understand more about her family. So each week I asked her
to draw me a picture and then the week after she would tell me about the
picture and I would write a few lines retelling her own stories. This was
also very good for me as each week she drew another picture of her family
and so I got to pull together all these threads which ultimately gave me the
big picture. This process was excellent for 2 reasons. One being my
understanding as indicated prior, the other being the fact that now we had
more relevant stories for Mihlali to read. Her own stories.... At this stage
in the Shine Centre's history, it had very few relevant books for these kids
and most books were children's books from England, which were quite frankly
useless and irrelevant to township kids. We build up a huge collection of
her own pictures and stories and each week we would read a few and so with
repeat reading Mihlali improved.
And so very slowly I started reading less and less each week until she asked
to read and this is how it has been for about a year now. Mihlali reads
beautifully now and has courage and confidence to try a difficult word even
if she has never seen it before. She has basic tools to help her unpack the
information. This brings me to another point in our full circle journey....
I was at a local bookshop one day (shortly after starting with her at the
Shine Centre) and found this local story about a little girl in a classroom
who was battling to read and how all she saw was a jumbled page of letters
and how the other kids in the class made fun of her as she struggled to
read. As I read further this sounded just like us... So I read further. Each
day after school she would walk home and meet an old aunt in a rusty old car
on the farm and she would tell her stories and they would spend hours each
day in the car telling stories until one day she found an old book under the
back seat - Cinderella. And so she learnt to read in the veldt in a rusty
old car and slowly her confidence grew. At year end the headmaster came to
the class to hear each child read and up until this moment this task of
reading aloud to the class filled her with dread. But this day she took a
few deep breaths and started to read... We read this story a few times and
at the start I told Mihlali she was like Sari and one day she would be
reading like a champion too. And so she is!
I have got to know her family and keep in touch with her mother. I have made
it my mission to build her own storybooks library at home and also to make
sure she has pens, paper, books and toys to fuel her imagination. In one of
the workshops we attended, it was brought to our attention that the problem
township kids have is that they do not have many toys and interactive toys
allow for play and stories develop from this type of play. I have a great
understanding with her mother as it was important for me that she understood
my motivation for getting involved.
This has truly been a very rewarding journey for both of us, especially me
and it brings tears to my eyes when I think of how much Mihlali has grown
over the 2 and a half years we have worked together. What I truly admire is
her motivation, her courage to try new things and her willingness to learn
and grow. I will follow her progress even after we stop work at the Shine
Centre and I look forward to seeing for fly.... We have one final term
together and a few pointers to focus our time and energy. I feel confident
she is better equipped with tools to continue her education.
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