By Hinday Traore, Girls Project Manager
To improve the reading skills of girls in the Girls Project, we organize reading sessions with the girls during our study meetings. These sessions give girls a chance to practice basic reading skills in a safe setting, using simple reading texts.
After each session, the girls take a reading worksheet home so they can practice reading until our next session. Each worksheet has a short story, along with a set of different activities the girls can use to practice their reading all month. For example, the worksheets include a set of questions designed to test their reading comprehensions, and activities like partnering with another girl to practice reading the selection aloud to each other.
After they work with the text at home, at the next meeting we correct the worksheet together as a group so the girls can learn from their mistakes. We do this as a group together, giving different girls a chance to share answers, read aloud, or ask questions.
At a recent meeting, we asked a volunteer to pretend to be a teacher with the correction of her text. Fatoumata Samaké volunteered. There were answers she had not found, but other girls were able to help Fatoumata with the answers. After Fatoumata was brave enough to share her challenges, other girls volunteered to share their questions or problems too.
To motivate the girls, whenever I ask a question I think will be hard for them to answer, I offer a small sweet treat to anyone brave enough to answer. Suddenly then I will see many hands in the air, eager to answer the question! Some girls received more than three cakes before the end of the correction.
So far, we have corrected two worksheets together: “The village festival” and “A visit to the zoological park.” In the worksheet about the visit to the zoo, one activity asked the girls to write a short piece about which zoo animal they would want to be and why.
All the girls chose their favorite animal. Awa Samake from Sue Taylor Middle School in Diorila wanted to be a doe because a doe is beautiful and strong. Maimouna Samake from Frances Burton Middle School in Tamala wanted to be a bird so that she could fly and travel all over the world.
This session was so animated by the girls because you could feel the confidence and the will to learn and share in them. They were so happy that they could not wait to do other worksheets together.
By the end of the session, the 87% of the girls were all able to identify relevant content in their reading, identify the main steps in reading, and to distinguish the stages of reading.
You can be part of this great work by supporting the Great Girls Read Campaign!
