Kiwanis Club of Papine Partners with Jamaica House Basic School to Advance Literacy

Administrators at Jamaica House Basic School in Kingston have welcomed the intervention of the Kiwanis Club of Papine, which has been instrumental in introducing the Lalilo by Renaissance web-based software literacy programme to their institution.

The programme is designed to assist with literacy skills development among children at the pre-primary level.

The Club’s Lalilo Literacy Project and Reading Competition was piloted over three months at the school, beginning January 2022, and involved over 120 participating students.

Director of Inter-Clubbing and Community Service at the Club, Dr. Simone Bewry Ricketts, tells JIS News that the project’s overall objectives are to improve literacy, provide hybrid instructional resources to schools to improve reading at the early childhood level, and provide hybrid library access for students.

The students are able to access the Lalilo by Renaissance software via their electronic devices at school.

This software, paid for by the Club, is described as an interactive, fun-filled learning programme. It allows students to work at their own pace, and can also adjust to each youngster’s experience, using artificial intelligence.

Lalilo by Renaissance is specifically designed to help develop phonics, word recognition and reading comprehension skills, through online exercises and stories.

It also allows teachers to assign homework virtually and is designed to facilitate the assessment of students who are below acceptable levels and provides progress reports on youngsters’ reading ability.

The reading competition sees students being asked to read books from the school’s physical library or an online library, accessible via a link shared by the Club.

This component aims to encourage children to read at home with their parents, while competing with their peers to see how many books they can read within a particular period.

The school’s Principal, Veronica Parkinson Burnett, tells JIS News that as the first early childhood institution in the country to be exposed to the programme, she can say without reservation that it has been a tremendous success.

“We were the guinea pig for the programme; but every minute was worth it. We were introduced to the programme just when face-to-face classes resumed, due to the [COVID-19] pandemic. So it was easy for the children, who were already familiar with their tablets, because they were all using them to do online schooling,” she points out.

The Principal indicates that 130 devices were successfully added to the programme and, on a weekly basis, at least 80 children were actively utilising it.

“It is always a joy to see the faces of our students, especially the five-year-olds who, once they got their way in, were ready and raring to go. When a level is complete, they move on to a more advanced level and as soon as an area is successfully completed, certificates are awarded,” she says.

“I guess when they see the certificates, it excites them and their parents too, hence the students were motivated to want to learn,” Mrs. Parkinson Burnett adds.

Meanwhile, the teacher who guides the programme’s implementation at the Jamaica House Basic School, Marsha-Lee Crawford, says her involvement in its execution has taught her many things.

“As the lead teacher, I had to get equipped with the skills to upload the programme on the different types of devices. There were instances [where] some of the devices were not compatible [with] the programme, and I would have to find a way to work around it,” she points out.

Describing how the programme works, Ms. Crawford says it takes the format of a game. As such, she adds, the children were “super excited” about playing online games and getting stars and badges for each level they were moving up to.

“Without them even realising what was taking place, the students were actually learning, because it is a learning tool, and not just them playing a game,” she notes.

“The literacy progress was phenomenal. Children who could not put letter sounds together, were doing so now; children were able, now, to read better than before, and even attempting other reading materials in and around the classroom,” Ms. Crawford further points out.

For the reading competition, the children were required to read 10 books over a specific period. One parent reported that her four-year-old read 12 books in two days.

Although he was not a winner, Ms. Crawford sees this as significant, in terms of how being exposed to Lalilo by Renaissance can improve a child’s literacy. The competition’s winners were awarded certificates and cash prizes.

So significant was the progress, it was revealed that some students in K-2 (four years old) were now reading at the primary school level.

Ms. Crawford points out that the students are monitored when using their devices, which enables teachers to track their literacy progress, while the programme automatically allows each child only one hour of interaction daily.

Based on the success of the implementation at the Jamaica House Basic School, the project has been expanded to the Danny Williams School for the Deaf in Kingston.

This is in keeping with the mandate of Kiwanis International for diversity and inclusion, premised on the notion of ‘No Child Left Behind’.

Recently the Club launched its ‘Reading for the Stars’ reading competition, for which students are required to read books for 10 weeks from three sources: Unite for Literacy Library; the Jamaica Library Service virtual books, other virtual or hard copy books.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bewry Ricketts is encouraging stakeholders to partner with the Club to provide funding for hardware and software to make the Lalilo by Renaissance programme more accessible to schools, especially those with limited resources.

“The intention is to expand the programme to at least one school each year; and this is only possible if there is additional support,” she points out.

For information on how to support this project, persons may call Dr. Bewry Ricketts at 876-875-4605.