Literacy Impact

 Awhile back my friend who works in literacy asked me for ideas for the literacy workshops her team leads. (They teach people to read in their mother tongue, which is uncommon even if they're literate in Swahili. This paves the way for reading scripture.) I shared an idea that I saw and used when I helped at an English learning group years ago, during my teaching program.

The technique is to pick an area of high cultural relevance, like farming, weddings, family, etc. It depends on the culture. Then have groups draw detailed pictures, talking about the topic. Of course I would like techniques with drawing!

I recently learned that the literacy team has really enjoyed the technique, because it stimulates lots of use of the mother tongue. After the drawing, groups label the images. Later in the workshop they use those words to write sentences, then short stories, as their comfort writing in their mother tongue increases.