"BILLABONG?!": Learned this Aussie Word From This Literacy Training

REFRESHED! Participants of Literacy Training (from left to right: Mrs. Jessica A. Laguitao,  Mrs. Miira S. Ellevera and Mrs. Rowena Candog) have this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet the literacy expert Dr.Jenny Bennet.

OCTOBER 8, 2013, Dr. Jenny Bennet and Ms. Lyn Wilkinson of the AFFLIP met the Talomo Schools' English and Reading  Coordinators at the Davao City Special School for a Literacy Training. And according to them, the main purpose of their visit was to assess the learning process of the Talomo District, so that they would know what kind of help they could extend to the Filipinos. Since the AFFLIP wanted to implement a long term literacy program with the schools of  Talomo District.

Mrs. Miira Ellevera explains that the word "Billabong" in the Philippines is considered a clothing brand.

The training started with a WORD CLINE, wherein participants were grouped according to how the words they were holding related to other words in the group. It was fun, and the participants learned new words such as the "BILLABONG' which is an Australian word that means a dry channel.Challenges escalated as the activity continued. One good point about this activity was that Dr. Bennet pointed out that there was no such thing as wrong answers as to how the children would group themselves. But the important thing is children could develop their communication  and cognitive skills.

"Kraki, fefal, prudo?"

Then, the participants were given text which they could hardly understand. They were asked to answer some exercises.And Ms. Wilkinson told them that they chose this text so that they would feel the same way their students could feel everytime given with difficult exercises. And indeed, it worked but quite rewarded when some of the participants were able to give meanings or synonyms to hard words using contextual clues.

Pose-pose din pag may time. . . jejeje!

Next part, Ms. Wilkinson shared a good expository text which was the Shearing Process. This strategy could be used for teaching MTLBE or mother-tongue literacy since it was recommended to use text which children could relate. Between passages, pictures were displayed to develop the vocabulary skills of the learners. Ms. Wilkinson also emphasized the contextual clues as a helpful tool in understanding new words.

Before lunch break, participant were instructed to make a story board. On this strategy, participants were trained to make a story which they could utilize to teach several competencies. The artistic skills of the participants were show cased and were commended as "fantastic."

The training summed up with an EXIT CARD which participants were asked to jot down what they have learned or by writing what idea they have gained  or what suggestions they could give. Later part was the certificate distribution.

It was a very enriching training seminar, although some of the strategies were already employed by the teachers in their teaching-learning process, but there were modification in description. And the participants were thankful for how Dr. Bennet and Ms. Wilkinson expressed their  appreciation to the unsung heroes of the classrooms. They were awed with the versatility of Filipino teachers who hold the capacity to teach 3 to 4 languages. It was amazing according to them.