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Reading with a Granny Project
Reading with a Granny (RwG) is a reading event in which the 3rd and 4th grade students read their favourite books with a reading granny 15 to 20 minutes at a time, four to five times in total (for one month time). The reading sessions contain reading aloud (the student reads and the granny listens and sometimes also by taking turns), discussing the plot and main characters, analyzing the content and meaning of words, and the students receive encouraging feedback from the grannies. The reading grannies are six retired teachers, and the project was carried out remotely with rural schools in 2022 and 2023 (spring) in Somero, Finland. Two rural schools Kirkonmäki (24 students/3rd grade) and Oinasjärvi (15 students/3rd and 4th grade) participated in the project. There were two projects in both schools, i.e. in total, four reading projects.
The RwG Reading Goals
Our aim in the RwG project is to inspire children and young people to read and encourage communities to support literacy.
Since the school days are often busy, active, and intense, and teachers have their curriculums to run
we have invited the third sector, voluntary senior teachers to work with us by sharing and implementing their long experience, support, and tacit knowledge with the elementary school students.
we wanted to make the project time efficient for both the schools and grannies. Hence, we decided to carry the RwG project out with the digital devices.
ICT Skills Practice
In the RwG project the 3rd and 4th grade students practiced their ICT skills in three ways:
improving their video negotiation skills (Chromebook, Google Meet)
learning and practicing methods for creating book videos (iPads, iMovie)
learning and practicing digital drawing skills (iPad, Apple Pencil, Procreate)
ICT Training
We had three trainings for the students, teachers, and grannies.
2x2h Chromebook training.
2x2h iPad training (iMovie, Apple Pencil, Procreate)
Additionally, for the teachers and grannies we also had smart board training 2h (CleverTouch)
Video Negotiation via Google Meet
Our point of approach included the methods and tools of distance teaching. For remote reading we have used Google Meet video meetings (Chromebooks). The grannies were gathered in the local library which provided them a tranquil place for listening and having a dialogue with the student, and the students were located in their own schools. The schools rarely have extra (tranquil) places for these kinds of projects, so the students were reading in quite imaginative spots in order to read unbrokenly for 20 minutes with the granny.
Since the project was implemented remotely, it could easily be scaled anywhere, both locally and globally.
Book Videos and Reviews
The students prepared reviews (with drawings) and videos of the books they had read with the grannies. You can find them on these pages (in Finnish).
Media
Now the children read fairy tales and the grannies listen (in Finnish)
https://www.somerolehti.fi/2022/11/nyt-satuja-lukevat-lapset-ja-mummit-kuuntelevat/
The undivided attention of the reading granny encourages reading aloud (in Finnish)
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