Shared Reading with Hands on Activities By Bharati Parasu Telugu school is run under Sydney Telugu Association umbrella and currently 100 students are learning Telugu from 5 different locations. We have 11 volunteer teachers, co-ordinators & correspondent across all schools. Six of us are currently attending Community language teaching course by USyd and applying the teaching methodologies learnt from the course at our schools. We are so happy to see students enjoying the new learning techniques and they are looking forward for the next one. Shared reading is a well-known activity and common practice in the main stream schools, as well as in the community language schools. Today I’m going to share, how we are doing shared reading at Telugu badi with hands on activities with great success. Shared Reading with Hands on Activities By Bharati Parasu

I Found my Mum – the story line is adopted from our famous and well-known panchatantra kathalu, with Australian native animals in the story to keep the familiar setting to our students. The story is written as a rhyme. Kids learn words through rhymes more easily, especially for early learners.

Australian animals used in the story line

Let me read the story now Let me read the story now. Please listen carefully as there will a short quiz at the end. One day a beautiful mother hen laid six eggs. Five eggs hatched and one did not.

The baby chicks were hungry, so the mother hen and the five baby chicks went out to fetch grains.

The sixth egg hatched due to heat in the nest The sixth egg hatched due to heat in the nest. She looked around, but wasn’t able to find her mother and became sad.

She wanted to see her mother, so she went out in search of her mum.

She met a grazing Kangaroo and asked are you my mum She met a grazing Kangaroo and asked are you my mum? Kangaroo said “I am not your mother. Your mum is much smaller than me.”

Then on the way she met a mothering Koala and asked are you my mum Then on the way she met a mothering Koala and asked are you my mum? Koala said “I am not your mother. Your mum has only two feet.”

Next she met a cooing Magpie and asked are you my mum Next she met a cooing Magpie and asked are you my mum? Magpie said “I am not your mother. Your mum doesn’t fly this high.”

Later she met a swimming Penguin and asked are you my mum Later she met a swimming Penguin and asked are you my mum? Penguin said “I am not your mother. Your mum cannot swim.”

A flying Kookaburra saw the little chick and it pitied the chick A flying Kookaburra saw the little chick and it pitied the chick. The Kookaburra told the little chick the whereabouts of her mum.

The little chick followed the path and found her mum The little chick followed the path and found her mum. The mother hen was happy to see the baby chick and introduced her to the other siblings.

They all ate lots of grains, went home and lived happily ever after.

Few other objects used in the story book.

Barrier Game - Find the Differences Now lets see few of the hands on activities we tried at our school with shared reading. Barrier game with pair (two students) to find differences in pictures – this helps to phrase questions and answers & reading writing for senior levels

Picture Sequencing These pictures can be used for group activities such as: - Picture sequencing for beginner levels - Select a picture and retell story or make dialogue to retell story or re-tell story differently. - Students also pick a picture, replace character from the selected picture with another Australian animal and make the dialogue.

Match Text with Pictures Match pictures with text in groups or individual You can use this for cross match exercise too

Sequencing Text - Sequence the text in groups or individuals, especially for groups who can read

Other hands on activity ideas based on the story book Cloze Passage Cloze Passage with list words for Junior stages Cross word Bingo Role Play Picture walk Quiz And many more – no end to imagination  All these activities that we discussed so far can be applied to any story book to cater for different age groups and learning levels. We found that students are enthusiastic to participate in the shared reading and through these activities their overall literacy skills are improving.

Lesson Plans We also make lesson plans. Here are few lesson plans that helps to plan and organise outcome based activities

How many eggs that the mother hen laid Why did the mother hen leave the nest What’s is the reason penguin said that she is not the baby chicks mother List the animals in the order that our little chick met Let’s do a small quiz now - You can win a tiny miny prize, if you answer 1st

Thanks you Any questions Namastae