Model and materials The Multi-Strategy Method
The point Duffy and Roehler made was that skills needed to be taught so that “students conceptualized reading as a strategic process and used skills strategically,” rather than as
automatically learned procedures, “to remove blockages to meaning in real text.” Clay discussed the importance of acquiring “strategic control” for independent reading Clay 1991:288–289
and stressed that learning to read and write involves a literacy learning system that encompasses a “network of strategies” Clay 1991:325–345. In the Multi-Strategy method, different strategies
are used for both approaches. Effort has been made to teach skills in relation to context and meaning, not as isolated elements that “readers overlearn through repetition” without reference
to meaning and control in the literacy process. In Figure 3.2, a model for the Multi-Strategy method is presented:
PROCESSES OF READING AND WRITING
Story Track Word-Building Track
Student- Centred
Content Control
Emphasis on
Holistic Creativity
with
Meaning and Comprehension
Acquired by practising
Creative Acts
Emphasis on
Analytic Skills
and
Accuracy of Form
Learned by practising
Discrete Skills Teacher-
Centred Content
Control
SELF-INTEGRATION FLUENT READERS AND WRITERS
Figure 3.2. The two-track model of the Multi-Strategy method In the two separate and distinct approaches—the Story Track and the Word-Building Track
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— learners are provided opportunities to learn in different ways. They are given
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the chance to choose the ways to learn that suit them best
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time to learn when they are cognitively ready
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opportunities to build on what they know, and
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experiences to become competent in extending beyond what they know. Separating the reading process according to the two distinct approaches is shown by defining the
process of gaining literacy in two ways: as acquisition and learning. The main difference is
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The Word-Building Track material is not in the form of worksheets with written exercises that each learner completes per lesson but a series of four books. The first is a reading readiness book which includes visual
discrimination and other readiness exercises. The other three are primers to teach reading through the grapho- phoneme relationships of the language.
whether the focus is on meaning or on form skills. Sheridan 1986 defines reading acquisition as
the process by which people, in order to satisfy inner needs to understand meaning, teach themselves about reading. … In a reading acquisition activity, the mood of the classroom must change from a
place where accuracy is important and errors are corrected; to a place where the reader is allowed free reign to acquire in his or her own way Sheridan 1986:500–502.
The Story Track allows this process of acquisition to take place. Students are given the opportunity to interact with print in many varied activities so that they can teach themselves
about the literacy process. The Story Track is learner-centred. The four short lessons approximately fifteen minutes centre around a weekly, culturally relevant theme usually a
picturable item, that is, a person, an animal or an object chosen by the teachers or learners. The inclusion of the theme is the cohesive factor in the procedure and is the central topic in activities.
In the general format for the Story Track lessons, firstly the teacher and learners join in a story-generating experience about the theme, for example, a village activity, a drama, or mime.
As a group, the learners generate the Experience Story of up to five sentences. The teacher writes this story on the chalkboard or a large sheet of paper as it is generated and then leads the learners
in a pattern of reading by modelling. Next, the learners listen to and discuss a Listening Story on the theme with the teacher. In this activity the teacher models fluent reading and guides learner
interaction with questions for prediction and comprehension. Following this, each learner chooses a story and reads while the teacher reads with some of them to encourage them and to
note their progress. Then they read with the teacher from a large copy of the “Shared Book” and write a Creative Story on the theme. In summary, the Story Track lesson components are as
follows:
1. The culturally relevant Experience Story generated by the learners, written by the teacher,
and then read with the teacher as a model 2.
The Listening Story on the theme read by the teacher with learner interaction through comprehension questions
3. Individual reading of stories including encouragement through reading with the teacher
4. Reading the large-sized Shared Book with the teacher as the model and individual reading
including the smaller copies 5.
Writing creatively Components 2 and 3 are combined for the second fifteen-minute period of time.
The materials for the Story Track consist of stories relevant to the community, and written, illustrated, and published by the teachers, community members, or the learners. The topics and
the genres of this written material depend on the choices of the writers in the community. The only necessary items to prepare in advance are a large-sized story book of four or five pages with
smaller multiple copies for each week, and interesting stories to be read to the learners as Listening Stories for prediction and comprehension practice.
In contrast to reading acquisition, Sheridan 1986:502 stated that reading learning is usually taught to us and focuses “more on form sound-symbol relationships, decoding, correct
pronunciation and less on meaning.” The Word-Building Track allows reading and writing learning to take place, where the teacher presents the forms and the students master each skill
with accuracy.
There are four workbooks, one containing pre-reading and pre-writing after Oatridge 1980 activities and three primers. The pre-readingpre-writing activities are as follows:
1. Preparing for phonological awareness by listening to beginnings of words see Stringer 1982
for variations 2.
Training for visual awareness by selecting pictures, letters, syllables, and words that are the same, and comparing the differences
3. Training in left-to-right orientation by drawing a series of three pictures of an activity in a
logical sequence of events 4.
Training to write forms of letters in contrasting sets In considering tests for assessing reading readiness Clay 1979b noted that for children
Many research studies have found no benefit in training programmes derived directly from such test results. The pictorial and geometric stimuli used with young retarded readers did not produce gains
in reading skill. And oral language training was no more useful. This may well be because they were learning to analyse data which they did not require in the reading task and they were not learning
anything that was directly applicable in the reading activity. … To try to train children to read on pictures and shapes or even on puzzles, seems a devious route to reading. … Preparation can be
done more directly with written language Clay 1979b:7.
Although the context of these comments is remediation for children, these principles have import for children and adults, especially in situations where print is not part of community life. In the
two studies in this research, visual discrimination exercises for the adults were confined to identification of print. The readiness activities were planned for a four-week period but were
completed in three weeks fifteen hours of instruction as requested by the learners in the Urat study. As it will be noted in Chapters 4 and 5 below, the follow-up research revealed that this
was seen to be adequate except for writing readiness, where many of the ex-students expressed difficulty with writing.
In the Word-Building Track primers, each section includes two key words, a sentence- making word, and sentences containing those words and other words built from syllables already
learned. One section is taught per week and each key word is taught in four, fifteen-minute lessons per day. The role of the teacher is to teach particular skills perceived to be necessary for
learning to read and write. The learners practise and perfect each skill with emphasis on accuracy of form. The teacher structures each lesson and controls the content so learners can master
discrete skills step-by-step. Through analysis and synthesis the learners understand how to recognise syllables and letters in words and words in sentences. They also learn how to write by
forming letters and spelling correctly. All of the material is culturally appropriate and meaningful, but there is more emphasis on form than meaning. The primer sections are not
specifically graded with each section dependent on the other. The four components for teaching a key word are as follows:
1. Teaching the new letter from the key word through analysis of the word into syllables and
synthesis from syllables back to the word 2.
Learning the syllables by contrast and building of words known and new through games, if feasible
3. Learning the word in the syntax of a sentence through analysis and synthesis, and reading the
word in the context of a piece of prose 4.
Writing of correct form with emphasis on spelling
These basic components were presented in a different format in the studies, with some parts taught on different days see Stringer and Faraclas 1987. As a result of the research and input
from Rempel 1992, a linear format was developed, with all components taught each day in a regular pattern. This format is presented below in Chapter 5, and a simplified way of writing and
preparing primer sections using this format is given in detail in Appendix B.
The teachers teach each track for approximately an hour each day. The ideal is to have two teachers; one for each track. This allows for
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short training programs where all teachers are exposed to both tracks but each specialises in the one that suits his or her preferred learning style
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teachers to be in control of one specific area, to understand fully the basic principles and teach innovatively
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less preparation
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status and satisfaction in the area of responsibility, and
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a manageable number of students to teach when the class is divided. A summary of the teaching patterns for each track is included in Appendix B see also Stringer
1992a:16–17. Details for teaching each lesson are found in Stringer and Faraclas 1987. Figure 3.3 shows an example of a typical section of a primer.
Figure 3.3. Sample of a two-page primer section for the Work-Building Track
These pages of the primer illustrate the primer format that was used in the two studies. As a result of the research, the format was changed and tested in Kwanga with children and adults as
presented and discussed in Chapter 5 see also Appendices C and K. In the next section, some relevant comments on the application of the method are considered.