Discussions

Your Name and Title:

Boss Isigi. I am an ECDE teacher at KingPin Children Center, the Executive Director at BigPen Program-Kenya and the Coordinator of international Expansion in Enabling Support Foundation.

School or Organization Name:

1.) KingPin Children Center 2.) BigPen Program which adopting Education21 from Enabling Support Foundation.

Co-Presenter Name(s):

Dr Bob Robert Zenhausern.

Area of the World from Which You Will Present:

1)Nairobi Kenya. 2.) United States, New York

Language in Which You Will Present:

English and Kiswahili

Target Audience(s): Teachers, parents, Curriculum

Short Session Description (one line): Speed Reading and Subitizing: Unexpected consequences of Early Reading.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like)

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce two new aspects of the Enabling Support Foundation Education for the 21st Century. The audience will learn about speed reading and subitizing that are part of the next phase of the program. They will also be the first to view the training videos that will be sent to all registered sites throughout Africa.

BigPen Program is a Kenyan Organization that started experimenting Education for the 21st Century in KingPin Children Center and has grown to include many affiliate schools and children centers. BigPen has been a trial center for classroom techniques that incorporate Early Reading. These techniques have been videotaped and shared across the Peace Flame network.
In its simplest form, Early Reading means to read without phonetic decoding. This was a major step for reading that makes reading as natural as listening. It is not something you go to school to learn but like listening and speaking children start school reading and writing.

Speed reading means the learner do NOT say the word loudly. The facilitator flashes a word and asks them to point to a picture in that mean that word.

The training tapes for Early Reading show a strong use of loud vocal response and that vocal response is phonetic decoding. We have started to follow the usual procedures except instead of saying a word or sentence, the student thinks about them. That thinking is meaning which connects to the word. The student will still be expected to read aloud or narrate.

Subitizing is the skill of enumeration without counting. For example, to know that a plate of two cookies and a plate of three cookies is more than a plate of four cookies. It is assumed that subitizing fades as a child learns to count, but we question that. A painter knows how many cans of paint a room needs and a builder knows how many loads of bricks and cement are needed. These are examples of mature subitizing which developed without guidance. We want to explore whether subitizing can be developed and video the process.

The preliminary videos will be presented at the conference and the audience invited to critique the work before we send it out to sites on the Peace Flame network. We will show the training videos.

The audience will be encouraged to enroll at www.enabling.org/register. They will be given guest membership in the Peace Flame network. This will provide communication with the whole network as well as access to the documents and videos.

Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
1.) Enabling Support Foundation www.enabling.org/edall 
2.) BigPen Program-Kenya www.kingpinkenya.org/bigpen