March 26, 2013
Intense sessions boost kura English
Intensive small group and one on one tutoring is turbo charging the English language skills of pupils at a Christchurch Māori immersion school.
Melanie Riwai Couch, a part-time teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori ō Te Whānau Tahi, developed Wai Study Help in response to concern the kura wasn't getting the pupils' English skills up to the level expected by whānau.
She enlisted fellow students at the University of Canterbury to come in as part of their training to work with the students in small groups during the hour set aside for English instruction.
Volunteers from the community come in at other times to hear the children read to them.
“They would ask basic questions like ‘what are you reading about?’, ‘what do you think is going to happen next?,’ ‘what would you have done in that situation?’. Just the very basic formula of large amounts of one-on-one and small group times – combined with some good teaching. It also includes the social gains – the kids are exposed to a whole range of people from different backgrounds – which have contributed to the good outcomes that we have achieved,” she says.
Melanie Riwai Couch says pupils have jumped reading and writing levels, and there is now international interest.
Copyright © 2013, Uma Broadcasting Ltd