Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
DENHAM Town Comprehensive High School has removed 196 of its grade seven students from mainstream teaching and placed them in a "reading village" because some of them cannot read.
Evaluation by specialists from the Mico Care Centre in Kingston revealed that some of the youngsters, who went to Denham Town Comprehensive from primary schools in the area, were poor readers and others could not read at all.
A diagnostic test was administered covering oral reading skills, word tests and comprehension. The results showed that 16 students were non-readers; 21 were pre-primers level (pre-basic school); 21 primers (basic school); 27 were at grade one (primary school) level; 28 at grade two level; 14 at grade three level; four at grade four level; 32 at grade five level; and 35 at the grade six mark.
Principal Clover Thompson decided to stop the worrying trend. The children were removed from mainstream classes and placed in a block of classrooms which was renamed the Reading Village. It not only includes grade seven children, but non-readers and poor readers from grades eight and nine as well.
"The village concept was not chosen by error," Mrs. Thompson said. "We have set up certain businesses in the village which are similar to what you would have in any village or communities, and we teach them to use these businesses."
Different facilities
According to her, the village has several different facilities, including major and minor roads, which were deliberately named after "forgotten Jamaican heroes." The village also has facilities such as a post office, pharmacy, hairdressing parlour, supermarket and shops.
The main road in the village, is the Seaga Boulevard, which is named after Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, who is Member of Parliament for the area where the school is located.
"We begin at the very beginning. We start with the alphabet, vowels and vowel sounds and words associated with businesses in the village. That is as basic as it gets," she said.
Village Co-ordinator Norma Williams said she never thought she would be teaching the vowels and alphabet in a secondary school.
"Look at the educational materials in the village. The vowels. We have to teach them how to sound them and when it is a long or short sound vowel," Mrs. Williams explained. "But the most important thing is letter recognition."
She said, there were 10 teachers working in the village, and that it was not all smooth running when the project was started.
"You can imagine how some of the students felt when they were placed in the village," Mrs. Williams said, "and after the concept was explained to the school. However, after the initial embarrassment and when the novelty wore off, the rest of the school, and the children in the village themselves, realised that it was for their own good."
Teacher Jacqueline Gayle said the children were making a real effort to learn.
"There are students who will take five minutes to read two sentences. There are students who will take five minutes to read a sentence. But these are students who in September could not read," she said.
She also explained that the children are anxious to learn to read, and have often expressed the desire. However, the difficulty for both students and teachers is lack of reinforcement at home.
Jamaica Teachers Association Secretary General Eric Downie said the JTA was aware of the initiatives of the school and lauded the efforts of those concerned. According to him, "With the high levels of students who are unable to read, all schools, particularly those at the primary levels must invest in teachers who are specialists in 'Reading in the Content Area'."
