Sponsorship Rounds 1- 4 – Tales from a Dilly Bag
Literacy is a key factor in determining children’s educational outcomes. For Indigenous children, learning to be literate can at times be a great challenge. The District 9600 Literacy Project 2008/09, Tales from a Dilly Bag, has been designed to provide enhanced literacy experiences for young Indigenous Australian children and aims to support the very young as they learn to be literate by providing enjoyable experiences with children’s literature.
Current RI President, John Kenny, has prioritised Literacy for the 2009/2010 Rotary year. Throughout the world there are more than 800 million people who are unable to read or write and this makes their lives more difficult and places their families in a very vulnerable position where hunger, disease, poverty and lack of education will affect their lives every day.
The District 9600 Literacy Project, Tales from a Dilly Bag, aims to assist young Indigenous children as they begin to learn to be literate for it is during the early childhood years that the foundations for literacy are established. By sharing stories with young children, talking about the stories and completing activities relating to the texts, there is an expectation the children will enjoy the experience, gain a love of story sharing, learn more about how language is used in books and build a sound foundation for learning to be literate. At the same time when a class is sponsored in a school, principals are being encouraged to appoint older students in the school as reading mentors who will share the stories with young children. Thus, the District 9600 Literacy Project has aims to:
1. Enhance literacy learning opportunities for young Indigenous Australian children and their classmates by providing resources to enable increased opportunities for storybook sharing at school; and
2. Engage older primary-age Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to assist as reading mentors for young children in sponsored schools.
This project has the double benefit of enhancing literacy learning for young children and at the same time enabling older primary-aged children who will assist as reading mentors, to develop their independent, leadership skills. The plan is that all young children, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous in the sponsored classes, will benefit from this project.
How can Rotary Clubs participate in this District 9600 Literacy Project?
The project has been designed so that individual Rotary Clubs can sponsor one or more Preparatory or Year 1 classes where Indigenous children are enrolled. Sponsorship enables clubs to purchase a comprehensive educational kit containing children’s books and other educational materials. The contents of the kit have been specifically designed to meet the aims of this project.
Each kit contains between 50 and 60 picture storybooks (including Indigenous stories) presented in a dilly bag, together with a box of stationery, craft materials, activity guides relating to the storybooks, scrapbooks and a digital camera so photographs may be used as a stimulus for early writing. The sponsorship cost for each kit is $750.00.
Sponsorship Rounds 1 and 2 occurred during the 2008/2009 Rotary year and 13 classes of young children were sponsored. This means that approximately 325 young children benefitted from listening to stories being read aloud and having the opportunity to practise and enhance their spoken language interactions with a reading mentor. These activities assist young children to develop the foundational language skills and understandings about print that are so necessary for emergent literacy skills in the early childhood years.
In the 2009/2010 Rotary year, 3 sponsorship rounds are being held. With Rounds 3 and 4 now closed, we have now reached 27 classes being sponsored in the Tales from a Dilly Bag project. This means by early 2010 we will have reached 675 young children and provided resources to enhance their language and literacy learning in the Early Years of schooling. We also will have reached the same number of older students who have become Reading Mentors for the younger students. This is indeed a wonderful achievement for a new literacy project that only commenced in December 2008. Rotary clubs are to be congratulated for their willingness to become involved in this district 9600 literacy project. Some clubs have been enthused by this project and have sponsored up to 4 classes.
Schools are offering feedback about the way they are using the Dilly Bag kits and these stories have been included in the D9600 monthly Literacy newsletters. One of the most exciting and unexpected outcomes being reported by schools is the way the kit has provided an incentive for some reluctant older readers. Being a mentor for a young child and being able to read a story with fluency and expression is something that has engaged older students. Teachers have noted that some children who have learning difficulties or a disability also have been able to join in as Reading Mentors and they are carrying out the role very effectively. When I have had the opportunity to visit schools as they use the Dilly Bag kit, I have noted the polite and responsible way older students communicate with the younger ones. I also have noted how encouraging they are as they support the younger ones to think about the meanings in the story and talk about the characters and events.
How to sponsor a class in 2009/2010 year?
All clubs are invited to consider participating in final sponsorship Round 5 by completing the Sponsorship Registration Form (located on the District website) and returning it with your payment to Mr Don Richards, District 9600 treasurer, by 19th March, 2010. This is the very last opportunity to become a Dilly Bag sponsor in the 2009/2010 Rotary year.
Clubs may nominate specific schools where Indigenous children are enrolled or, alternatively, gain further advice about schools from me - Janelle Young, Chair, D9600 Literacy Taskforce.
Delivery of Kits
I expect the kits for the fifth round will be made available to Rotary clubs by May 2010 and acknowledgement of the Club’s sponsorship will be included in all storybooks and on all components of the literacy kit through the use of extensive labelling. Individual Clubs are asked to make arrangements for the kit to be delivered to the sponsored class.
Your Club’s support for the Rotary District 9600 Literacy Project 2009/10, Tales from a Dilly Bag, is encouraged. By sponsoring one or more classes your Club will provide a kit of purpose-designed educational materials that will enhance language and literacy learning opportunities for young Indigenous children and others during the early childhood phase of their development. Your sponsorship will also contribute to the activities prescribed by RI for those seeking to achieve a District Literacy Award for the 2009/2010 Rotary year.
Yours in Rotary
Dr Janelle Young
Chair, Rotary District 9600 Literacy Taskforce
Rotary Club of Samford Valley
Email: jyoung14@gmail.com
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