It is no secret that today’s children face a different set of distractions and pressures than those of 10 or 20 years ago. So it is easy to understand why teachers may find it more challenging to promote literacy using only traditional methods.
Against this background, the National Literacy Agency (NLA), with Banif Bank’s support, recently launched Rakkonti – a three-year project in State schools aimed at enhancing literacy skills, including reading, listening, speaking, writing and critical thinking, among early years and primary school children.
The project will do this using a set of Maltese tales, written and illustrated by Trevor Zahra, which are then given a modern twist through digital animations, with music composed by Dominic Galea, and puppet reenactments. In this way, the tales and characters will come to life in every classroom, and no two re-tellings of the tales will be the same.
Emotion is a very powerful catalyst for learning and knowledge retention. When children laugh or get excited over something, they are much more likely to remember the lessons learned. What’s more, simply by being something different from the usual classroom norm, puppets immediately capture students’ attention.
The pupils themselves will also get to use the puppets to reenact the tales while following a script. This will help give structure to their learning and a final aim on which to focus, which automatically gets them to play a more active and involved role in the project. Pupils can use puppets to create their own stories, which is another fantastic way to learn, explore and evolve – the only limit is their imagination!
The pupils themselves will also get to use the puppets.When children laugh or get excited over something, they are much more likely to remember the lessons learned
The use of puppets will help less confident pupils step outside their comfort zone and express themselves more freely. Those who have somewhat low self-esteem will feel as if the things they’re saying are not coming from them but from the puppet, thereby overcoming their usual self-censorship. All this will help them explore, learn and evolve.
By holding comprehensions, listening exercises, dictations and interviews with the puppets or writing essays to discuss the morals of the tales, Rakkonti can be used to help boost children’s language and literacy skills, including reading, listening, speaking, writing, and critical thinking.
The NLA has put a wide range of tools at the disposal of the teachers to implement the project. Each school will get their own set of puppets, sponsored by Banif Bank, to use in classrooms. A total of eight fairy tales will be released over the next few years, with each one being specifically designed for a certain age group. Each tale will be accompanied with a musical track, a script and a video with narration. All resources are being shared with teachers and parents alike on the Rakkonti Facebook.
During the launch of the project at St Ignatius College Primary School, Siġġiewi, the puppets introduced Rakkonti to the pupils and guests present, including Education Minister Evarist Bartolo. The tale Il-Ġgant u l-Iskarpan was re-enacted by teachers from the Drama Unit, Trevor Zahra narrated the tale Ix-Xiħ Midfun ġol-Għar and a choir of Year 5 pupils from the school animated the activity by singing two songs from Rakkonti.
To learn more about the project visit the link below.
http://facebook.com/rakkonti.nla
Giovann Attard is head of the Education Department’s Drama Unit.
Trevor Zahra reading a story to pupils in the presence of Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.