IranShahr

Geographical Location: Central Sistan and Balouchestan Province
Age Group: first and second grades
Number of Children: 12000
Start Date: Autumn 2015
In Progress

The Read with Meprogram started its activities in IranShahr, Rask, Sarbaz, Lashar, Bazman and Dargan in October 2015 by the financial support of Omran Azarestan Construction Co.

In the autumn of 2015, 400 book packages were sent to the Elementary Schools in Sistan & Balouchestan. Moreover, in December 2015, the first set of workshops were held for 430 teachers in this area.

In the second year, 3200 students and 96 teachers in 30 schools joined the Read with Me program. 30 other teachers have been covered during the third year of program implementation.

First Year of Read with Me in IranShahr

Read with Me was implemented through two visits to IranShahr. In the first two-day trip, two experts held workshops. The second trip was focused on visiting the classrooms as well as evaluating the effects of the Learning Phonemic Awareness Skills package on the reading and writing abilities of children. 430 teachers participated in a workshop on Learning Farsi through Literature. Based on the number of participants, the estimated number of children covered by this project is about 4000.

In February 2016, a 4.5-hour-workshop was held for each area (Rask, Sarbaz, and IranShahr) on “How to Use the Learning Phonemic Awareness Skills Package”. A conference was held for the teachers of IranShahr and the leaders of the rest of the regions as well.

Applying the Read with Me Child-centered Creative Education has had an extraordinary influence on children’s learning. Their moods have also been uplifted. According to the observations of Read with Me experts and the reports of teachers, using the Learning Phonemic Awareness Skills package has grown children in the areas of audio differentiation, auditory memory, speaking, reading and writing. Even in higher-grade classes, children have shown progress in speaking and learning.

Second Year of Read with Me in IranShahr

With these achievements, the “Read with Me” program set out to IranShahr schools for the second time in 2016-2017 and with the financial support of Omran Azarestan Construction Co. about 3,200 children (from first and second grade) in 30 schools were covered by the program. In addition to Creative Education packages, quality books were also provided for classrooms along with book displays that can be hung on classroom walls like a library.

Thereupon, preparatory and supplementary workshops for teachers were held in two stages (October and February of 2016). The workshops included Children’s Literature, Quality Books, Story Elements, Reading Aloud, Games, Expression and Body Language, Mask Making, Hand puppets and Dramatic Arts workshops as well as Basic Literacy workshops including Learning Phonological Awareness Skills, Learning Numeracy, Dictionary of Riddles and Documentation and Reporting Techniques.

Third Year of Read with Me in IranShahr

In the academic year of 2017-2018, “Read with Me” continues working in IranShahr schools for the third year. The first rounds of workshops have been held for 30 teachers, and teachers are implementing what they have learned by receiving quality books and creative education packages under the supervision of program experts.