Literacy Boost is Save the Children’s innovative, evidence-based response to an alarming global trend—the rise in the numbers of children finishing primary school who are unable to read well enough to learn. Using evidence from the latest reading research, Save the Children designed a three-pronged approach, including assessments, teacher training and community action, to significantly improve children’s core reading skills.

Literacy Boost helps teachers, students, parents and community members build the skills children need for independent reading. The program fosters vocabulary expansion, bolsters reading confidence and expression, and expands opportunities to practice reading both inside and outside the classroom.

Literacy Boost focuses on the five core skills that research shows are central to learning to read: letter knowledge,

phonemic awareness, vocabulary, reading fluency and comprehension.

Currently being implemented or planned in more than a dozen countries worldwide, Literacy Boost is unique because it:

adapts to fit the national curriculum as well as local languages, context and culture;

incorporates baseline and endline assessments, using comparison groups to demonstrate impact;

trains and empowers teachers to deliberately teach and monitor students’ mastery of core reading skills; and

creates materials and fosters community activities to enhance children’s literacy environment.

Program Approach 

Save the Children believes that more children will learn to read with comprehension if they are well-supported to do so in their classrooms and outside school walls. Literacy Boost combines teacher training with the materials and opportunities to practice reading skills in daily life. By focusing on core skills, Literacy Boost helps children learn to read independently, using activities to promote reading motivation and enjoyment. Literacy Boost holistically pursues the goal of literacy through three program elements:

1. using assessments to identify gaps and measure improvements in the five core reading skills;

2. training teachers to teach national curriculum with an emphasis on core reading skills; and

3. mobilizing communities to support children’s reading.

Literacy Boost’s Global Scope.

More than 14 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are implementing or preparing to implement Literacy Boost. This map represents the global reach of Literacy Boost in 2012, with the program expanding to additional countries.

Literacy Boost provides opportunities for children to practice key reading skills with community based reading activities. Photo by Eileen Burke.

South Africa

Haiti*

Mali Ethiopia

Uganda

Malawi Zimbabwe

Mozambique

Afghanistan Pakistan

Philippines

Nepal Bangladesh Vietnam*

*denotes countries using one or two Literacy Boost components only

Literacy Boost Helping children develop reading skills in and out of school

Indonesia

Literacy Boost Program Elements 

Assessments

The assessment component is the first step in the Literacy Boost model. Save the Children conducts assessments annually to collect student background information and establish student reading skill levels before and after the Literacy Boost intervention. Assessments help Save the Children staff and school and ministry partners identify strengths and gaps in students’ skills and track progress as they learn to read. Additionally, assessments are used to compare the progress of Literacy Boost students to the progress of those students who are not yet receiving Literacy Boost support.

Results from endline assessments in Malawi, Nepal, Mozambique and Pakistan—the four countries that have thus far completed at least one year’s cycle of Literacy Boost interventions—all show a significantly greater gains made by children in Literacy Boost schools when compared to those in comparison schools.

Teacher Training

Research shows that teacher training is more effective when teachers are trained on a regular, scheduled basis. By training teachers slowly over the course of the year, they can practice each individual skill in the classroom between training sessions and reflect on their successes and challenges together. Literacy Boost’s teacher training component includes nine monthly sessions, which are designed to equip all primary school teachers with useful tools to effectively teach children how to read, using the five key reading skills.

Literacy Boost teachers observe, discuss and practice techniques for building children’s letter knowledge, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension in monthly reflective training sessions. During these sessions, teachers model how to teach these key skills in the classroom, how to assess students on each skill, and discuss their successes and challenges when using each technique. In each training session, trainers work with teachers in the same grade from their own and neighboring schools to devise lesson plans for use in their classrooms.

Literacy Boost teacher training sessions are not designed to replace government and/or local curricula. Rather, the sessions are designed to enhance literacy instruction by using the government curriculum.

Community Action

Addressing the community side of education sets Save the Children apart from many other actors focused on school-based interventions and teacher training to improve reading skill development. By supporting the development of reading materials as well as promoting literacy and language activities in children’s villages and homes, Literacy Boost gives children more opportunities to practice reading skills outside school walls. It uses fun activities that promote

Evidence from Assessments: In Malawi, where class sizes ranged from 75 to more than 175, assessments show that Literacy Boost is effectively promoting reading skills across class sizes, achieving similar impact in classes of 75 and 175, while comparison school students struggle in overcrowded settings (see Figure 1). Regardless of class size, Literacy Boost students read on average 23 to 26 words per minute with over 90 percent accuracy and 73 percent comprehension. However, in comparison schools, the greater the class size, the lower the average fluency score.

In Malawi, teachers practice vocabulary lessons using a bingo game in a training session. Photo by Malawi country office.

Figure 1: Malawi, Standard 4 Fluency by Class Size and Group.

literacy and learning to motivate children's participation and kindle their enjoyment of reading.

The Literacy Boost Community Action component includes three action areas to support children in the early grades as they learn to read:

1. Parent activities, including workshops and strategies to help parents read with their children.

For parents, Save the Children leads activities that engage everyone, regardless of their own reading ability, in simple tasks that promote children’s reading skills and oral language development. Literacy Boost emphasizes that even everyday activities have the potential to boost children’s learning of letters, sounds and words, as well as develop children’s knowledge of the world around them.

2. Book Banks and materials creation.

Providing communities with a variety of reading materials is another essential part of Literacy Boost. In most communities, the only print material children typically see is a school textbook. Save the Children works with partners and communities to create engaging and relevant children’s print materials for a Literacy Boost Book Bank in every village.

Children borrow materials from these village-based Book Banks, and use them to practice reading at home. With guidance on how to create additional age- and language-

appropriate materials locally, communities can appreciate the importance of an enriched literacy environment and help to sustain and enhance the range and number of materials available in the Book Banks.

3. Extracurricular reading activities for children, such as Reading Camps and Reading Buddies.

Children need frequent opportunities to practice their literacy skills, and to see reading as an enjoyable activity so that they are motivated to keep learning. Save the Children has developed a variety of extracurricular community-based activities for children designed to complement what they are learning in school. These include weekly Reading Camps, Reading Buddies, Reading Festivals and Story Time. The activities are still centered around the five core skills of reading—using songs, read-alouds, and games to help children practice their skills in fun ways. By tapping community members to conduct these activities with children, Literacy Boost helps to develop a reading culture in the areas where the program works.

In Bangladesh, Literacy Boost pairs older children with younger children for reading buddy activities to strengthen their literacy skills. Photo by Michael Bisceglie.

Training and Learning in Action: What happens when a Literacy Boost student in Mozambique picks up a book? “They pick up one book and read. They pick up another and read,” says Idalina, a third-year teacher from Chingoe Primary School. By integrating Literacy Boost methods in the classroom, all of Idalina's students are able to read and write independently, a rarity in Mozambican students. Idalina feels very proud of her students’ achievements and also that they want to come to school, want to learn, and want to learn with her.

In Nepal, eight year old Himal reads his favorite book, which he discovered through Literacy Boost. Photo by Deergha Shrestha.

“Because of what we discuss in the [parenting] sessions, we now ask our children about school, and make sure

that they attend Literacy Boost activities regularly.”

– A Father of a Literacy Boost Student in Pakistan.

Figure 2: Pakistan, Urdu Comprehension Gains by Age, Borrowing and Frequency of Reading Camp Attendance.

Book Banks and Reading Activities Reinforce Learning

In Malawi, children who brought home and read Literacy Boost Book Bank materials demonstrated significantly higher vocabulary gains (16.98 percentage points, on average) than those who did not.

Borrowing books and attending Literacy Boost activities also helped students in Pakistan develop comprehension skills in both their mother tongue of Pashto as well as Urdu, the language of instruction at their schools (see Figure 2). The more frequently young children attended Reading Camps and borrowed books, the higher their gains in reading comprehension.

Creating Lasting Change in Children’s Lives

Beatrice Kaiwe is an 11-year-old girl from a remote village in Malawi. Blind in one eye, Beatrice had not learned to read even after completing several years of primary school. She was embarrassed by her failure to read, and refused any help from teachers and mentors, including that offered by Mai Margaret Thaulo of Save the Children.

Mai works as a mentor and a Literacy Boost reading camp leader. Literacy Boost is working in Malawi to improve young children’s ability to read and learn inside and outside the classroom walls through community activities like reading camps and book banks.

By the time Mai met Beatrice, the girl could not be persuaded to join Save the Children’s reading camp located near her home. Mai, who believed in the girl’s potential, persisted. After several unsuccessful attempts to change Beatrice’s mind, Mai took a stand: if Beatrice refused to go to the reading camp, she would go to Beatrice’s home instead and read to her. Her efforts paid off when she noticed Beatrice’s growing interest in listening to stories.

“I deliberately stopped reading for her at her house and told her that we have to continue doing that activity at the reading camp,” Mai said. “Because of her growing interest in listening to stories, she decided to show up at the camp one day and that was the turning point.”

Today, as a 4th grader, Beatrice is thriving at her school and has been chosen as one of the group leaders in the camp. The girl who was once described by her teacher, Mr. Kayenga as “very quiet and withdrawn, often crying when asked to read in class,” has mastered the alphabet and can read almost 40 words in one minute. Her sister, Lucy, a 7th grader, helps out by reading to her daily.

When asked about her experience, Beatrice said, “I never knew that one day I would overcome my inability to read. I am so thankful for what I have learned from the reading camp and want to share my knowledge with my friends in the village and at school.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Eric Eversmann Senior Director, Basic Education (202) 640-6622 | eeversmann@savechildren.org

Amy Jo Dowd Senior Advisor, Education Research (203) 341-8266 | adowd@savechildren.org

Cecilia Ochoa Advisor, Basic Education and Literacy (202) 640-6654 | cochoa@savechildren.org

© 2012 Save the Children In Malawi, Beatrice (in center) reads with other students in a Literacy Boost reading camp. Photo by Malawi country office.