Toys and school supplies are rare treats for children in Ghana. Local professors delivered teaching tips and more. View More Images from this story View and ORDER more photos.

Three Fredericksburg-area professors recently traveled to Ghana to train teachers to make their students better readers

Date published: 8/12/2007

By KIM BAER

The five primary schools the University of Mary Washington professors visited in Ghana were like nothing they'd seen before.

The schools didn't have running water, said Suzanne Houff, an education professor with UMW's College of Graduate and Professional Studies.

Because of power issues, the electricity was often off.

There were few textbooks.

The chalk boards were made of carbon from old batteries that had been rubbed onto the walls.

"It was like being in National Geographic," Houff said.

She was one of several reading professionals who traveled to the west African country this summer as part of the Virginia State Reading Association's Ghana project.

Kavatus Newell, a fellow education professor at the Stafford County center, and Dale Wright, an education professor at UMW's Fredericksburg campus, were also part of the two-week trip.

Their primary mission was to help schoolteachers learn how to better teach reading.

But the local professors also brought school supplies, including books, cloth bags, paper, pencils and notebooks.

The need in Ghana's schools is great. Fewer than 10 percent of the country's sixth-grade children are reading at grade level, according to reading.org, the Web site of the International Reading Association.

The needs of the country's schools were obvious. But the visitors were also taken by the people's graciousness and the children's eagerness to learn.

There's a respect for teachers not typically seen in this country. The children stand to address their teachers, for instance.

The visiting professors were pleased to see many students walking through the streets, carrying the new books they had been given.

"I don't think they have very much to call their own," Newell said. "That was a good possession for them."

At an opening ceremony before the workshop, Houff recalled, a man said: "We don't have much, but what we do have we will share."

"That summarized my whole experience there," Houff said.

The visitors brought knowledge to share, and school supplies, and they received carved wooden elephants and Kente cloth.

Houff also noticed that the lack of resources hadn't stopped the country's teachers from trying.

Because they didn't have story books, for instance, teachers write stories on paper and read them out to their students.

"They are very creative in their approach," she said.

This year, the professors shared several strategies for helping children better understand what they read.

They used the book "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears," an African folk tale, to demonstrate the techniques.

They gave lots of advice. Ask students to predict what they think a story will be about, the professors taught. Have students summarize the events of a story in order.

After the workshops, the professors visited primary schools to observe the teachers in action. Houff was pleased to see many of them using what they'd learned.

She was also pleased that many of the teachers were so happy to be a part of the workshops.

For example, the professors had given out UMW baseball caps and T-shirts to teachers.

"I had two teachers that came to the conference every day wearing their University of Mary Washington hats," Houff said. "They were so proud of those hats."

Kim Baer: 540/368-5028
Email: kbaer@freelancestar.com

ABOUT THE GHANA PROJECT: The Virginia State Reading Association has worked with Winneba, Ghana's University of Education on the project since 2004. On the first visit, association volunteers saw little small group or one-on-one reading instruction, said Mary Southerly, the project's chairwoman, in an e-mail. That had improved by their second visit, she wrote. Last year, the association helped start a resource room at the university with professional training materials, resource books and library books for children. The association is also helping with the town's efforts to open a new public library. Land has been donated by the town's chief. VSRA members attended this summer's groundbreaking. "Reading is a vital skill for all people but especially so in a developing country such as Ghana," Southerly wrote. "The key to a country's continuing progress is a literate population. Any efforts, however small, to foster literacy are valuable and most rewarding." To learn more about the Ghana project, please visit vsra.org/ghanaproject.html.

Date published: 8/12/2007