The plan for the schools here is to teach “Jolly Phonics”, following on to a more advanced phonics program for reading, then Genki English for speaking and a host of intensive reading stories etc. for fluency and vocab. It should make for a great combination.

As the phonics workshops and my workshops will be held together this week I sat in on one of the preliminary workshops. Jolly Phonics is really good, the kids love it and it’s probably the best programme out there, but it was a little strange for me as I’m quite used to a more American approach for the more complex sounds. The Indian teachers were better than I was! But you quickly figure it out, and it fitted in very nicely with the Genki Phonics materials. Using the gestures for each sound really makes a big difference.

I also had a demo workshop for the people in charge, and they loved it, which was reassuring to hear.

Then more meetings and some gorgeous Indian food before bed.

Richard Graham

Hello, I'm Richard Graham. When I was a kid I found school to be sooooo boring... So I transformed my way of teaching. I listened to what the kids were really wanting to say and taught it in ways they really wanted to learn. The results were magical. Now I help teachers just like you teach amazing lessons and double your incomes!