Mother awarded full marks for comprehensive solution
She wanted to do something that would benefit the youth and recalled the lack of comprehension workbooks.
LYDENBURG – Two out of 10? Ms Maryam Cassim stared at her then nine-year-old daughter. As a mum of five children she understood each child was different and she considered her little girl to be clever. But how did she score so low on a comprehension test?
Comprehension means to understand. The answers are present in the text. She did what any concerned parent would do and went to the bookshop to purchase comprehension workbooks to give her daughter some practice, but found nothing.
Cassim was also disturbed by the fact that her children did not read enough books and realised that this is a general concern. Distractions like smartphones, iPads and tablets only helped to fuel a generation of non-readers.
She is an avid reader herself and came to a few conclusions:Children don’t read enough books and they don’t have the ability to do critical thinking because a lot of emphasis in school is on rote learning, or the parrot form of studying. Parents and teachers don’t have the time to source literature and then compile questions to assess the pupils’ understanding of what they have just read. Understanding is imperative to learning regardless the subject matter. And so her story goes.
After having her five children she decided to study for her bachelor’s degree in communication science and graduated in 2012. She wanted to do something that would benefit the youth and recalled the lack of comprehension workbooks.
Cassim worked on a series for children over the next two years, taking advice from teachers and publishers. “I believe kids need to learn how to observe, interpret, define and reason, and it should be done using realistic examples,” she said.
The books have been published and offer a range of texts, to test children using picture stories, recipes, interviews, menus and instruction leaflets. “I want to really give children a mind workout and make it fun. They need to be able to think about what they have just read in multiple ways.
I want to get kids thinking again.” The comprehension series Book One (grades three to four), Book Two (grades five to six) and Book Three (grade seven) are available at Little Hoot Educational Toys, Shop 60, Sonpark, Mbombela.
