RHYTHM OF LIFE IS A POWERFUL BEAT

Can you recall the hit song from decades ago called "The Rhythm of Life" ? I can not remember all the words except "the rhythm of life has a powerful beat. Rhythm in the bedroom rhythm in the street". They forgot to mention rhythm in the classroom.

Earlier generations at school up to the 1970s were used to rhythm in the classroom. They chanted the multiplication tables, sang songs, recited poems and nursery rhymes and danced folk dances.

Then it all stopped in the 1960s and 1970s when some fool teachers decreed that memorization was an inferior way of learning. Noise in classrooms stopped. There is still silence in classrooms as students are not required to recite anything.

Even phonics is silent in modern classrooms with students required to work out the meanings of words by blending - all silent work.

We are bringing back chanting at elementary school. At the Eriku school students love to chant patterns and may well remember these patterns into old age. The phonic patterns bring rhythm memory back to the classroom.

We go
We go
We go to town
We go to town
We go with him
We go with him
We go into the house
We go into the house
Don't go
Don't go
Don't go with them
Don't go with them
Don't go to town with them
Don't go to town with them

Why make young kids focus on intellectualizing words with exclusive focus on sounds and blending? Let them chant and memorize the literacy music of simple words. There is so much rhythm in poetry and nursery rhymes:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water

/        x    /        x      /     x    /
x     /    x   /    x       /   x

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow

/  x        /    x    / x     /
x      /        x       /     x       /

Then we have rhythm in the nation

Oh arise all you sons of this land
x     x /      x   x     /      x    x      /
Let us sing of a joy to be free
x     x    /      x  x   /   x   x    /
Praising God and rejoicing to be
/       x          /   x     x   /   x     x   x/
Papua New Guinea
/    x x     /      / x

Listen to kids in the playground. Can you recall the clapping chant. " Down by the river down by the sea, Jimmy broke a bottle and he blamed me. I told mummy and mummy told daddy and daddy got a big stick and bam bam bam" - pure rhythm in the playground.

Teachers have to bring back rhythm to the classroom and phonics will look after itself.

COMMENT ON JOLLY PHONICS

Post Courier of Papua New Guinea 8 June 2016 Page 24

Jolly Phonics has much value but stops short at teaching words in sentence structures.

There is a report in the media on Jolly Phonics that can not go uncommented on. Written by Russell Jackson, the report claims that Jolly Phonics is fun and transforming reading and writing all over the world and that teachers have noticed huge improvements to the point that they are absolutely amazed.

The report states that Jolly Phonics focus on 42 sounds, letter formation, blending letter sounds to read words, segmenting identifying sounds, learning tricky irregular words. The report claims that the number of students needing remedial help is being dramatically reduced.

We would express the view that Jolly Phonics certainly helps with reading, understanding and writing words which is what every new phonics program does. But it does not teach the basics of sentence structure. 

It does not teach students the rhythm of words and sentences that is the very basis of written and spoken English. This is a massive shortcoming that is being addressed in our program in Papua New Guinea.

Students have to feel the smooth rhythm of sentences and feel the ways sentences are put together. Phonics is about feeling the poetry of words in structures. Jolly Phonics does not appear to do that in any way.

Over the last month, we have posted 5 reports on reading and feeling the poetry of sweet English. Students chant and clap. 

Teachers help them to understand new words by telling them to blend but the key focus is the rhythm of sentences. Students will come to implant on their souls the rhythm of all the basic patterns of English sentences. 

They will write elegant English as they advance through school with the memory of the rhythm of words and sentences. Some will become journalists, writers and masters of sweet and rhythmic English.

See the reports on this blog below that have attracted 1500 hits in the last month from Papua New Guinea. Clap your hands and chant the patterns below in weak-strong-weak-strong stress. 

There will be at least 80 sequences by the end of the year. The students will be skilled at stringing patterns together to make sentences. Then complex words will be slowly integrated year by year.

I go
I go
I go to town
I go to town
I go to buy some food
I go to buy some food
I go to school
I go to school
I go to learn to read and write
I go to learn to read and write
I go to bed
I go to bed
I go to bed to sleep at night
I go to bed to sleep at night
I wake up in the morning light
I wake up in the morning light.

Ours is the only program in Papua New Guinea to take children past words. Language is about sentences not just words. Jolly Phonics is about teaching words which is important but appreciation and use of sweet sentences must must be the primary aim of learning from elementary to Grade 12.

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt (Qld)
Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Cambridge)
Teacher of Tok Pisin - RAAF School of Languages Melbourne 1978-1992.
Teacher of English in Papua New Guinea schools - Elementary to Grade 12.

Monthly hit tally: 197, 236

Papua New Guinea

44889

United States

19737

Russia

17783

Australia

8774

Germany

2576

Indonesia

2319

France

2057

United Kingdom

1248

New Zealand

1148

Ukraine

794

STRINGING PHONIC PATTERNS TOGETHER

Mikhaela Palin2 June 2016 at 20:45

That is great and good progress for the students. I am very excited and looking forward to the end of the year.

For a week at the Eriku elementary school, I have begun a revolution in teaching the English language to 8 year olds, some having started to learn English only eighteen months before. There was no mention of grammar but only sequences of rhythmic patterns.

The structures were mainly those of simple sentences with a limited vocabulary to be used while the patterns were being learned. 

Students were learning to go to town, go into the house, go and get water at the river, buy food at the market, sit with me, read a book, walk to the house, go into the house, open the door, shut the window, close your eyes, open your eyes, wash the clothes and more. 

These were enough to produce basic patterns. Complex vocabulary comes when the patterns are mastered in simple words.

Last week, we focused on single thought patterns:

Open the door.

Go into the house.

Sit on the floor, 

Close your eyes.

Go to the market.
Open the window.

Read a book. 
Call the dog.

Buy some food.

Talk to me. and more

Now it is time to extend the structures with and, but, with, to. We will start with the connector and:

Open the door and go inside.

Sit on the floor and read a book.

Go to market and buy some food.

Open the window and call the dog.

But that opens the door to further stringing of patterns as lists which is most relevant at high school and business college in report writing.

Open the door, go inside and sit on the floor.

Go to the market, buy some food and come back to the house.

Go to bed, close your eyes and fall asleep.

He went to the room, looked around and then went out again.

Stringing of phonic patterns can now become the very basis of teaching of English to young students. It is like stringing beads on a necklace. Limit the grammar and drill the patterns. Tell them the grammar from Grade 4.

I think that / I will go to town / to buy some food.

Would you like to / come with me / and swim in the sea?

I would like to / sit at the house / and talk to you / about my school.

I think that / I would like to / go with you / to the airport.

CON-MAN HOUSE STEALER ARRESTED IN KOKOPO

Post Courier 3 June 2016

What do you think of all this Uncle Laimo Superintendant and head of NCD police ? Do the police thugs in your family bash other care workers too? Is Grace dead ? Were the police thugs in your family helping Baragu to steal the house in Garia Street? 

The plan of the housestealers was to get me out to sell the house. So your drunken family police thugs walked into a criminal hideout, bashed the care worker and let the criminals go free. Well done coppers.  See report on Corruption in the Papua New Guinea Constabulary below.

Police in East New Britain have arrested and charged a man for one count of stealing under false pretenses the sum of K129, 739 from a business house in Kokopo town. 

The accused Allan Baragu from Raluana village was residing in Vunamami Urban LLG at the time of the incident. It was alleged that Baragu was acting as representative for Paul Tunia and George Tunia to negotiate a land deal.

When the negotiation was going well, Baragu brought in Paul Tunia and signed an agreement to purchase land with Mr Rodriguez. But the money never reached Paul and George Tunia.

Comment:  Allan Baragu is a well known con-man who sells the property of other people and National Housing Corporation (NHC)  and later the National Housing Estates Limited (NHEL) and steals the money. 

He was once the Conveyancing Officer for the National Housing Commission but sold the houses and kept the money. He was sacked from NHC but never taken to Court. The corruption of NHC is such that all fraud is kept in-house. There was so much fraud in NHC. that only the greedy officers were sacked.

Three years ago he and his family pushed themselves into a house at Garia Street 5 Mile of which I was caretaker while the old man was away for treatment in the Philippines. They did their best to push me out with the intention of stealing and selling the house.

But they failed when I refused to move. On the last night he brought two clients to move into the house but I had locked the door and threatened him that he would be hit with an iron bar if he smashed his way in through the door. He decided not to try. He had been bashing the door in with a sledge hammer.

He left for Kokopo soon after that as he had been found by Peter the Engan who lived in a street near the Gordons International School and had paid Baragu K45,000 for a stolen house. He had been given a fake title by the corrupt ex-NHC conveyancer Baragu and had searched for him for two years. 

Peter the Engan was a devout Catholic who attended St Peters Sunday mass but still received a stolen house at Hohola. He undoubtedly knew the house was stolen.

The family had been kicked out by corrupt NHC and police and the mother was thrown out of her death bed and died on the street. The daughter asked my help and came to the house but the house stealers denounced her as a prostitute come for sex. She had read reports on Baragu on our blog and found our address at Garia Street.

It was the Baragu wife who started the hate campaign to remove me from the NHEL unit so that they could steal and sell. When that failed she passed the job to the criminal neighbours who had me evicted by police and their corrupt aunty Madelaine  

CEO of NHC, Aunty Madelaine turned  a blind eye to these criminal neighbours and wantoks in Garia Street building blocks of flats at the back of the NHC unit and collecting rent. Other tenants were punished and made to pull the flats down. Not the Kendi family related to the CEO.

The Baragu wife Aunty Carol to the Kendi family spread the word that I was running a brothel. I did not need to tell them that this unit was a care centre for AIDS Holistics helping people with HIV, AIDS and TB. It was quietly known by several people in the neighbourhood suffering from sickness.

The Baragu wife warned girls that I was sexually dangerous. She did not have to worry about me. She had the grossly ugly sex appeal of an overweight elephant  seal. AIDS Holistics had conducted a care centre at this address for 7 years. 

Within 2 months of the Baragus invading the house, we were being told our centre was a brothel and had to be cleaned out of the neighbourhood. An NHC unit was being stolen by criminals.

At last Peter the Engan found Baragu walking along Kanage Street, said 10 Hail Marys  and had him bashed by two car loads of Engans armed with iron bars and hammers. Baragu had promised to repay the stolen money and desperately needed to sell the house in Garia Street to get money. 

When that failed, he ran away to Kokopo where he was recently arrested playing the same tricks. The Engan is probably still looking for him  Please click:

house stealers on run from police - family positive living - aids holistics

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2014/02/house-stealers-on-run-from-police.htm

l

Feb 27, 2014 - The house at 83 Garia Street is quiet. House stealers have gone 

on the run from police. There is no more raucous screaming fro

BASIC SIMPLE SENTENCE STRUCTURES

The key to a successful phonics program is to lock in a program of basic simple sentence English. Then students can move ahead quickly with a systematic mastery of structures and not just words.

Words are important. I have watched teachers taking elementary students through spellings. Students chanted the spelling even tense by tense. They even read of the words in sentences.

But the big picture of the structures of English was missing. This made a ceiling to what could be achieved without a basic English structure course to be integrated by the teacher. Phonics should take students through to polished writing up to Grade 12.

So our course in the Eriku elementary school is pleasing the teachers, students and parents in that students are being taken through the basic structures pattern by pattern. Each pattern is designed for chanting and clapping. 

The initial aim is to teach patterns based on simple sentence how, when, where and why. Today the elementary students listened, read, chanted and clapped through where - when structures.

Where

I went to town

He walked away from the house.

He went into the house.
He walked around the house.
He sailed around the world.

She walked across the road.

Soldiers marched along the road.

He swam across the river.

They fell on to the floor.
He fell upon his knees and prayed to God.
He prayed unto the Lord.
Look into my eyes.
He was under the influence of drugs.
He looked across the room.
She looked out from beneath the blanket.

He started walking towards the house.

She looked through the window.

He walked between the two trees.

They sat among the trees.

Birds flew above/over the house.

He worked among the people of Papua.

They jumped on to the floor.
He drove his car outside the speed limit.
Drive within the speed limit.

He gave money to me.

They took the money from me

He sat beside me

The money was donated to the school.

The house was built for us.

The water level was below the mark.
It should be above the mark.

The ship sailed over/across the seas.
He escaped from the prison.

They swam in the river.
They dived into the river.
They swam under the water.

They sat in a boat on the river.

They sat by/beside the river


When

Come at 8 am on Friday.
Do not come before that time.
I will not be at the house after 9.00 am.
We will work from 9 am to 11 am.
Stay until the afternoon.
He watched TV while I cooked the food.
I will go to town during the week.
I will be happy when you come.
You will be sick for up to a week.
You will be in hospital for over a month.
He will be out of hospital in less than a week.
He stayed for under two weeks.
As he opened the door, the dog rushed in.


Verbs

Open the door.
Cook the food.
Buy some meat.
Check the water level.
Polish the floor.
Write a story.
Sing a song.
Enter the house.
Look at me.
Open your eyes
Buy the food
Cross the river.
Wait for me.
Do it again.
Buy more food.
Ask me again
Read the book.
Talk to him.
Walk to town
Find the chickens
Ask him again.
Wait for me.
Come with me.
Help your mother.
Go by boat
Buy a book today.
Close the door.
Open the window.
Clean the house.
Shut your eyes.
Sit over there.

You may think these patterns are very simple. But these demand a detailed understanding by children of basics. The students are 8 years old and most only begun to learn English from the start of last year. 

At this early stage there is no rapid expansion of vocabulary until the basic patterns are mastered.  Students should focus on one target at a time which at this moment is words within basic patterns. As the basic patterns are mastered, the difficulty of words will increase.

It has been a good week at the elementary school at Eriku. Every student in the 6 elementary grades and teachers have been clapping and chanting patterns. Patterns below are in weak-strong rhythm.

I go
I go
I go to town
I go to town
We go
We go.
We will go with you
We will go with you.
We will buy some food for you
We will buy some food for you
Do you want to buy some food?
Do you want to buy some food?
Don't go
Don't go
Don't go into the house
Don't go into the house
Don't go with him
Don't go with him
I will go
I will go
I should come
I should come
I can come
I can come
I want to come
I want to come
I want to come with you
I want to come with you
I would like to come with him
I would like to come with him
Would you like to come?
Would you like to come?
Yes. I would like to come
Yes. I would like to come
I think that I will come
I think that I will come
I think that I would like to come
I think that I would like to come

Some students listened to the next class through the wall and chanted patterns with them !! Teachers said that the standard of English has lifted in 5 days. Teachers can see a panorama of English patterns starting to unfold before their eyes.

I gave a chart to one teacher freshly written in felt pen. She came back complaining that one sentence was not in rhythm. That was true. My mistake.  I did the chart again.

The students giving me trouble are those in grade 1. Nothing seems to be too difficult. Today we did a story on sharks the predators of the ocean with chanting Q &A patterns. Not too difficult.

My only worry is that some students will race far ahead in literacy and drop into boredom on moving to primary school. They may finish their elementary school work two grades ahead. I am starting to give Q & A stories based on biology.

TEACHERS NEED THE SAME PHONIC EXERCISES

I have to revise my view on phonics in Papua New Guinea after visiting an elementary school in Lae and seeing the splendid work being done in the grade 1 class with students who have started school one and a half years ago.

The preparatory grades were struggling with words and spelling but had only been at school since the start of this year. They enjoyed the rhythmic chanting of sentences.

But the grade 1 class had a teacher experienced in teaching phonics and had given lists of similar words - heel, steel, feel, wheel, keel  (The keel of the boat was made of steel) and then given lists of sentences containing the words just as we have done with Dr Seuss type silly sentences (The fat cat sat on the small rat in the tall hat)

Students then read out all sentences from the wall charts. The words in the sentences were reasonably complex fo grade 1. 

But the students knew over 100 sentences from wall charts. But they did not speak in rhythm. All sentences were made up of strong stresses. Papua New Guinea students have no idea of weak-strong stress. It is all strong-strong-strong.

Still they knew the sentences off by heart. They found my patterns very easy which is making me go back home to design sequences that will challenge this grade 1 class. Does this mean they can read books with ease? Perhaps.

My only criticism or perhaps suggestion for improvement would be that the sentences form part of a sequence across all sentences to teach students the structure of English sentences. 

In the grade 1 class, the wall sentences had no system and would not prepare students for the next phase of combining simple sentences into complex sentences. I see a challenge here.

But still the students in this class would be far ahead of the students in the past struggling with vernacular and not English.

The curriculum for the phonics is going to be fluid as some students appear to be racing ahead supported by their teachers who are drilling the new patterns. 

The format will be as follows: (1) structure patterns ( I go I go I go to town I go to town), (2) spelling supported by sentences (steel, heel, feel - I feel pain in my heel) (3) silly sentences ( It was sunny and I saw a funny bunny. It was a very funny bunny. The bunny was very funny) (4) grammar structures ( He gave money .... me. He took money .....me. They sat in a boat ......the river. They swam ....... the river. They sat ....... the river).

I am told that many students race far ahead in phonics to the point they have the skill of students two grades ahead. Some students have been placed in higher grades and excelled at higher levels. But there is more to learning than just phonics.

I am finding that there are grade 2 students who will easily master the higher Mastery Writing skills within a year or two . Phonics must open the door to a systematic mastery of English patterns. 

It is not just an end in itself that goes for 2 years at the start of a child's education. The rhythm of language is valid to the end of schooling. All successful novelists and journalists know that their writing has to have elegance and beauty that comes from skill in sweet phonics.  Please click:

WRITE SWEET ENGLISH

Phonics is the starting point for elegant, beautiful and professional writing. I strive to write in sweet english even on this blog. I write a paragraph and then read to myself to make sure that the rhythm is regular and sweet.

PHONICS FOR ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (2)

Oracle Equipments12 May 2016 at 22:37

Thank you for taking the time to publish this information very useful! I've been looking for books of this nature for a way too long. I'm just glad that I found yours. Looking forward for your next post. Thanks :)

Elementary to Grade 3 - simple sentence phonics in simple structures. Grade 4 - Grade 12 - simple to complex sentences in all sentence structures.

Elementary grade students learn to speak English in simple sentences. English is the official language in Papua New Guinea. For most students it is a foreign language and must be taught as a foreign language.

Most phonics programs in PNG are limited in teaching students to speak and read English. I saw a program today that focused on vowels, consonants and words. How on earth will students learn simple English? It is useful but stops short of promoting English as a foreign language.

I hope that teachers have tried the patterns in Report on Phonics as a Foreign Language (1) below. Did you have the elementary students chant each pattern twice in rhythm?

It would be good if both teachers and students chant and clap to the rhythm as they go through each sentence. Sentences are based on X/ weak strong stress. 

These patterns will take students through the systematic structures of English over weeks to come. These patterns can be on a loop and be chanted from the start again when the sequence is finished.

It is expected that the phonics will be completed with 120 sets of chanting patterns for elementary grades. Once they can read all these patterns, they can be regarded as able to read. Teachers should have the patterns on a brown paper flip chart to be chanted daily pattern by pattern. Chant and clap.

Phonics in church schools can take patterns from Scripture. There is beautiful phonic rhythm in the Bible;

Psalm 23:  The Lord is my shepherd  x/xx/x  I shall not want x/x/
Psalm 96:  Sing unto the Lord a new song. x/xx/xx/  Sing unto the Lord all the earth x/xx/xx/
        
Elementary phonics focuses on simple sentences. At higher grades we call this baby talk. At higher grades, students practise the skills of combining simple sentences into complex sentences. Baby sentences are not to be used exclusively by the higher grades.

I opened the door. I went inside. I put a letter on the table.

I opened the door, went inside and put a letter on the table.
Opening the door, I went inside and put a letter on the table

I looked out the window. I saw a ship. It was on the sea.

I looked out the window and saw a ship on the sea.
Looking out the window. I saw a ship on the sea.

He was an old man. He had a walking stick. He had a long white beard.

He was an old man with a walking stick and a long white beard.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. The birds were singing.

It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and birds singing.

I looked out the window. I had a broad smile. I watched the boys. They
were sitting under the tree. They were eating their lunch. They were 
talking to the girls.

Looking out the window with a broad smile, I watched the boys sitting 
under the tree, eating their lunch and talking to the girls.

But let us now continue with the elementary simple sentence school chanting patterns. Students love to chant and clap the patterns in class. I am going around conducting demonstration lessons in elementary schools. 

The general view of teachers is that this program is superior in the nation. Other programs simply focus on words. Students chant patterns and learn quickly. It is all designed in weak-strong-weak-strong stress.

I will go
I will go
I will go to town
I will go to town
I will go with you
I will go with you
I will go to buy some food
I will go to buy some food
I will go into the house
I will go into the house
I will go swim in the sea
I will go swim in the sea
I will go with my friend
I will go with my friend
I will go with two of my friends
I will go with two of my friends

Will you go? 
Will you go?
Will you go with me?
Will you go with me?
Will you go to town?
Will you go to town?
Will you go to town with me?
Will you wait?
Will you wait for me?
Will you wait for me?
Will you wait in town?
Will you wait in town?
Will you come back at 4 pm
Will you come back at 4 pm?
Will you come by bus?
Will you come by bus?

I am going
I am going
I am going to town
I am going to town
I am going with you
I am going with you
I am going to buy some food
I am going to buy some food
I am going to swim
I am going to swim
I am going to watch TV
I am going to watch TV
I am going to eat some food
I am going to eat some food

Do you want to come?
Do you want to come?
Do you want to come with me?
Do you want to come with me?
Do you want to go?
Do you want to go?
Do you want to go to town?
Do you want to go to town?
Do you want a cup of milk?
Do you want a cup of milk?
Do you want to sit?
Do you want to sit?
Do you want to sit with me?
Do you want to sit with me?

I think that I will go to town.
I think that I will go to town.
I think that I will stay in town
I think that I will stay in town.
I think that you should come.
I think that you should come.
I think that you should come with me
I think that you should come with me
I think that we should go to town.
I think that we should go to town.
I think that you should come back again
I think that you should come back again.

I would like to buy some food
I would like to buy some food
I would like to talk to you
I would like to talk to you
I would like to open the door
I would like to open the door
I would like to shut the door.
I would like to stay with you
I would like to stay with you
I would like to eat some food
I would like to eat some food.

Tom

My name is Tom. I am in grade 1. I go to school in Lae.
I go with my sister. School is a long way away. We go 
back home in the afternoon.

1. What is his name?
2. What grade is he in?
3. Where does he go to school?
4. Who takes him to school?
5. Is school a long way away?
6. When do they go back home?

Mary

My name is Mary. I live in a village near Lae. I am 9 years old.
I do not go to school. My parents do not have money for school
fees. School is far away. I help my mother each day.

1. What is her name?
2. Where does she live?
3. How old is she?
4. Does Mary go to school ?
5. Why doe she not go to school?
6. Is school near the village?
7. What does Mary do each day?

Students in elementary grades will respond to the simple rhythm of these patterns particularly if the teacher has placed these on a brown paper flip chart. These can be chanted daily until known thoroughly.

These exercises will take young children through the sequence of simple sentence patterns that make up the English language. 

A problem in many phonics programs is that the designer had no idea of the sequence of simple sentence patterns. Phonics is more than just teaching words particularly when students are learning English as a foreign language.

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt
Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Cambridge)
Tutor in Tok Pisin - RAAF School of Languages Pt Cook Melbourne