Since I had been handling slow and challenging readers in my class, I was forced to think of more sensible ways to help them read. My years of seminars / workshops and so on weren’t enough to quench my thirst for more sensible strategies. I was about to give up when some of my students couldn’t even read a single word recognizable by sight, which comprised 75 percent of the text. Imagine the feeling I had when some of them didn’t even have a faint idea of what we were doing, why there was a need for understanding, etc. One more thing, they prefer to play, draw or color an animal, a manga character or whatever they can get their hands on, rather than read the text that is presented to them. I asked how to help these children get into the habit of reading, making sense of the text, enjoying the company of a book, etc. I was helpless, blaming myself for why I decided to handle them without any skills that I should have had in the first place.
The days passed. Forcing them to read a storybook or two didn’t help. He had even told them to bring their favorite books, but nothing happened. Nothing seemed to help. Then one day, I discovered something.
As I was walking down the street, I heard women playing bingo. Oh wait a minute. These women had been playing this game and they didn’t even get tired of playing. What could have been so special about playing bingo that left you so engrossed? Could it be the money from the pot? Bonding moments? However, they just wanted to kill time? A way to avoid boredom?
Something appeared in my mind. If I could use this game in my reading class, would my students be able to read? Would you enjoy our reading session when there was a part of the game like this, similar to bingo? Oh, I needed to find out.
When I got home, I immediately got a pen, a piece of paper, and a ruler. I made one bingo card, then another, until I had twenty-four pieces. Then, I wrote words recognizable at a glance that my students had a hard time recognizing. Right there I had an innovation! I was able to adopt the game of bingo in my reading class. Well, instead of using numbers like in bingo, I used sight words to meet the needs of my students’ reading problem. As for the name, I used Verb which means dynamic, fun and meaningful.
After I started using them, my students had fun learning to read. Some volunteered to “call” while the rest were busy playing with their classmates. As for the seeds of “pantantos”, pebbles, colored cut papers were used. And since then my class was full of fun when it came time to play and the motivation to read increased.