Abstract

My first experience teaching, in Sierra Leone in July of 2010, is where I realized that most elementary students were illiterate and lacked the foundational skills in order to learn how to read. I decided to return the following year in May of 2011 to undertake a project to provide culturally-sensitive literacy materials for village and orphaned children in the form of storybooks. The school site for this thesis is Children of the Nations (COTN) which is a school of 98 orphaned and 1,488 village students that range from 4years-20 years of age. The titles of the two books produced by this thesis are: What's Up and ABC's of Sierra Leone. These books are culturally relevant to the students who helped in creating them and includes pictures and words that students can identify. This study will 1) provide insights into history and literacy development issues of Sierra Leone from the perspective of a Western educator; 2) examine modern factors affecting literacy development; 3) describe my teaching experience in Sierra Leone with multiage children learning English; and 4) explore the notion of creating culturally-sensitive instructional materials for village and orphan students in Sierra Leone.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2012

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Biraimah, Karen

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Education and Human Performance

Degree Program

Elementary Education

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Education;Education -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

PDF

Identifier

CFH0004188

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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