“In Mrs. Aurelia Boian’s class: a child’s progress in the ‘Glittery Schools’ program”

This school year, in the “Glittery Schools” program, we are collaborating with 89 primary school teachers who work with preparatory-grade students across 10 counties in Romania, especially in vulnerable communities. They are dedicated educators who demonstrate every day that every act of support and every effort, no matter how small, can have a significant impact on children’s educational journeys.

Among these teachers is Mrs. Aurelia Boian, from Vad Secondary School in Cluj County. Enrolled in the program since the beginning of the school year, she has participated in training sessions, completed the free “All Children Read” course, and uses in her classroom—together with her 21 students—the educational resources “All Children Read – A Good Start in Preparatory Grade.”

The most effective activities proved to be the interactive ones: guided reading, role-playing games, image-to-text matching exercises, discussions based on the text, and the use of digital resources to reinforce the sounds and letters learned. The children responded very well to collaborative activities and moments of exploration through play.

A remarkable progress: the story of B.N.C.

The teacher also presented the progress of student B.N.C. In the initial literacy assessment conducted at the beginning of the school year, the student scored 27 out of 150 points, facing difficulties in letter recognition, sound–letter correspondence, phonemic segmentation, and verbal expression. At that time, he knew very few letters and showed insecurity in reading and communication activities.

Throughout the activities carried out within the project, the student has made visible progress across most assessment criteria. He has become more engaged, more confident, and more active in literacy activities. Currently, he recognizes and uses most of the letters taught, segments phonemically words made up of 3–5 letters, participates in guided reading sessions, and formulates simple answers and sentences based on images and texts discussed in class.

He also reads short words with ease, identifies the initial, medial, and final sounds in words, correctly splits most words into syllables, and uses them in new sentences. He is a curious child who asks questions about the stories read, expresses opinions about the characters and their actions, and makes connections between his own experiences and those presented in books.

The stories used within the program have had an important impact on his development:

• they have contributed to the development of early literacy skills, such as text comprehension, letter and sound recognition, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and emerging writing skills;
• they have supported socio-emotional development, helping the child understand appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and develop empathy toward characters;
• they have stimulated imagination and creativity through active involvement in discussions about characters and situations presented in the stories;
• they have helped build a positive attitude toward reading, as the short texts and engaging illustrations have helped him associate reading with a pleasant and accessible experience.

The child’s progress was supported by the repetitive activities carried out in a safe and motivating environment, by the attractive and easy-to-use materials, as well as by the fact that each student had their own set of booklets. The support provided through the project has significantly contributed to increasing interest in reading and to the active involvement of children in classroom activities.

The educational resources “Glittery Schools” are used consistently in the classroom and remain available to children in the class library, so that they can explore and revisit them throughout the school year.

In May, the “glittery” teachers, from preparatory grade to 4th grade, go through the last educational resources in the program—the final storybook, the last worksheets—after which they will administer the literacy re-evaluation tool to students, designed to measure the progress achieved by each child in reading and writing. It is not an easy activity; it requires time and a great deal of involvement, but it is absolutely necessary for understanding and acknowledging each student’s competencies. Thus, we will also be able to see the progress of student B.N.C. from the school in Vad—from 27 points at the beginning of the school year to as many points as possible—even up to 150. That would be great!

We aim for every child to learn to read and write by the end of 4th grade.

The “Glittery Schools” program is funded by Pepco Romania. The literacy materials used within the program were developed with financial support from partners and donors.