RCA's SPIRE program director is an Orton-Gillingham trained teacher, who works with students one-on-one and in small groups each week. Both tactile experiences and kinesthetic movement create and reinforce important learning pathways. One key component of the multi sensory instruction is using hands-on materials.
The SPIRE reading program is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach, and it is highly respected among classroom educators. It is designed specifically for struggling readers with the teacher at the center of instruction. For this reason, RCA uses the SPIRE program to help struggling readers increase their skills and confidence in reading. It takes time and practice, a good teacher, and thorough curriculum. It is the thread that weaves together knowledge and critical thinking and creates limitless opportunities for independent learning. Reading, however, is a skill that is not easily acquired by some. The SPIRE programme explored in the Malaysian context can also be adopted in non English speaking countries for similar purposes.Learning to read is the most important academic skill in a child’s life. Qualitative data gathered via interviews, home visits, meetings and informal conference provided evidence for parents' positive attitudes towards reading English storybooks and towards being involved in their child's reading development, a positive link between levels of parental involvement and reading development, and the plausibility of involving non-native parents through a formalised reading programme.
The teacher reads storybooks in school and the parents at home. The parent-teacher partnership scaffold the children's reading development. A rich ESL literacy environment was created both at school and homes by making a wide range of English storybooks and multimedia materials available for the children to be taken home. 25 non-native five year old children, 25 parents and the class teacher were involved in the programme. Based on the positive results of school-home partnership of past studies, this study proposed a formalised partnership, i.e. The six month Smart Partnership in Reading in English (SPIRE) formalised programme, which created a platform for non-native parents to play a more active role in developing early literacy skills in young children, particularly, reading skills in English language, was explored as an option. Malaysia government has called for schools and parents to collaborate in nurturing the culture of reading among children, as there is no formalised programme for a more active involvement of parents in academic matters. Schools have yet to fully embrace the concept of active parental involvement, particularly in academic matters and have yet to design formalised programmes that provide avenues for active parental involvement. However, a clear line of demarcation continues to exist between the two prime educators of young children. Realising the clear dichotomy between schools and homes, the Malaysia government has now turned its attention to stakeholders and called for an increase involvement of parents, who are critical in transforming the education system.
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