Pratham believes it is important for beginners to discover that reading can be fun. Instructors give children the opportunity to interact with text through a short, low-pressure paragraph reading activity.

Instructors encourage children to read, even if they do so by memorisation. Children begin to understand that printed letters have meaning, that words on the page are read in a particular order (for example, from left to right and top to bottom in languages like English), and develop curiosity to understand written text. For children who have not had much exposure to text, this exploratory stage is crucial to develop their interest and set their literacy development on track. In this way, learners build motivation to become fluent readers before diving in to learning specific letters and phonemes.

A strong foundation in listening comprehension helps children build skills for future reading comprehension. Instructors encourage discussion and storytelling for learners at the Beginner and Letter Levels. At the start of each class, instructors lead an informal chat, encouraging children to share stories, or sparking a discussion with a picture of a familiar scene. Children discuss topics of interest, answer questions, and listen carefully to the instructor and their classmates. With the instructor’s help, children learn to speak clearly, use full sentences, and expand their vocabularies. Each activity requires that learners listen and contribute their own thoughts, opinions, and knowledge. When the class reads a text, the instructor asks basic questions to help learners develop and demonstrate their comprehension. Learners’ active participation in speaking and listening activities builds language comprehension skills, confidence, and creativity. In TaRL classes, children practise these skills at all levels.

At the Beginner and Letter Levels, instructors systematically teach children to recognise key combinations of letters using a phonetic chart. Instructors might use words familiar to the children to link specific sounds to their representations on the chart. Children play a variety of phonetics games, discuss their favourite letters and words, and begin to practise writing letters.

The phonetic chart activity in the video above helps children to connect the sounds they hear with specific letters and combinations of letters. For children at Beginner and Letter Levels, instructors use the chart to help them practise recognising sounds, match them to letters, and combine sounds to form words. As the instructor and classmates read the letters, children follow along in their own smaller versions of the phonetic chart. Children take these charts home, where they can continue to practice sounding out letters and phonemes, or forming words.

Instructors make phonetics fun by playing games. For example, in Zambia children play the Kambeba (basket) game, where they sing a song as they pass around a basket full of phoneme cards. When the song stops, a child picks a card at random, reads it out to the class, and comes up with a word containing the phoneme. In a variation of the game, children are also asked to write the word with the help of the phonetics chart. To reinforce learning, instructors introduce word-building activities. Children might use homemade flashcards at first, and copy the words they make. They soon progress to writing their own words without the help of the chart or cards.

Instructors aim to help children at Beginner and Letter Level become familiar with the mechanics of writing, and practice forming letters and words. Since the children are just beginning to write, they practice holding a pencil or piece of chalk and copying letters and phonemes from the phonetic chart. During small group activities, children write on the floor with chalk. In this way, all group members are able to participate.

Work can be written, erased, and rewritten, and children dynamically interact with letters throughout the class. With regular phonetics and writing practice, children begin to form their own words by combining the letters and phonemes they have learned, and writing without the help of the chart. The floor is a valuable resource during TaRL time. Children write on the floor during small group activities. This allows them to write freely, using the classroom space, rather than paper which might run out. Children are free to make mistakes and correct themselves as they learn. (Writing on the floor also allows them to collaborate easily, with everyone in the group able to see the floor, and children are encouraged to take turns holding the chalk.) At earlier stages of reading development, children engage in repetitive writing activities and using chalk on the classroom floor allows them to write as much as they like to hone their ability to form letters.

The phonetic chart activity in the video above helps children to connect the sounds they hear with specific letters and combinations of letters. For children at Beginner and Letter Levels, instructors use the chart to help them practise recognising sounds, match them to letters, and combine sounds to form words. As the instructor and classmates read the letters, children follow along in their own smaller versions of the phonetic chart. Children take these charts home, where they can continue to practice sounding out letters and phonemes, or forming words.Instructors make phonetics fun by playing games. For example, in Zambia children play the Kambeba (basket) game, where they sing a song as they pass around a basket full of phoneme cards. When the song stops, a child picks a card at random, reads it out to the class, and comes up with a word containing the phoneme. In a variation of the game, children are also asked to write the word with the help of the phonetics chart. To reinforce learning, instructors introduce word-building activities. Children might use homemade flashcards at first, and copy the words they make. They soon progress to writing their own words without the help of the chart or cards.