1. Total Reading Approach for Children
with Smart4Kids Reading Application
Ul Run – Project Manager/ World Education
Email: urun@worlded.org.kh

2. Where/When?
Who?
Supported by All Children Reading
•
8 schools
•
2 provinces
•
±2000 students in grade
Implemented by:
World Education
KAPE
ET4D
PED/DCD/POE
1 and 2
•
2012-2014

3. Contents
• Ra$onal
for
an
early
6.
Development
of
M-­‐
literacy
project
in
learning
Applica$on
Cambodia
– Standard
process
of
Smart4Kids
app
• Project
overview
– Global
pedagogy
1. Short
interval
reading
– Standard
framework
Benchmark
– Local
input
2. Literacy
Coach
– Language
specific
3. Development
of
Rapid
educa$onal
content
Response
System
– Collabora$ve
project
– Collabora$on
benefits
4. Development
of
Reading
– App
demonstra$on
Toolkits
– Challenges
5. Parental
Engagement

4. Rationale for an early literacy project
in Cambodia
- Low levels of early grade literacy on EGRA and IBEC
assessments.
- Lack of clear assessment structure and literacy benchmarks
hinders monitoring and effective teaching.
- New readers for grades 1 and 2 gives opportunity to support
teacher training and policy improvement.

5. Project Overview

6. How to Systematically Respond to
Children s Learning Needs

7. 1. Short interval reading benchmarks
• Developed with MoEYS
• Combined with quarterly
assessments
• Regularly assess students
acquisition of reading skills
• Determine skill areas for
more practice
• Conducted by teachers
• Coordinated by literacy
coaches
voca-­‐
bulary
phonemic
awareness
fluency
phonics
compre-­‐
hension

8. Learning
Benchmarks

9. 2. Literacy Coach
• Master teacher or community member
• Coordinate assessments, RRS, use of reading toolkit and
mLearning app and parental engagement.
• Incentive from local government and community sources.
• Liaison between schools and parents
• Provide training for teachers and parents about the
importance of literacy and using the learning materials

11. 3. Development of Rapid Response System
•
•
•
Linked directly to assessments
Uses explicit protocols to help
children with specific reading
difficulties identified through the
benchmark assessments.
Consists of the following:
– Reading Toolkit : games, stamps,
flashcards, books, and other
learning materials based on the
skills present in the MoEYS
textbooks
– mLearning Application: A Khmer
language learning application
with games and stories linked to
the MoEYS textbooks
– Parent Engagement: Encourage
parents to be involved in their
child’s learning and borrow
learning materials to use in school
and at home
•
Create reading environment in
schools in libraries and reading
corners.

12. 4. Development of Reading Toolkit
• Learning materials for use at
school or home
• Conducted an audit of existing
materials developed under
previous projects from various
organizations
• Materials linked to the MoEYS
reading textbooks

13. Literacy board game/teaching aids

14. 5. Develop Tools for Parental Engagement
•
•
•
•
•
Improve communication between teachers and parents
Tutor students in reading skills
Read and borrow materials from school libraries
mLearning app downloadable on family smartphones
Training on using the Reading Toolkit and mLearning app

15. 6. Development of m-Learning application
• First Khmer language
education app for primary
grades
• 31 units aligned with the MoEYS
Grade 1 & 2 reading textbooks
and assessment benchmarks
• Educational content for each
unit provided by WEI & MoEYS
• Attractive software stimulates
children and parents.
• Used as an intervention in RRS
• Free download from Play Store

16. Standard Process of Smart4Kids
Think Global – Act Local
Global
Pedagogy
Standard
Framework
Local
Input

17. Global Pedagogy
Global
Pedagogy
Phonic-based versus whole language
3 steps : Learn, Practice, Read
This 3-step pedagogy is used to build the child’s reading
confidence:
• Lessons are presented in a short introduction
• Games are used to practice word completion, word
sorting, word matching, sound matching, & memory tests
• Each unit entails a short story to practice reading skills
Khmer language has a transparent spelling, thus the focus is
first be on decoding and using nonsense words.

18. Standard Framework
Standard
Framework
Technology: The software program is identical for all
languages. ET4D currently has html5 and Android-based
version.
Design: The application has the same design for any
language, but it can be adapted.
Process: The way the project is managed to create the
content is very structured to ensure the quality standard of
the software.

19. Standard Framework (Cont.)
Process:
1.
2.
3.
Develop a simulator
Develop the Android Application
Create the educational content in Khmer
– Establish the curriculum in correlation with current
national curriculum
– For each lesson: Identify simple words
– For each lesson: Choose the relevant activities
– For each lesson: Create problem sets for each activity
– For each lesson: Write a short instruction
– For each lesson: Write and illustrate a short book
– Record every element (words, phoneme, instructions,
stories…)
– Upload in database
– Quality control testing

20. Local Input
Local
Input
Curriculum : A curriculum to teach reading is 31 units. But this
can entails 30 to 100 lessons depending on the national
curriculum.
Lesson: The lesson presented through a short introduction
enables the user to learn letters, phonemes...
Activity: Each lesson has several activities are designed for
practice (over 20 games to choose from)
Stories and/or reading board: Each lesson has a short illustrated
story and/or a simple interactive reading board.

21. Language specific
educational content
Curriculum
words
Database
Lesso
n
audio
phoni
c
image
s
stor
y

22. Collabora3ve
Project
EDUCATIONNAL CONTENT
Structure
Words Database
Choose Games
Choose Words
Choose Distracters
STORIES WRITERS
Write Mini Stories
Helper words
TRANSLATION
ILLUSTRATORS
Context stories
Games instructions
Application instruction
DEVELOPMENT
Application
Games
Mini Stories
Words
RECORDING
Context Stories
Mini Stories
Words and Sound
Games instructions

23. Collaboration Benefits
• ET4D licenses its reading software, which reduces
costs and enables partners to allocate more
funding to implementation and deployment.
• ET4D can adapt the software if an organization has
specific requirements.
• ET4D application design follows the
recommendations of experts in literacy and digital
education.
• ET4D assists in the development of the content and
the testing process.

24. App Demonstration

25. Learning

26. Activities (Over 20 Available)

27. Reading

28. Challenges
• The major implications of the Khmer script for the app
development.
• ET4D is unable to test the application and identify bugs. As a
consequence, the local Cambodian team had to deal with
more testing than it would have been the case if ET4D had
been able to read the Khmer script.
• The lack of flexibility in the design of Smart4kids makes it
impossible to accommodate different screen size or image
density.

29. Ques3on???