Corporate Vision surrounds letters with no connected pictures. To children, these letters mean nothing and many look similar. By adding connections, they have added meaning and are therefore much more memorable. Additionally, every animal letter is assigned an alliterative name, such as Allie alligator, Bubba bear, and Catina cat. When children pronounce these names, they hear the letter sounds repeated, which ensures letter sound mastery. This technique also brings a sense of familiarity and closeness to each animal letter, enhancing its memorability. Each animal letter is also assigned a gesture or body movement that Zoo-phonics labels a Signal. Movement signals the brain and body, connecting the two and creating muscle memory. The children are constantly up and moving as they play Zoophonics games, allowed to socialise, and interact with each other whilst learning. “Other literacy companies have not researched neuroscience to see how the brain remembers information,” Charlene explains. “From our inception, we encouraged students to use their senses and bodies to input newly taught information into memory.” In 2009, Charlene was studying for her doctorate. Here, she learned the science behind the connection between movement and memory after reading John Medina’s Brain Rules and John Ratey’s Spark! Both books explained that when the body exercises and moves, the brain cells secrete a chemical protein in the neurons, which strengthens alreadyestablished neutral connections and grows new neurons. Since, Charlene has studied further into the relationship between memory and movement. She tells us that the hippocampi store newly learned information, usually when we nap or sleep. “It acts like a very efficient secretary,” she says, “filing away pertinent information and tossing information that is less important. Here’s the exciting part: the hippocampus is made stronger by movement!” Charlene explains that the hippocampus works closely with the amygdala, the major processing centre for emotions. Therefore, when children are engaged, feeling safe, comfortable, and are having fun, the amygdala allows new information to pass through. However, if a child is feeling stressed, fearful, angry, or hungry, learning will not take place. The two organs work in tandem to facilitate effective learning. In addition to Charlene, all members of the team at Zoophonics are highly trained in their field, boasting a wealth Most Innovative Early Literacy Programme 2024 – USA For many children, their literacy journey begins with accomplishing the alphabet. In fact, few things are as fundamental to successful literacy as this key stage, which connects the oral and written language for the first time in their education. Thus, it is imperative that children are taught the alphabet in a way that is memorable and conducive to their learning. Zoo-phonics is an educational organisation that takes a ‘whole brain’ approach in enabling all children to become strong readers. Below, we take a look at this revolutionary teaching method, with expert insights from Dr. Charlene Wrighton, Co-Developer and CEO of Zoo-phonics. Officially incorporated in 1985, Zoo-phonics is a 39-year-old mission that was developed in the classroom of Charlene’s sister, Gigi Bradshaw. Both Charlene and Gigi were teachers to students with special educational needs and recognised that they needed to take a different approach with students struggling to learn. Together, the sisters worked to incorporate techniques and strategies that would teach quickly, playfully, physically, and memorably. With extensive experience in teaching, Gigi and Charlene knew that children first needed to learn the sounds and shapes of lowercase letters, as lowercase letters are used 95% of the time when reading and writing. This would make the process much smoother, rather than overloading the children with numerous shapes and sounds at once. Once they had established their new teaching plan, the sisters implemented it within their own classrooms. Within two weeks, their results were conclusive – this methodology worked for all children of all abilities. “We shared our ideas and curriculum with other teachers in the country and school district and they had the same quick success,” says Charlene. “Zoo-phonics began to spread. It was then that we decided to create a business, so we could share our program with the world.” The Zoo-phonics Mnemonic and Multisensory Language Arts Program was designed to be mnemonic, multisensory, playful, physical, and memorable. Charlene and Gigi’s educational experience allowed them insights into how children learn most efficiently, which has been the flagship of Zoo-phonics. There are many ‘essences’ that make up the Zoo-phonics teachings, all geared towards improving the learning experience for children. In alignment with Charlene and Gigi’s initial research, lowercase letters are taught before capital letters, and the sounds of letters are taught before their names. This ensures that children are not being laden with sounds and shapes to learn too early, as ‘A’ and ‘a’ are not the same. To further cement the connection between the letter sounds and shapes, adorable, child-friendly animals are drawn in the shapes of the lowercase letters. For example, an alligator is drawn into the shape of an ‘a’, a bear is drawn as a ‘b’, and so on. Not only does this tactic help in maintaining a child’s focus, but it also removes the level of abstractness that
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