Read about the new books at Mercy's school!

Mercy, a first grader in Malawi, has just finished her reading assignment at home for the day. Her teacher, head teacher and community (from the assistance of USAID), provided her school with over 4,000 books for her and her schoolmates to read—and Mercy loves the books! Not only does she have hundreds of titles to choose from, those books have characters that look like her, have experiences like her and are about topics that she likes to read about! Most importantly to Mercy—those books have lots and lots of girl characters doing things she recognizes (taking care of babies) and things she herself would like to do when she grows up (be a doctor)! Read more about the books in Mercy's school...

Read Malawi supports literacy instruction

Mercy can’t wait every day for her teacher to ask the children to join with their reading group—her teacher reads to her class on some occasions while on other occasions, Mercy gets to read books to her teacher. Not only does she get to read the books, Mercy is excited because she gets to do other activities with the books, too, such as writing activities, singing, drama and collecting data from home as she learns to make connections between her home and school. Mercy also enjoys the “talking walls” that her teacher has created for her—often Mercy and her friends get to hang the stories they write and the pictures they draw on the classroom walls for others to see. Read about the instruction in Read Malawi...

Read Malawi builds a culture of readers!

Mercy feels important when she does that and is excited about coming to school each day, as are her friends in other classrooms in her school! Mercy’s teacher tells the children that through these activities they are building “literacy skills (phonemic awareness, phonics, alphabetic principle, fluency, comprehension and writing)” but what Mercy likes best is being able to tell people that she can read! Read about building a culture of readers...

Read Malawi

Imagine over one hundred children in a first grade classroom with one teacher. These children are eager to learn. If they have to share books or even one book, they don't complain. This is what researchers at UTSA found in Malawi.

Read Malawi is a UTSA research project, sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Malawi Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and other collaborators, that worked to make books available to young and beginning readers in schools in Malawi. Building off a similar program in South Africa, more than 5,200,000 reading books and teacher guides were distributed to over 1,000 schools in Malawi. Many Malawian children now have books to read that represent their experiences in Malawi!

You can read about the project on this website and watch our video.