CAAN Read

The CAAN Read programme is like four large stepping stones in a stream. The four stepping stones represent colours, the alphabet, animals and numbers. Meandering between the stones, the stream represents the patterns that one must read in order to safely cross to the other side. In order to navigate between the four main stepping stones a child must use smaller stones to balance their way. These smaller stones represent a variety of activities, such as vocabulary building, drawing, physical education, play, music and art.

The CAAN Read programme is set up in a succinct and simple format as a way to guide your practice. Thus, colours are our first stepping stone, the alphabet our second, animals our third and numbers our fourth. However, I have found that teaching children to read cannot be achieved through a linear process. Children will need to jump back and forth between the stepping stones. Although the four stepping stones will provide the foundations for achieving literacy, teachers will need to be flexible and creative in their day-to-day practice.

An important aspect of this reading programme is that each lesson and each book is short. Young children do not have long attention spans. It is far more effective to keep children’s full attention on a five to fifteen minute activity and to repeat this activity several times a day rather than attempt to keep children interested in one task for an entire hour.