About the Bright Books for Grade 2:
- Four full-colour graded reader/activity books, each containing 5-6 stories.
- An Educator’s Guide for Grade 2 educators that facilitates holistic learning and skills and provides suggested activities based on the stories in the four Grade 2 reader/activity books.
- Four wall charts
In the Bright Books Literacy Series the eleven Grade 1 readers are followed by a set of four reader/activity books for Grade 2. In this second set of stories and activities (Bright things to do) the acquisition of literacy is continued on a more advanced level. Simultaneously Marjorie van Heerden has subtly shifted the thematic focus of the 23 stories she wrote and illustrated for these four books, each set in the season it will be used, The summer book, The autumn book, The winter book and The spring book. In the Grade 2 set of readers the author put the thematic focus subtly (and always cloaked in a interesting story with stimulating full-colour illustrations) on the acquisition of and respect for codes of social behaviour.
The stories, always populated by amusing and familiar characters in exciting situations and often tinged with humour, unobtrusively introduce the reader to those basic codes of social behaviour as exemplified for instance in: Respect for self and others, similar or different to yourself; Respect for the environment; Pride in who you are. While developing the learner’s reading and literacy skills, the stories also help the reader to develop self confidence, initiative and skills such as communication and entrepreneurship on a basic level.
Marjorie: “Learning the codes of social behaviour through the story format at an early age has proven to be lasting. On the other hand, learning the codes of social behaviour through an authority figure, as is so often the case, has the danger that as the child grows older there is the distinct possibility (which happens more often than not) that the child becomes disillusioned by that authority figure. Sadly, the next step, almost inevitably, is some form of violence. We have too many examples in our own society... I believe it is essential that young children should be exposed to wonderfully entertaining, stimulating and memorable stories that will help them develop literacy, a love for reading and, at the same time, subtly help them to learn the basic codes of social behaviour.”
The 23 stories in the four Grade 2 books follow a progressive curve in the development of basic literacy skills in terms of vocabulary and grammatical use of familiar and new words. At the same time the stories become progressively more complex in terms of content, situation and implication.
To develop the learner’s reading skill even further, each of the 23 stories is followed in the “Bright things to do” section by a set of games and phonics exercises that eventually cover ALL the sounds used in standard spoken English. In the “Word Fun!” section after each story a new set of words is highlighted. These words, selected from the previous story, introduce a new set of sounds in spoken English. Through phonics games and exercises the learner is taught to connect sounds with specific letters and groups of letters. At the same time s/he develops a good grounding in spelling and pronunciation.
As in the Grade 1 series, the stories for Grade 2 offer a wealth of delightful illustrations and familiar situations to stimulate and encourage visual literacy and to draw the learner into amusing stories. Once again the situations and characters described and the colourful illustrations are often humorous, providing an easy, light-hearted learning situation, where the development of reading skills is associated with pleasure. And once again the stories reflect life in South Africa, taking special care to celebrate and reflect our wonderful multi-cultural environment.
