After finishing what is our last cycle of TSI in Ratheniska school, we can say overall it is a fantastic and invaluable experience. We’ve learned an immeasurable amount of literacy skills that we expected to learn in long, boring lesson after lesson. TSI allows you to expand your vocabulary and develop your level of reading in an enjoyable, intriguing way.

For those wondering, TSI stands for Transactional Strategies Instruction. We have access to two massive trolleys filled with books to choose from. Although any class can have access to every book, usually we introduce younger classes to the activity with easy, short books. In our school, we recently finished building a library, expanding our collection of books even more. However, in 6th class, we can switch it up a bit. This year, we were allowed to pick our own books from at home or in school, and come up with our own questions. The ultimate goal in TSI is to be discussing our books because we enjoy them, not because we have to.

During this generation of TSI, we have more books than ever before. We tend to buy classics, such as ‘The Hobbit’, Micheal Morpurgo’s ‘The Butterfly Lion’, and ‘Holes’, by Louis Sachar. For this cycle, our group decided to choose the book “Wonder”, a book about a boy called August with a facial deformity. We would recommend this book because it gives you an insight on a different perspective, showing you how cruel some children can be, and how acts of kindness can change everything.

TSI has changed so much since 4th class when we started, and it will continue to develop and adjust to the classes that partake in the future. It is a great way to begin reading, even if you didn’t like books before. There’s a story or factual book for everyone out there, even if you haven’t found one for yourself

One of the main traits of TSI is to work in small groups of two or three. This helps people who aren’t so confident with reading aloud to feel more comfortable using their voice. Classes full of boys and girls have gained fluency in their reading because of TSI. There are so many ways working and reading with books has improved our language and writing.

In conclusion TSI is a interesting way of gaining confidence and learning to read independently. Now that we, in 6th Class,  have finished our last TSI cycle ever, we are certainly going to bring the skills we learnt in TSI with us in the future. We know the classes behind us will enjoy it as much as we have done.