In the Abrupt school closure and Educational Shift due to Covid-19, educators encountered many challenges making connections with learners to ensure that learning is happening at home. One of the arduous journey is how to teach reading and writing to the beginners at a distance learning. This is the utilization of the Tingguian Cultural Icon Photos as a tool in reading program to teach the beginning readers how to read. The program was started by documenting Tangible heritages using smart phone which later were compiled and organized using the Talking Book and Blooms Interactive apps. Documenter took photos of the local symbolic culture (Sagisag Kultura) of the Tingguian People (Indigenous Group of People) in the Province of Ilocos Norte, Municipality of Nueva Era. An impeccable scaffold in attaining sustainable development through connecting the past, the present and the future as precious as its people. It is in this light that the culture that shows their beliefs, practices, values and aspirations connect the learners from the past to present and bind them closer bringing them to a brighter tomorrow.
The utilization of the Tingguian Cultural Icon Photos is culturally engaging to the beginning readers and very relevant in the implementation of Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) where beginners could easily connect at a distance learning even without the presence of their teacher. Their exposure and familiarity with these Cultural Icons in the Community will help them decode imagery which is true on the dual coding theory, wherein words and images have different cognitive representations which are the verbal system and the imagery system when those two systems work together, reading performance will become well. The theory of dual coding speaks on the process of using pictures to facilitate reading comprehension among learners. The students who treated with pictures are more active because the presenting of pictures encourages learners to know the meaning of the text. In reading activity, students' brain is active to analyze and to compare the visualization of the pictures and the text. If there are error on the text’s linguistic input as well as their poor vocabulary and structure pattern which may lead them in difficulty reading time. Here, the students' difficulties of language input will be facilitated by presenting pictures. There are also significant reasons of the students’ improvement in reading skill through pictures. At first, the teacher projected a big picture on the virtual room, the participating learners in the google class began to focused on the picture, some of them asked “what picture is it?”, and “what for is it?”. Then, the teacher wrote a capital letter above it. Then the students gave more feedback which likely related to the picture shown to them, “that is a big animal”, others said “yeah, it lives in the land and help us in farming”, etc. The picture is redirecting the student to think and encourages interaction. It stimulates the learners' imagination. Thus, the use of Tingguian Cultural Icon photos stimulates the learners’ imagination, motivation and creativity which are important in decoding what learners think of what they see in pictures. Moreover, Tingguian Cultural Icon photos develop students’ capacity for self-assessment and critical thinking skills. Then, Picture story books can create a learning community virtually. In addition, picture story books develop students’ confidence and autonomy to learn reading.
Thus, empirical evidence to highlight its importance like cultural preservation are highly encouraged. As mentioned in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Section 14, emphasizing the role of state and educators as the prime movers in preserving, enriching and promoting a culture based education relevant and engaging to the learners.
Uguis Integrated School, one of the Indigenous Peoples Eduction Implementing School in the Schools Division of Ilocos Norte formulated a program that will protect and promote the right of every Filipino to quality, equitable, culture-based and complete basic education which is, the Tingguian Cultural Icon Photos. Where photo speaks louder than words. And where cultural icons, knowledge, systems and practices were highlighted and revitalized using modern platforms.
The Tingguian Cultural Icon Photos aimed to protect and promote the cultural icons and Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSPs) through photo-documentations. Moreover, it enhances the reading and writing ability of beginning readers in times of the new normal where there is no face to face engagement between the teacher and the learner. This will serve as the source of indigenized instructional materials for a more engaging teaching-learning process in teaching reading in the new normal.
Through this program, teachers have familiarized, understood, applied, assessed student’s progress in reading through the utilization of Tingguian Cultural Icons . Where culture matters and worth documented for the world to see virtually, for the teachers to help in teaching IP learners, for the parents to remember and practice their culture and for the learners to grasp their rich culture. This is a stepping stone in revitalizing the tangible and intangible heritage of Tinguian Culture through photo-documentation and in the long run- a multimedia Documentary.
Also, documented indigenous materials offers accessibility wherein learners view and browse in the blooms application. The beauty of this is that teachers will be able to provide the leaners a talking picture using the blooms application.
This program was made possible through the help of ethno-arts experts. Training-Workshops were administered in the school (or through webinar) the teacher in charge of the program program conducted photo documentation of the Tingguian Cultural Icons in a high-definition.. Quality Assurance Team were organized to check and verify the outputs before publishing to Offline (printed) and Online (virtual) platforms using the talking blooms application.
LAC Sessions on continuous enrichment in the utilization of Tingguian Cultural Icon Photos as an aide in teaching reading to beginning readers were conducted to ensure reading improvement among learners even without face to face classes.
As a part of the collection process the teacher in-charge conducted monthly photo competition to maximize the awareness and engagement of the learners and the community. Each month will highlight different categories to cater all the possible IKSPs documented outputs. Moreover, stakeholders’ financial support and cultural masters’ expertise poured in the realization of the said project.
Through this project teaching reading and writing were made possible even at a distance learning, a worthy of emulation and a challenge to all educators around the globe experiencing failure in teaching reading to beginners who are at home.