Did I manage to turn reading into an enjoyable activity for students?

“A book is a gift you can open again and again”- Garrison Keillor

After four years of working alongside and together with my students, I decided to put some things on a sheet of my diary, to analyze some details, conclude and propose some improvements.

On a warm September day in 2019, I met a bunch of shy, funny and nice students in the schoolyard. That charming spark in our eyes foretold the beginning of the great common road of knowledge, which would sometimes surprise us, sometimes delight us, sometimes upset us, and why not, make us friends, being united by Reading. The first lessons were the most enjoyable because they tasted like Books, Learning, and School. In my opinion, this was a group of students who had the courage to cross the great road of Knowledge with the desire to evolve, to change into real explorers of Books and the World.

Books are directly associated with reading, which is a basic intellectual activity of the student. Among other activities, processes and needs of authentic school learning, reading takes the main place as an intellectual, but also a spiritual activity, for the formation and development of the personality. The importance of school reading in the general paradigm of learning and the need to train and develop reading skills throughout one's life is being talked about more and more lately. The student reads at school to be informed, to learn, to know, to understand, to do or say something about something/someone in relation to a text, to research, to explore, to find an answer to a question or a solution to a problem, to imagine, appreciate, produce general or partial conclusions based on a text, etc. The activity of reading can be characterized as a general type of learning, which is carried out within all study disciplines, but in a specific way for each subject, therefore the reading competence and capability is considered transdisciplinary.

This is where I read and found out more about what teaching staff should do: The training evaluation of communication and reading skills in school is done procedurally, integratively and instrumentally, through specific methods and techniques, that is why the integrated process of training evaluation of the given skills requires from the teaching staff, first of all, the knowledge of the theory of reading, but also of the didactics of reading, secondly, the mastery of the specific methodology of designing and carrying out training-evaluation activities, the selection of appropriate methods, the use of various reading techniques and the replication them on interactive didactic strategies" [ M. Hadârcă, Metode şi tehnici de evaluare autentică a competenţei de lectură, în „Limba Română”, nr. 3, 2014, p. 20-30.]

I know that students come to school to learn from teachers, but they also enjoy learning from each other. This is where I started. Reading can sometimes be boring and not the most enjoyable activity for students. My first stage of work was a simple inspection that any teacher does. After I established the reading level for each of my students, I identified the content opportunities in my projection, researched the involvement of students in national and international projects, and initiated research of books that I will recommend to my students. But I never strived to be a teacher-dictator. My goal was always to try to bring books to students easily, without the sense of obligation that would cause immediate rejection and disinterest in some of them. I invited two students from 4th grade, who recommended books from the "My First Reading" collection by the British writer Holly Webb. One argument in favor of the proposal was that all children love pets, and British author Holly Webb's books offer young readers a wonderful opportunity to learn about the adventures of animal lovers and their furry friends. The stories in this series are written in an accessible format with attractive illustrations and offer juniors an enjoyable and accessible read through which they can practice their reading skills. Then I decided together with my students to read the book "Alfie All Alone". Every week we read a chapter, and on Fridays we discussed, explained the new words, answered questions based on the fragments read, organized various strategies for the comprehension of what we read, made predictions, and shared our emotions about what we read. This was the first book we read together! From here we began to read texts fluently, expressively, other than the textbook, we started to summarize texts, to process the message, to understand in detail the ideas described in the read texts and to develop some opinions about them.

My work colleague, Tatiana Popa, helped me a lot here. She created a video with her daughters and their kitten recommending books for my students. This persuaded my students to choose Holly Webb's book "The Perfect Kitten". After a reading competition that I held, the surprise for the students was the video conference with their beloved author. In my opinion, this was the best exercise for my students, where they asked questions and answers, developed statements, explained situations and shared their own opinion about the book. So genuine of them! The writer Alex Donovici, author of the impressive book collection about Țup and the book illustrator Stela Damaschin-Popa were the next protagonists of our following meetings. Alex Donovici’s book taught the pupils that in order to see what is good and beautiful in someone, they should not focus on people's looks, but rather on how they feel, what they think and how they act. The book also taught them to fight when they really want something and to not give up when obstacles appear in their way. Lastly, another important lesson they took is to use their minds, to be brave, to be helpful whenever they can, to dare, to try, to experiment and to make their wishes come true.

Furthermore, what could be more pleasant than the presence of parents in Romanian language classes, discussing the books of their childhood! Călin and Alexandru's mothers stole their hearts when they shared their impressions and memories of their childhood books. It was the same book, but when a parent of a child speaks in class, the attention and understanding of the students is much higher. I think that this event was also very memorable for all of the students

It is important to mention that the library facilitates and encourages the development of reading competencies. Our librarian was a reliable partner because together we organized book launches, quizzes based on the read books, contests, and interactive activities, which left room for repeated visits to the library. The school-wide Bookface competition, where students were asked to take a photo covering their face with a cover of a book they had read brought the attention of students to different books that their peers love and read.

Living in a digital society, the integration of digital tools with reading is necessary, because with their help the learning process becomes varied and diversified. Creating digital books with the tools Book Creator, StoryJumper, Canva, WriteReader, creating audio messages on Flipgrid, creating a talking image with Chatterpix or Voki, creating comics with StoryBoard, and Comic Page Creator are useful exercises in applying the vocabulary from books and developing opinions about the characters. These exercises are also pleasant for the students and the most important aspect is that the relevance of the lesson is not lost when using this kind of practice. eTwinning projects provide as well great opportunities to create final products in the form of a book or a calendar, where students work in international teams and use the theme and vocabulary proposed by the corresponding project. During these 4 years of involvement and participation in such projects, the students in my class created books about pets, their country's lakes, the gods of Ancient Egypt, seasons and the positive emotions of a schoolboy.

Now that it's summer and the students are on holiday, they will reflect on their experience. I am sure that the exploration of the books will not end at the primary stage but it will continue further on, because only in this way will authentic learning be taking place, with the perspective of continuity towards the success of learning.

The primary school teacher can develop and promote a culture of books without discouraging and obliging the students, only if they are flexible, receptive, anticipatory and creative teachers. In every lesson I lead in my classroom, I kept in mind that I was creating a memorable day for these children, which must carry forward the light of wisdom they take from what they read. It's not only them who learn from books. I also learned that… wishes do become reality.

P. Cornea, Introducere în teoria lecturii, Editura Minerva, Bucureşti, 1988.

https://www.limbaromana.md/index.php?go=articole&n=3167

M. Hadârcă, Metode şi tehnici de evaluare autentică a competenţei de lectură, în „Limba Română”, nr. 3, 2014, p. 20-30

 

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