Eastern Star, a private bilingual school in Vientiane, is promoting a love of reading among students and encouraging them to understand the importance of developing their reading skills through a new reading initiative.
Ike Goldberg, a senior teacher at Eastern Star Bilingual School, told Laotian Times, “we want to let everyone know that our students are participating in a new reading initiative. This particular program required the complete support of our teachers, principal and parents. As a school, we aim to reach each and every student to improve their learning.”
This academic year, the Eastern Star administration has decided to place more emphasis on low-achieving students so that they meet minimum academic standards. In order to identify low-achievers, the Cambridge benchmark test was given to students to test their reading levels.
Goldberg said “our school Professional Learning Community has discussed all the important factors that cause some students to have low reading achievement. The first step taken by the administration to improve reading skills was to organise a three-week book fair which involved students participating in both a at-school and at-home reading program. The students had a fun time reading and expressing themselves while sharing stories during their reading hour. Apart from that, each class has its own library. In order to get a new book from their class library, students must first finish a book and write a summary of its contents. The teachers’ room bulletin board is now full of their beautiful summary papers. Some of the students even draw characters from the books they read.”
“We have had much success with the program, and we have even extended it to beyond Grades 6-12 which had initially been the target grades. It now applies to primary school and high school students,” Goldberg added.
Students will be tested three times a year and their progress shared with parents and other students.
“We would like to have all our students on their standard grade reading level. We cannot be more proud of the fact that our students have increased their reading hours in school and at home. We appreciate all of the teachers and assistants who have worked diligently to implement this reading program.” He also mentioned that Ahmet Pektash, the Eastern Star Schools Nongbone principal, has been instrumental in providing the necessary support for the program.
“After seeing the success of the reading program and the students’ progress, we decided to have our students go out to public places to read books in order to create a reading awareness in Vientiane,” Goldberg continued.
Goldberg led twenty students to Patouxay Monument during their reading hour, during which they sat on the ground and read books. Lots of people took pictures with them and conveyed how much they appreciated this wonderful initiative.
Source: Eastern Star Schools
