Teacher’s support is a page turner

Initiatives such as the #UAEreads Challenge are crucial in helping schools, teachers and pupils maintain momentum throughout 2016 – the Year of Reading.

DUBAI // Initiatives such as the #UAEReads Challenge are crucial in helping teachers and pupils to keep up momentum in 2016 – the Year of Reading.

The challenge has been hailed as a great way to promote reading and keep attention on the initiative’s goals, said Amy Kranz, an English teacher at Al Shohub Private School in Khalifa City.

Three pupils at the school have been chosen as winners in the #UAEReads Challenge in the English Secondary Category after being encouraged to take part by Ms Kranz.

Each child won 323 online books for their school, which can be accessed any time in the next year on iPad or computer.

“Children who read daily are likely to have a vocabulary more than 10 times stronger and more varied than those who read rarely or not at all,” said Ms Kranz, 39.

“The greatest change has been in the pupils’ desire to read a wider variety of books. Reluctant readers have begun to diligently pursue reading, even if it is only a page a day,” she said. “The increase in reading is also reflected in students’ writing, which continues to improve.”

Ms Kranz found out about the challenge from the school librarian.

Each week, three winners are selected in a draw to receive collections of books. The Arabic Primary category targets pupils aged 4 to 11 who win a collection of 200 physical books for their classroom.

Winners of the English Primary category, for the same age group, receive 332 digital English books while the English Secondary category for 12 to 16 awards 323 digital books.

The National and publisher Scholastic are committed to giving away more than 40,000 books this year, which has been declared the year of reading to create a generation of book lovers and consolidate the UAE's position as a global capital for culture and knowledge.