ABU DHABI // The Year of Reading is coming to a close, but teachers and students have promised to keep up their work to instil a passion for the written word in their friends and colleagues.
These days, reading competes with many “easier” pastimes from video games to mobile phones, but for Sari Al Hemeiri sitting down with a good book, or writing out his homework by hand, is better than all of those.
“On the computer, you write and read without thinking but on paper it feels different, ideas come quicker and it’s more understandable,” said the nine-year-old student. “When you write on paper, there’s something in your heart that tells you to keep going.
“When I’m reading, even when it’s time to go for a break, I sometimes want to just stay and continue.”
The Emirati's passion for the written word is clear in his schoolwork, which won his class a box of books from Scholastic as part of the #UAEReads Challenge, offered by the publisher and The National.
“With Sari, his passion for reading is clear,” said Nagat Eid, his Arabic teacher at Al Yasmina School, who added that challenging students was the key to improving their reading skills.
“It comes from us and from the parents, so we work with them and scale up our reading assignments so that students stay challenged, and, of course, we encourage them all the way.”
The school’s curriculum gives students the option to read the books they want and choose between assignments from presenting a short lesson to the class they learnt from their book, to writing an alternative ending.
Ms Eid said students with different levels of understanding are given the chance to work in a way that interests and encourages them.
“We value reading highly here. Before you can write you need to learn how to read and speak. You learn to write a good story from reading, you can’t just magic it up in your brain,” said Kate Davis, the school’s deputy principal.
“In books, you learn different kinds of things, more vocabulary, adjectives, ways to improve your own writing, and it gives you more ideas in your own writing,” said Ms Davis, who added that a pupil’s love of reading is developed by the passion shown by teachers.
As a result, the school allows individual members of staff to teach books that they are particularly fond of and approved within the national curriculum.
Along with the box of books given to Sari as a reward for winning the competition, he was also given access to Scholastic’s e-library.
This year was declared the Year of Reading in the UAE to create a generation of book lovers and to consolidate the country’s position as a global capital for culture and knowledge.
The #UAEReads Challenge is a partnership between The National and Scholastic to give away more than 40,000 books.
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
