This year, the learners of Kylemore Senior Secondary School had a Mandela Day to remember. Together with various SU environments, the Language Centre spent time at the school on 25 July to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela.
On the day, Faika Haroun and her team of fellow Language Centre staff members wanted to share the joy of reading with learners. “We devised a reading race to challenge and inspire learners to read with comprehension and compete for exciting prizes.”
The Language Centre’s Amazing Reading Race had four check-in points, and, as with any race, the objective was to finish first. Learners were divided into teams of five and moved from one check-in to the next. At each check-in, they had to read and discuss a text and, as a team, answer a set of questions relating to the text. They received their next assignment only if their answers to the previous one were correct.
After some hard reading, deep thinking and quick answering, Trishan’s team was first to reach the finishing line. In second place was Hayward’s team, followed by the team captained by Justine. Prizes consisted of dictionaries, books, stationery sets and note books. To add to the fun there was also a lucky draw. To these learners the race actively embodied the principle that those who read with the best comprehension eventually win in academia and in life.
The race also impressed and inspired the teachers, and some asked whether they could use the concept in their teaching: “Learners learnt to work in teams and realised that reading with comprehension is important in all their subjects.”
“The learners thought the race was great fun, and saw that reading could be really exciting. Seeing how successful this endeavour was, we are keen to take the race to other schools as well,” concludes Faika. E-mail her if you’d like an Amazing Reading Race at your school.
The Language Centre’s Reading Lab helps adult readers to read faster and smarter – it doesn’t matter whether the reading material is business reports, academic articles or text books. E-mail Marisca Coetzee for more about the Reading Lab.
