With the widely promoted National Book Week just around the corner, the Northsiderdecided to promote the campaign by engaging learners from The King’s School West Rand in reading for our audience.
The school chose two bright little shining stars, Nikita Camacho and Esihle Maqwati, from the Grade 3 class, to read a page or two from their favourite books while being filmed.
Nikita read from George’s Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl’s book illustrated by Quentin Blake, while Esihle read from Annie Kelsey’s Pippa Morgan’s Diary (Love and Chicken Nuggets). Both learners read incredibly well with their very soft-spoken and sweet tones.
Leanda Duffield, a Grade 2 teacher at the school, expressed the importance of reading for learners. “The important aspect of reading is that ‘we learn to read and we read to learn’ – meaning we start off by learning how to read and we end up reading to learn,” she said.
Grade 3 teacher, Brenda Mostert, also weighed in on the topic, and explained, “Reading is the basic foundation of all learning. If they cannot read, they won’t be able to read the instructions for any subject. Reading also boosts their confidence and vocabulary, especially when they learn new words”.
She added that the most important thing about reading is to understand. “It’s important to test when learners are reading by asking them questions, as an informal assessment to find out whether they understand. But what is more important to me is for them to enjoy it. They enjoy reading because I do (It should start with you). Also, we have a fantastic library of books with illustrations, and the more beautiful the illustrations are, the more they are encouraged to read,” she said.
National Book Week will take place from 2 to 8 September.
Stay informed about the campaign by following #WeRead, #ReadBecause, #CaxtonCares and #BuyABook on social media.
