Promotion of Reading: A WholeSchool Approach
Maria Ng
Ronica Chan
Carmel Secondary
School
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Outline
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whole-school approach
integration of extensive reading into ELT
curriculum
- salient factors
- impact on learning: Jazzy
home-school cooperation
feedback
Background
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an EMI school
lower Band 1 intake
students:
- mostly from working-class families
- little English language support at home
- lack exposure to English in everyday life
Whole-School Promotion of Reading
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Past: the job of language panels
Now: the job of all panels, librarians,
students, parents & PTA
Theme 2000-2002:
"Broaden Horizons - Be Active Readers"
Whole-school Promotion of Reading
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reading schemes for students and parents
book exhibitions
seminars and workshops on reading conducted by
teachers or local writers
visits to public libraries
reading camps
reading-related competitions
publication of a newsletter on reading: "Books for
Keeps"
"Ten Thousand and Beyond"
Reading Competition
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Competition:
individual & class awards
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Collective Effort:
the target of 10,000 books
Parent-Child Reading Scheme
(organized by PTA & school library)
a student + family  a log book
 student   parent: share reading
orally
 log book: date, book title and a grade
(interest level),
parent's/student’s signature
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Books for
Keeps
Teachers, students, &
even caretakers
contribute
 Teachers as readers
& role models
 Students as readers
& resource persons
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School Library
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provides a comfortable reading area
organizes reading schemes & readingrelated activities
promotes reading to parents
stocks books for students and parents
arranges visits to book stores
Student Empowerment
as student librarians
 as resource persons – Books for Keeps
 select & recommend books for purchase
"The selected books are screened by
teachers, but the school usually buys the
books we recommend because we know
what other students want to read.“ (Gigi, an
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S.5 student)
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Effectiveness: average number of
library books checked out per day
1998-1999
1999-2000
89
112
2000-2001
2001-2002
2002-2003
217
224
192 (SARS)
243
Sept 2003Dec 2003
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Integration of Extensive Reading into
the ELT Curriculum
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Formal Curriculum
- ERS lessons
- Project work on reading habits
- Class readers
- Home reading
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Informal Curriculum
- Story-sharing corner
Salient factors
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teacher-student/ student-student dialogue:
sharing stories orally & in writing
integration of reading & writing: home
reading
meaning-making
exploration of language use
student-student dialogue:
story-sharing corner
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Story-sharing is "interaction of ideas between
students of different forms." (Gloria, S.2)
"I prefer students to share their story with us,
rather than reading from a script. There
should be some interaction."
(Vicky, peer-tutor, S.3)
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"I ask them to share the story, not just open
the book and tell us what it is about."
(Kaiser, peer-tutor, S.3)
Student Empowerment
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teacher-student dialogue:
home reading
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Jazzy’s home reading entry dated 25
November 1998
1st March,
1999
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Meaning-making
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"When I was a story-teller in S.1, I felt
nervous. I was afraid of making mistakes. I
didn't know how to translate my thoughts
from Chinese into English. I then tried to
speak, disregarding the mistakes I made...I
gained more confidence, and I became a
peer-tutor in S.3.“ (Jennifer, S.5)
"I learned to be less shy. I had to speak
clearly in order to make others understand
me. This also helped my oral skills." (Catherine,
S.2)
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Meaning-making
28th Dec,
1998
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Exploration of Language Use
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"Usually we don't have much chance to
read out the vocabulary we have just
learnt, but the story-sharing corner
provides a place for us to try out the
new vocabulary we've learnt and
consolidates our knowledge of new
words." (May, S.3)
Exploration of Language Use
17th Nov,
1999
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Impact on Learning: Jazzy
Home-School Cooperation
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Concluding remarks
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Reading culture develops over time
Schools can
- create opportunities for it to develop
- encourage students to interact not only with
a text, but with one another about a text
- integrate reading with writing (see also
Exemplar 5)
- explore, experiment, & evaluate  excel
(4Es)