Teachers' Reading Club Summary

 

October 2023

 

The Foundation has always believed that the "human" element is the core part in the promotion of "Happy Reading", and among the different identities of that "human" element; teachers are the key participants in the promotion and stimulation of children's reading journey. The Foundation is focused on the development of teachers. We believe that reading allows teachers to improve their own abilities, gain a sense of self-fulfillment, and ultimately realize the spirit of internal drive. As the teacher goes on their own personal development journey and refine their personal reading concepts and abilities, we have witness this positively influencing their teaching such that it flows through to their students and the cultivation of children's reading. One of the initiatives that the Foundation has introduced to stimulate teachers' love of reading, is the establishment of reading club sessions for teachers.

 

The Teachers' reading clubs are diversified in text selection, covering picture books, fairy tales, fiction, science fiction and other different texts. The reading themes vary in their depth; from the basics of "know how to read" picture books, to "read and understand" fairy tales and novels, and finally, we borrowed the theme of brain-teasing science fiction to enlighten teachers about non-fiction texts. Our book clubs also include a lecture on the theme "How to integrate reading into classroom parent-teacher conferences," which analyzed the principles of educating children at different stages from a physiological and psychological perspective, setting the tone for both parents and teachers to educate children at different stages of their lives.

 

The activities conducted at the Teachers' reading clubs generally follow a similar pattern. For example, the leader reads and introduces the theme of each issue, leads the teachers to read aloud nursery rhymes together, invites different teachers to read aloud the contents of the text that has deeply touched them, and shares his/her own feelings in the light of his/her own experience, which has effectively stimulated the teachers' interest in reading. Reading club leaders do not record attendance, so that teachers can read freely and independently without any burden, which is also in line with the reading concept that the Foundation has been promoting.

 

A total of 66 teachers from 32 schools participated in the five Teacher Reading Club sessions. They read different texts and learned different themes, which not only directly stimulated teachers' interest in exploring reading, but also interspersed with rich teaching and educational concepts in each session, laying a solid foundation for teachers to integrate reading into education and teaching. In the feedback received by the teacher book club, 95% of participants rated the overall reading club as very fond, 85% of participants believed that the reading club was helpful for teaching work, and 90% of participants were willing to continue participating in subsequent reading clubs. At the same time, increasing online communication opportunities, increasing traditional cultural themes, and providing reading lists have provided good suggestions for our future teacher reading club design.