The Stone Soup Happy Reading Alliance Open Day – Online Forum

“Enjoy Reading, Celebration Childhood” Online Forum Was Successfully Held 

Our online forum hosted by the Anhui Doers Charity Foundation and sponsored by the Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation, was successfully held on November 27, 2021. Our theme was “Enjoy Reading, Celebration Childhood – Exploring the Practical Path to Promote School Reading”.

Ten education researchers and school principals from China and other international locations were invited to join the virtual event to discuss the core values of independent reading and the practical paths to promote school reading. We are delighted to report that more than 3,000 viewers participated in the live broadcast.

The forum was divided into morning session and afternoon session.

The morning session was kicked off with a welcome speech by Mrs. Daisy Chen, the Advisory Board Member of The Chen Yet-Sen Family Foundation.

The first guest speaker was Dr. Stephen D. Krashen from the United States. Dr. Krashen is a world-renowned linguist and an educational researcher. His most famous research is the establishment of the first comprehensive set of second language learning theories. In his lecture, Dr. Krashen shared the secret to the most effective way to acquire a second language, is to keep reading!  Reading enables us to develop our language so as to reach the highest level. “Reading” as defined by Dr Krashen means reading for pleasure. That is to allow students to freely choose their favorite books to read entirely without any reason besides their enjoyment and interest. The purpose is to let them enjoy the pleasure of reading; giving children quality picture books – the best way is the simplest and happiest way.

The next speaker is the Foundation’s former consultant, Ajia, who is also a children’s book author, translator, researcher and reading promoter. In his speech, he shared the development process of the “Stone Soup” Happy Reading Alliance and the model of free voluntary reading.

Three messages were emphasized:

1: Build a school in the library;

2: Building a model campus reading environment, in which “books, time, and people” are key elements 

3: Build a diversified model of the overall campus reading culture—schools share experience collectively.

Principal Hu Dongmei of Wanghu Primary School in Hefei and Principal Jin Yan of Weigang Primary School gave a more detailed review of the achievements attained by the Stone Soup Happy Reading Alliance over the past 10 years, focusing on how to promote the balanced development of regional education through reading promotion and the changes of campus culture.

In the first session of the afternoon session, our guests were Dr. Huang Zhiguang from the Network Learning Technology Institute of Taiwan National Central University and Ms. Angie Lin, a trainer from Bring Me A Book Hong Kong. Dr. Huang participated in the Reading For Tomorrow Project. This project is aimed to cultivate children’s interest and motivation in reading and learning through the promotion of the Model Sustained Silent Reading (MSSR) plan in Taiwan Schools. Bring Me A Book Foundation is committed to advocating the Read Aloud philosophy in families and schools in Hong Kong. The two methods, MSSR and Read Aloud, are simple and effective way to make children fall in love with reading.

Next speaker was Dr. Teresa Cremin from the Open University of the United Kingdom. Based on her research, Dr. Cremin emphasized the following three points in her sharing:

1. Promoting the benefits of happy reading and building a reading community;
2. Teachers’ understanding of the text and readers;
3. Teaching methodology for promoting happy reading.

To conclude the forum, President June Huang, Professor Joyce Chao-chen Chen, and Ms. Jiang Ying discussed the development process of primary and secondary school libraries in the Mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong and the professional learning experience of teacher librarians. 

The Foundation organized this forum in the hope that everyone can know the concept and principles of free and independent reading, understand the models of the Hefei reading project, and learn from the promotion experience of other regions. In this unlimited time and space platform, everyone shared the results and achievements, so that those concerned about primary education can understand the importance of children’s reading, how to construct a school reading culture and environment, and to participate in the process of “boiling soup” together.

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